Performance: FREEDOM COMES WHEN ONE WALKS THROUGH IT

Watch Flyaway Productions' dance-based public art project exploring the concept of freedom at the intersection of public libraries and prisons, based on original research and text by April Harris. The aerial dance will be performed by Ai Yin Adelski, Quinn Dior, Clarissa Rivera Dyas, Emily Hansel, Jhia Jackson, Megan Lowe and Saharla Vetsch, with music composed by Kalyn Harwood.

FREEDOM COMES juxtaposes the library and the prison as opposite poles on the pathway to freedom. It explores testimony from currently incarcerated women regarding their specific paths to freedom via commutation, parole, 1170 resentencing appeals, legislation (like the Racial Justice Act), activism and art creation. It uplifts their struggle and honors how the soul gets free. April Harris, an incarcerated writer serving a life sentence at the California Institution for Women in Corona, California, is the project’s writer. She is currently a research advocate to support the University of California Sentencing Project, a collaboration between the University of California at San Diego and Los Angeles, and members of the California Coalition of Women Prisoners. According to the Sentencing Project, between 1980 and 2022, the number of incarcerated women surged nearly six-fold, with Black women imprisoned at rates 60% higher than white women. In the U.S., the flow of information between those who are incarcerated and those who are free is violently interrupted, trapping vast amounts of knowledge behind prison walls.    

Performances are at 1:00 p.m. and 3:15 p.m., each running for 25 minutes. At 2:00 p.m., audiences are invited to participate in a creative writing activity led by Flyaway Productions and Empowerment Avenue staff member De’jon Joy, using writing to explore and advance freedom in their own lives.

Additional performances:

October 3, 1:00 p.m. and 3:15 p.m., Visitation Valley Branch Library

October 10, 1:00 p.m. and 3:15 p.m., Main Library

ALL PHOTOS BY RJ MUNA