To all my sisters inside,
Feminist Findings
22–09–2020
︎ Liberation in Print Collective
︎ Exhibition at A-Z Presents, Berlin
︎ Published in Futuress Journal
︎ It’s Nice That review
︎ Stack magazine review
My work with Liberation in Print Collective explored queer arts
and literary journal Sinister Wisdom and how it navigates the US
prison-industrial complex to reach womxn loving womxn in prison.
Since the early 80s, the journal has given free subscriptions to incarcerated LGBTQ womxn. Today, that accounts for 15% of every issue printed. These first facts point to larger questions: What are the politics of the journal’s distribution? And how, still today, does Sinister Wisdom encounter, and attempt to bypass, the US prison-industrial complex, into the hands (and minds) of womxn loving womxn in prison?
The piece explores these questions through stories told to me by current editor of Sinister Wisdom Julie Enszer and an imagined scene taking inspiration from a drawing published in Issue 61 of Sinister Wisdom titled ‘Cell for 3’. The drawing, by former political prisoner Laura Whitehorn, became the basis for the installation exhibited at A-Z presents in Berlin.
Since the early 80s, the journal has given free subscriptions to incarcerated LGBTQ womxn. Today, that accounts for 15% of every issue printed. These first facts point to larger questions: What are the politics of the journal’s distribution? And how, still today, does Sinister Wisdom encounter, and attempt to bypass, the US prison-industrial complex, into the hands (and minds) of womxn loving womxn in prison?
The piece explores these questions through stories told to me by current editor of Sinister Wisdom Julie Enszer and an imagined scene taking inspiration from a drawing published in Issue 61 of Sinister Wisdom titled ‘Cell for 3’. The drawing, by former political prisoner Laura Whitehorn, became the basis for the installation exhibited at A-Z presents in Berlin.
