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Artistic Activism to Disrupt the Single Story of Incarcerated Populations

Presenter: Unique Shaw-Dismuke, Adjunct Professor, She/Her

In her infamous Ted Talk, Chimamanda Adichi discusses the danger of a single story and how it limits our ability to see people, places, and things in their totality. This is often the case in the United States when it comes to beliefs and perceptions about incarcerated populations. There is an inherent refusal to see them as anything other than criminals because that narrative is all we have been exposed to through media outlets, observations, experience, and language. This perception is not only dehumanizing, but it is also detrimental to community reentry. This presentation demonstrates how what we say influences what we see and how we can use language to shift narratives about who incarcerated people are. It showcases two projects that use artistic activism to challenge the single story of what it means to be a “prisoner” or ”criminal.”

Feb 9, 2023 10:00 AM in Pacific Time (US and Canada)