[Controlunittalk] FW: Gene Siskel/Empty Bottle/Mess Hall/results--Tamms Year Ten

Wed Apr 16 09:08:53 EDT 2008

FYI everyone, 

The Tamms year 10 Campaign is really moving and can use your support. If you are in the area, please consider attending and/or supporting their efforts to raise awareness and bring an end to the torturous conditions at Tamms Supermax prison in Illinois.

Thanks

Naima Black

STOPMAX Coordinator

American Friends Service Committee

1501 Cherry Street

Philadelphia, PA 19102

215-241-7137

nblack at afsc.org

www.stopmax.org

From: lreyno at artic.edu [mailto:lreyno at artic.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 12:10 AM
To: lauriejo at yearten.org; lreyno at artic.edu
Cc: Gretchen at yearten.org; JeromeG at yearten.org; Kristen at yearten.org; Nadya at yearten.org; Frank at yearten.org; tammsorganizing at lists.riseup.net; tammspoetrycommittee at gmail.com
Subject: Gene Siskel/Empty Bottle/Mess Hall/results--Tamms Year Ten

Friends of Tamms Year Ten:

We want to invite you to three upcoming Tamms Year Ten events this very week. This Thursday night is a great time to see the video Space Ghost, and probably the last. Hearing Roommate on Saturday night will be a slice of heaven. And Sunday, please join us in the physical material work of making handsome patches and hoods (yes hoods) for the upcoming press event. It is important ideological work that you can do with your hands!

These next 2 weeks are critical for the prisoners at Tamms. A lot of terrible things go on with Illinois taxpayer money, and YOU can help us draw the line at permanent psychological torture. If you can volunteer any single hour over the next two weeks, please let us know.

Finally, look below for the long awaited results of your phone calls to legislators--please make them if you haven't already. And save the date of the hearings--Monday, April 28 at 10am--with a press event at 9:15 am. We need not only you, but the two people you bring!

Enthusiastically yours,

Tamms Year Ten

www.YearTen.org

Check out images from our last meetings! <http://www.flickr.com/groups/yearten/pool/> 

"Lock yourself in your bathroom for the next 19 years and tell me how it will affect your mind."Charles Freeman, in Tamms for 10 years

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1. UPCOMING EVENTS--these are really soon!

2. NEXT MEETING--last time to come out to a meeting before the hearings!

3. RESPONSE FROM LEGISLATORS--results from your phone calls!

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1. UPCOMING EVENTS

SPACE GHOST and IN LOVING MEMORYat Gene Siskel Film Center

ThursdayApril 176PM.

164 N. State St., Chicago IL 60601

You Dont Remember The Time You Do: Moments in the Lives of Prisoners

Films by Laurie Jo Reynolds and Rob Todd.Featuring a post-screening Q+A withLaurie Jo Reynolds andlive call-in from Illinois death-row prisoner Victor Safforld. Co-presented with the Campaign to End the Death Penalty

Weaving together pop cultural imagery and prison phone conversations, Reynolds' collage-like SPACE GHOST (2007) explores confinement and isolation in the lives of astronauts and the imprisoned. Todd's IN LOVING MEMORY (2005) juxtaposes the reflections of prisoners on their lives with haunting landscape shots of prisons around the country, in a moving meditation on memory and a compelling critique of the death penalty. Tom Comerford

SPACE GHOST is an experimental video constructed with juxtapositions and non-linear narrative. It is about isolation, mediation, separation; being de-linked from the world of touch, and time, and dailiness, and human contact. Its about the attempts in face of that disconnection to read mystical connection into any links you can find. Its about the craziness of isolation, about not being able, literally, to move; about living in virtual not real space, and about disappearing there. Its about a sister and a brother communicating only by telephone; its about not having pancakes, but seeing pictures of pancakes. Laurie Palmer inReport Back, AREA Chicago <http://reportback.areachicago.org/2008/03/25/tamms-ljr-hydeparkartcenter/> 

Roommate at Empty Bottle

SaturdayApril 199PM.

1035 N. Western Ave, Chicago IL 60622

Roommates We Were Enchanted record release show!

Battlecats (Toby Summerfield plus Roommate collaborators Anton Hatwich & Jaimie Branch) will open the show and the The Judy Green <http://myspace.com/thejudygreen>  (starring Roommate bassist Gillian Lis饩 will play second. The Roommate set will start sometime around midnight and will feature selections from the new album, an even newer song inspired by letters to and from Tamms C-MAX prison, some old chestnuts from the Roommate catalog, and guest performances by a few of the people responsible for some of the record's most magical moments.Look at thisfeature about Roommate <http://kentlambert.org/> in the Reader or learn more atKent Lambert's website <http://kentlambert.org/> .

The Sewing Rebellion + Tamms Year Ten

SundayApril 20noon to 4PM.

Mess Hall <http://www.messhall.org/> , 6932 N. Glenwood, near Morse Stop on the Red Line

Radical Sewers will be sewing for the Tamms Year Ten Campaign! The Sewing Rebellion will be helping us to produce hoods, patches and banners to be used at the Tamms Year Ten public action on April 28 before the hearings of the House Prison Reform Committee. It doesn't matter if you know how to sew, you can come and help! We will also be stenciling and screening. We need hands for this fun and meaningful labor!Images of Sewing Rebellion at work. <http://chilaborarts.wordpress.com/category/sewing-rebellion/> 

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2. NEXT MEETING

SaturdayApril 1910:00AM-noon

The Progressive Community Center, The People's Church

56 E. 48th St., Chicago IL 60615

Learn about Tamms C-MAX from ex-prisoners and family. Discuss and prepare for the hearings on April 28. Plan the press action. Please contact us if you need a ride, or if you can give a ride.Check out images from our last meetings! <http://www.flickr.com/groups/yearten/pool/> (Thank you Joe!)

-----------------------------------------------------

3.RESPONSES FROM LEGISLATORS

Be proud and impressed by the number of legislators who have said they will attend the hearings about Tamms C-MAX prison. (Some hearings go by with 1-2 legislators.) We have this many because they received multiple phone calls from people in their district. Thank you!

But, we can do even better.In every case, it was the number of phone calls that moved them from polite interest to promising to attend. Your phone call will still make a difference. There are a lot of good progressive legislators who still have not heard from anyone, and if you live in Chicago, you probably have one of them!

These hearings are the most efficient and powerful argument we can make against the psychological torture at Tamms. Legislators will hear clear, concise evidence and testimony from ex-prisoners and various experts. They will have a chance to ask questions. We cannot reproduce this experience in a report. Your five-minute phone call will mean so much more right now than it will later. If you need instructions/scripts, check the website or email us. Don't you want to put your legislator on this list?!

SAID THEY WILL ATTEND THE HEARING or SEND STAFF

Rep. Eddie Washington (D)--YES--he is sponsoring the hearings!

Rep. Dennis Reboletti (R)--YES

Rep. Toni Berrios (D)--YES, for part of it. Have gotten many calls.

Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D)--YES

Rep. Julie Hamos (D)--YES--This is the right thing for the Prison Reform Committee to be working on.

Sen. Heather Steans (D)--They're sending a staff person (Jen Walling).

Sen. Iris Martinez (D)--They have been inundated with calls. STAFF PERSON WILL PROBABLY ATTEND

Rep. Paul Froehlich (R)--YES

Sen. Ricky Hendon (D)--YES--it is on his schedule.

NOT ATTENDING BUT WANT A REPORT

Sen. Susan Garrett--NO, but would like an executive summary.

Rep. Naomi Jakobsson (D)--NO, but wants to see a report. She's been hearing from "MANY" people in her district about the prison and she is very concerned about it.

Rep. Karen May--NO, but wants to find out more. If she can't send staff, she wants a summary or a briefing

Rep. Sara Feigenholtz--Office didn't think she would attend until it came to a floor debate. Sent report/summary beforehand.

WE REALLY HOPED WOULD ATTEND BUT NO

Sen. Willie Delgado--No, he already knows all about Tamms.

Rep. Art Turner--No, will not attend because he has a leadership meeting.

WE REALLY HOPED WOULD ATTEND BUT NOT ENOUGH CALLS

Rep. Connie Howard

Sen. John Cullerton

Sen. Kwame Raul

Rep. Annazette Collins--Collins is very busy and will not attend.

Sen. Mattie Hunter

Sen. Kimberly Lightford

Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg

Rep. Luis Arroyo

Rep. Esther Golar

EVERY OTHER member of the Black and Latino Caucuses

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Tamms Year Ten is endorsed by:

8th Day Center for Justice

American Friends ServiceCommitteeChicago

Anti Gravity Surprise

Black People Against Police Torture

Campaign to End the Death Penalty

Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice

Cheap Art for Freedom (CAFF)

Chicago Anarchist Black Cross

Chicago County Fair

Chicagoland Coalition for Civil Libertiesand Rights (CCCLR)

Citizens For Earned Release

Critical Resistance Chicago

Crossroads Fund

Education Justice Project,Urbana-Champaign

Faith, Inc

Feel Tank Chicago

Illinois Institute for Community Law

Insight Arts

Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago

Jos項. L󰥺, Executive Director, JuanAntonio Corretjer Puerto RicanCultural Center

Rev. B. Herbert Martin, The People'sChurch

Men and Women in Prison Ministries

National Boricua Human RightsNetwork

Midwest Books to Prisoners (MWBTP)

National Alliance Against Racist &Political RepressionChicago

National Lawyers Guild-Chicago

Progressive Community Center, ThePeople's Church

Saving Our Sons Ministries

Saints of Humboldt Park

Sewing Rebellion

Stateville Speaks

STOPMAX/AFSC

Raising Awareness to InspireOthers (RATIO)

Tamms Committee

Tamms Poetry Committee

Temporary Services

Urbana-Champaign Books toPrisoners

Voices for Creative Non-Violence

Waukegan Coalition to ReduceRecidivism

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