March/April Newsletter
TRAUMA TALKS: BREAKING THE CYCLE IN CALIFORNIA
At the tail end of February, Unchained’s Co-Executive Director Emily NaPier Singletary traveled to Los Angeles County to observe two days of workshops in a California state prison. The workshops were hosted by the Compassion Prison Project and focused on helping the incarcerated men understand how their experiences of childhood trauma impacted their path to prison and how they can break the cycle of trauma in their families now as adults.
It was a powerful experience and very interesting to get a glimpse into a prison in another state.
“I got to tell the men about our success in getting the Less is More Act passed,” Singletary said of her experience, “and they all agreed they need something like that in California!”
BELOVED BEFORE BARS: DEREK SINGLETARY
On March 28th, the SUNY Cortland Multicultural Life and Diversity Office hosted the Beloved Before Bars Summit, a week-long initiative dedicated to transforming how we support and uplift youth by centering care, community, and nonviolent approaches to accountability.
Unchained Co-Executive Director Derek Singletary recorded remarks for the summit, speaking about how his experiences with rejection as a teenager ushered him towards the only opportunity he could find: the streets.
To listen to Derek’s remarks, click the YouTube link below.
SECOND CHANCE LITERATURE MONTH
April marks the beginning of both National Second Chance Month and National Literature Month, so we’re combining the two to create Second Chance Literature Month to highlight the role of secondhand books in increasing incarcerated individuals’ access to literature. Unchained has been collecting secondhand books as part of our Literary Liberation initiative that seeks to send up-to-date and interesting books to incarcerated individuals at no cost to them. After receiving over 700 book donations from the community as well as a few independent local bookstores, we are now moving forward with the next step of the initiative: getting them ready to ship!
We need your help to ship the books to incarcerated readers. Can you commit to pledging a monthly $8 donation? That's enough to cover sending books to one incarcerated reader, a real person positively impacted by your commitment!
BOOK PAIRING EVENT
On April 20th, join us at the Unchained office from 6-8 PM to celebrate Right to Read Day by pairing books with their incarcerated recipients! Many incarcerated individuals are fighting for their right to read in the face of book bans and de facto rules that keep up-to-date and interesting books out of their hands. It takes direct action to work against the ways prisons revoke incarcerated individuals' right to read, so we hope you'll join us in making a difference.
DEAR COMRADES: A LETTER FROM DEREK
Dear Comrades,
I’ve been in jail almost 16 years now. Been through the ups, still find myself navigating the downs, and even with about a year and half until my release, I still sometimes have no idea whether I’m coming or going. The days are still long, and prison has been nothing short of the scariest, most harrowing and life-changing ride that I believe a person could ever step foot in, especially when you’ve been here this long. I don’t believe that doing 16 years in here could ever not play tricks on you psychologically, and so I constantly find myself up to my neck in daily paradoxes, trying to navigate who I was with who I am becoming.
SUPPORTING OUR SUPPORT
Without the steady foundation provided to us by the Syracuse Center for Peace and Social Justice during Unchained’s first five years, we may not be here today. The Syracuse Center for Peace and Social Justice promotes collaboration among groups working for progressive social change by providing capacity-building services, including space for offices, meetings, conferences, training and education.
The Center needs our support now, so it can continue to be a safe haven for organizations like Unchained that are on the ground, doing the work that needs to be done. If you are able, we urge you to support the Center by donating to their GoFundMe. The Syracuse Center for Peace and Social Justice is a nonprofit, too, and relies on community support to continue running.
Become a member:
Call (315) 464-0275 or fill out the form on our website.
In solidarity,
Derek & Emily Singletary
Co-Founders & Co-Executive Directors, Unchained