ANNUAL AWARDS CEREMONY
On September 26, BleakHouse Publishing will celebrate the ways in which creative writing and the visual arts shape dialogues and challenge dominant narratives on criminal justice. Our aim is to honor our artists and to provide a platform for voices from the literary and social justice communities at American University, the DC community, and society.
A panel of speakers will include the Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Diann Rust-Tierney; Directors and Producers of documentary, In the Executioner’s Shadow, Maggie Stogner and Richard Stack; and Chief Executive Officer of the Maya Angelou Schools/See Forever Foundation, Dr. Robert Simmons III. Local spoken word artists will also perform. We will also show a short excerpt from In the Executioner’s Shadow and the two directors and producers will take questions from the audience.
During the event, BleakHouse Publishing will be accepting submissions for publication in its literary journal, Tacenda Literary Magazine. This magazine features poetry, short stories, essays and plays, as well as drawings, black & white photograpy, dealing with crime and punishment. We will also showcase our recent release of BleakHouse Review, our invitation-only online arts magazine. This issue offers a rich mix of photography, art, and fiction produced by American University students, current and former incarcerated persons, and artists.
BleakHouse Publishing is an independent, not-for-profit press devoted to creative writing, art, and photography on social justice. Its mission is to publish works that shed a humane light on the nether world of penal institutions, as well as other repressive settings, practices, and beliefs.
Awards Ceremony: 2017-2018
BleakHouse Publishing hosted four local community activists at its annual awards ceremony celebrating the written work published by BleakHouse in 2017-2018. Additionally, two new Community oriented awards were developed to support the extraordinary work of educators and artists in Washington, D.C.
The two inaugural stipends, Arts in Service of Social Justice and Education in Service of Social Justice, were awarded to Tara Libert, Co-Founder and Director of Free Minds Book Club, and L’Tanya Y. Holley, educator of students having come in contact with the juvenile justice system, in the Maya Angelou Schools.
BleakHouse Feature, The Free Minds Book Club provides the following programming:
DC Jail Book Club
Federal Prison Book Club
Literary Journal
Reentry Book Club
Youth Violence Prevention
BleakHouse Feature, The Maya Angelou Schools/See Forever Foundation:
#TheMayaWay
The Maya Way is a comprehensive approach to education that focuses on academic achievement, social and emotional support, and career and college preparation so students are ready for life after Maya.
The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) and In the Executioners Shadows are collaborating in a national education campaign. More information about screenings in your communities can be located here.
Richard Stack and Maggie Stogner the Co-Director and Co-Producer of In the Executioner’s Shadow.
Find the monthly webinar series, Justice Powered by Information and Action (JPIA) here.
The JPIA series is dedicated to critical conversations about pressing criminal justice issues. The webinar objective is to mobilize informed grassroots action among a range of activists.
Get involved with grassroots activism around the abolition of capital punishment by following the NCADP on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: @ncadp