March 14, 2013 – Vespers Service

Our Lenten reading of The New Jim Crow continued with a dinner and movie night (the second at Vespers).  Our host was Shannon Daley, who brought a delicious meal of chicken, green beans almondine, baby Yukon Gold potatoes (so creamy!), bread, and cake, all made by her mom, the Reverend Patti Daley, who has hosted Vespers for us before.

After our meal, we watched the documentary Hard Road Home, about the Exodus Transitional Community, a faith-based organization in East Harlem whose mission “is to provide supportive services to formerly incarcerated men and women in order to help them reintegrate into their communities; thereby achieving social and economic well-being and breaking the cycle of recidivism.”  Exodus is led and staffed by former prisoners.  The film brought to life several of the reentry issues detailed in chapter 4 of The New Jim Crow (“The Cruel Hand”).

February 26, 2013 – An Evening with Michelle Alexander

Tonight we traveled to the Livingston campus of Rutgers for “An Evening with Michelle Alexander.”  Professor Alexander is the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, which we are reading and discussing at Vespers services during Lent.  Before her speech, we learned about the Mountainview Project, which helps former prisoners matriculate at and graduate from Rutgers.  It was inspiring to hear from students in the program who have turned their lives around.

Then Professor Alexander spoke powerfully for over an hour about the racial construct and consequences of the War on Drugs.  (more to come)