Nattsvart Verkstad presents
VOICES BEHIND WALLS: ANTI-CARCERAL ART
When? 20-22 September 2024
Where? Cyklopen, Högdalen, Stockholm
What? Art exhibition, letter readings, panel talks, book table, print sales, solidarity fund raising.
Event program
Friday the 20th of September
- Exhibition opens @ 18.00
- 19.00 Welcome talk
- Through the evening: Letter readings
- Exhibition closes @ 22.00
Saturday the 21st of September
- 12.00 Exhibition opens
- 13.00 Welcome talk
- 14.00 – 14.45 Panel talk: Kollektivet Jordens Fördömda & Samidoun – on Prisons and Borders, the anticolonial perspective
- 14.45 – 15.45 Presentation: ABC Belarus on the situation of political prisoners in Belarus
- 15.45 – 16.45 Presentation: Ukrainian anarchist comrade on prisoners of war
- 16.45 – 17.45 Panel talk: Fånggruppen – Att vara anhörig till intagen eller att sitta inne utifrån aktivisters perspektiv
- 17.45 Workshop: How to work with prisoner support
- 18.15 – 18.45 Presentation: No Border Boiling Pot
- Exhibition closes @ Late
Sunday the 22nd of September
- Exhibition opens @ 12.00
- Exhibition closes @ 15.00
We are living through hard times, and they are only getting harder. Our movements, friends, comrades, organizations, protests, neighbors and activities are falling more and more on the wrong side of law enforcement, regardless of legality or illegality. Some of us will be kidnapped by the state, to be punished for the crime of seeking justice or even basic survival. Neoliberalism is failing miserably to make good on its false promises. But instead of making amends, politicians and industrialists blame us for its failures! This means that police, security guards and prisons are the proposed solution by the rich and powerful. It means more and more brutal borders, and other forms of colonial, imperial and corporate violence. It means the international rise of fascist authoritarian tactics seeping into every aspect of daily life. Here in Stockholm this trend is evident! Hoards of violent new security firms, ticket checkers and increased police are menacing us all over our streets in plain sight! All of them have legally been given new oppressive tools like “visitation” zones and “right” to carry out more random physical attacks and arrests on people. We can neither meet this with despair, nor let the state take away our people so easily.
Nattsvart will hold an art show and education weekend featuring the art, literature, music, and words of imprisoned comrades. We have worked together with an international array of anti-carceral groups to make this happen: Fånggruppen, ABC Belarus, ABC Kiev, Kollektivet Jordens Fördömda, Samidoun, No Border Boiling Pot, INFo 44, Mongoose distro, Free Marius Mason, Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. There will be artwork from prisoners from many parts of the world, letter writing, book table, as well as panel talks and lectures on prison abolition, solidarity and how to get organised in the face of the increasingly rampant carcerality seeping into every aspect of our lives.
Let’s keep our friends and comrades connected and active in our communities in spite of the state’s cruelty!