There are about 4 weeks until the Black/Inside exhibition opens at the African American Cultural Center. The exhibition will officially open to the public on October 23rd but we will be hosting a reception the night before to celebrate.

It is daunting that so few days remain until the exhibition opens. Teresa, Billy and I have crafted a plan and we are working diligently to meet our goals.

A month ago I wrote about the ideas that we hope to interrogate through the exhibition. In the past few weeks, we have been executing our vision and planning some associated events.

For example, I am thrilled to partner with my friend Mia Henry, of Freedom Lifted, LLC, to organize a unique bus tour. We will tour sites related to the history of incarceration and racial injustice in Chicago. We will visit Lucy Parsons’ home, the Black Panther Party headquarters, Elijah Muhammad’s compound, George Jackson’s home, the site of the Negro Fellowship League, among many other sites across the city. Information about how to register for the tour can be found here. I am so excited about this and am sure that everyone who participates will gain a wealth of knowledge about the historical relationship between the criminal legal system and black people in Chicago.

We are also planning associated events such as a free screening of the film Slavery by Another Name on November 3rd (tentatively). More information will be forthcoming about other events that will take place to complement the exhibition.

Finally, I have been hard at work over the past few weeks on two publications. One is a wonderful compilation of writings by black prisoners about their incarceration experiences. It was designed by Camp Firebelly and is beautiful. I also recently completed a final draft of an essay about Laura Scott. Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with Laura’s story. She was a black woman who was incarcerated twice at San Quentin Prison in the early 20th century. Laura will figure prominently in the Black/Inside exhibition and I have had a blast researching and writing about her life. My friend, the amazing and talented Micah Bazant, is currently designing the publication which we will share with those who visit the exhibition. I will, of course, also make the publication available online so that those who cannot travel to Chicago can still read about her life. This blog was actually instrumental in helping me to finish the project. Encouragement provided by readers who wanted to know more about Laura’s story kept me pushing ahead. So thank you for that.

The next few weeks are going to be action-packed for me (doing my ‘day job and also mounting the exhibition). I will be posting less regularly than usual during this period.