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Film Screening and Discussion: “The Cooler Bandits”
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Thursday, February 26
6:00 PM
Columbia Law School, Jerome Greene Hall, Room 106
The Heyman Center for the Humanities and the Center for Justice at
Columbia present a film screening and discussion of the documentary film
"The Cooler Bandits."
Over
twenty years ago, four men from the North Hill neighborhood of Akron,
Ohio committed a series of restaurant robberies. During the robberies
the men locked the restaurant employees in the walk-in coolers, gaining
them the moniker "the Cooler Bandits." Although no one was physically
injured, the group received collective prison sentences of up to 500
years. From 2006-2013, director John Lucas follows the unfathomable
journeys of Charlie Kelly, Donovan Harris, Richard “Poochie” Roderick,
and Frankie Porter as they cope and survive despite the harsh realities
of prison. "The Cooler Bandits" documents these men in their respective
stages of incarceration as they fight to maintain relationships with
family and friends, and reintegrate into society after spending their
adult lives incarcerated.
The
screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Lucas, along with
two of “the Cooler Bandits,” Donovan Harris and Richard Roderick.
Joining them will be the film’s producer and editor, Sam and Jason
Pollard, respectively. The discussion will be moderated by Columbia
School of the Arts Professor Jamal Joseph: director, writer, producer,
and author of Panther Baby (Algonquin Books).
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Public Humanities Initiative Justice Poetry: Readings and Discussion with Claudia Rankine, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Messiah
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Tuesday, February 24
6:15-8:00 PM
Schapiro Center, Davis Auditorium
Columbia University
An
evening of justice poetry featuring Claudia Rankine, Dawn Lundy Martin,
and Messiah Ramkissoon. Poets read from their new and published works
related to issues of justice and discuss the events and experiences that
inspired them. Monica Miller, Associate Professor of English at Barnard
College, opens the event, and a moderated discussion, led by Columbia
School of the Arts professor and poet Timothy Donnelly, and questions from the audience follow the readings. Sponsored by the Heyman Center for the Humanities, The Center for Justice at Columbia University, and the Center for Race, Philosophy, and Social Justice.
Participants (Click on the links for bios)
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Tuesday, March 3
11:30 AM- 12:50 PM
722 West 168th St, Conference Rm 532
Mailman School of Public Health
Redonna
Chandler, Director of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research at
NIDA, will offer a lecture at the Mailman School of Public Health on March 3rd and we encourage you to find the time to go. |
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March 6-7
Columbia University
The first weekend of March 2015, the Criminal Justice Caucus, the
Center for Justice at Columbia University and the Beyond the Bars
Fellows will host the fifth annual Beyond the Bars Conference. Over the
past four years, the conference has grown immensely, bringing together
more and more people from different spaces and places to come together
to think critically about how to end the injustices of our criminal
justice system, and reimagine what a more just response to harm,
accountability and safety could look like. We continue to be humbled
and amazed by the work of all our friends and colleagues and are
grateful for your willingness to remain in community as we work towards
practicing justice together.
This year’s Beyond the Bars
conference will focus on the idea of transformation. Due to the work of
so many of you, people across the country are increasingly aware of the
racial, economic and social injustices that have come from what we now
call mass incarceration, and what some are beginning to refer to as mass
criminalization. Individuals, communities, organizations,
institutions, political bodies and more, are working on changing
criminal justice policies across the carceral continuum from policing,
to the courts, to the jails and prisons, and to the barriers and
conditions for people returning from incarceration.
The
questions this conference will pose are: How do we work towards lasting
transformative change? How do we develop a framework for changing the
way our country seeks justice that does not perpetuate the roots of the
problems that have led us here? How do we create change that addresses
the systemic marginalization vis-a-vis racism, classism, patriarchy and
the countless other isms, while also addressing the need for individual
accountability and the safety of our communities and our society? What
is a transformative agenda for changing the way we seek justice? |
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The Justice Forum: Race and Justice: Past, Present and Future
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Tuesday, March 10
6:15- 8:15 PM
Columbia Law School, Jerome Greene Rm 104
435 W 116th St, New York, 10025
The
third in a series of roundtable discussions about criminal justice in
the United States, the Center for Justice at Columbia presents Race and
Justice: Past, Present and Future. The most recent incidences of police
killings of unarmed Black men have ignited a national discussion about
race and our justice system. However, the drivers of America’s current
state of mass incarceration such as minimum mandatory sentencing, the
war on drugs, and stop and frisk have always disproportionately impacted
people of color. This roundtable examines the history of race-based
injustices in America, how those practices have informed the criminal
justice system today, and what implications they have for the future.
The
roundtable features Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad; historian, author and
media commentator who is the Director of the Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture; and Glenn E. Martin, a national leader and
criminal justice reform advocate and founder of JustLeadershipUSA.
Muhammad is the author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime and the Making of Modern America (Harvard University Press). Martin, who spent six years prison, has written for the New York Times, and is a frequent guest commentator on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry.
The roundtable is moderaterd by Columbia Dean of Social Science and
Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies Alondra Nelson, who authored Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination (University of Minnesota Press).
About The Justice Forum
Issues
of mass incarceration and justice are complex and cut across many
systems, structures, cultures, and communities. As such, the efforts and
dialogues around changing the current criminal justice system must also
cross disciplines, structures, cultures, and communities. The Justice
Forum provides a space for leading thinkers in justice work from a
variety of disciplines and experiences to collectively examine some of
the most critical justice issues today. The Forum seeks to create a
space for cross pollination of ideas and perspectives and contribute
towards the efforts to rethink our current policies and practices in
criminal justice.
Cosponsors
The Center for Justice at Columbia University
Heyman Center for the Humanities
Center for the Study of Law and Culture
Institute for Research in African American Studies
Participants
Moderator
Alondra Nelson, Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, Columbia University
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Upcoming Events from Friends and Colleagues
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Thursday, February 12
6:00PM - 8:00PM
Jerome Greene Hall, Room 106
Columbia Law School
The Center for the Study of Law and Culture presents The Paul Robeson
Lecture with guest speaker Sherilynn Iffil. Reception to follow.
The Robeson Lecture is a highlight of the programming year for the
Center for the Study of Law and Culture. The lecture was established to
remember the actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson, who graduated from
Columbia Law School in 1923. Past lecturers have included Angela Y.
Davis, Cornel West, K. Anthony Appiah, Albie Sachs, Johnetta Cole and
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Penelope Andrews, Albie Sachs and Manning Marable.
NYS CLE Areas of Professional Practice credit available.
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As
the challenges facing young men of color rightfully move to the
forefront of public discourse on equity and opportunity, the Ford
Foundation and Vera’s Common Justice project aim to take up an often
overlooked dimension of this conversation: the experience of young men
of color who survive violence. This panel will bring together a wide
range of perspectives—from prosecutors to faith leaders, members of
Congress to psychiatrists--to address crucial questions about the
violence young men experience and the support available to them in the
aftermath of what they survive. The dynamic conversation will aim to
analyze the current landscape and chart a course forward toward a more
equitable and effective response to harm.
Speakers
will include: District Attorney Kenneth Thompson, Representative Hakeem
Jeffries, Dr. Richard Dudley, Rev. Dr. Harold Dean Trulear, and
Danielle Sered
Register HERE!
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February 24, 2015
6:00PM- 8:00PM
3rd Floor Lecture Hall
Columbia School of Journalism
Many times schools are looked at as a solution to an unequal society.
This panel brings together a range of experts on the connections between
schools and communities to highlight what policies and practices be
undertaken to make both more just.
Panelists:
ZAKIYAH ANSARI - Advocacy Director, Alliance for Quality Education
R. L'HEUREUX LEWIS-MCCOY – Sociology & Black Studies, City College of New York/CUNY
CARLA SHEDD – Sociology & African-American Studies, Columbia University
JOSÉ LUIS VILSON - NYC Public School Teacher and Author
Free & Open To the Public
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Echoes of Incarceration Film Screening & Panel Discussion
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March 9, 2015
6:00 PM Refreshments and Welcome
6:30- 8:30 PM Film screening and panel discussion
St. James' Episcopal Church
865 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10021
Echoes
of Incarceration is an award-winning documentary initiative produced by
youth with incarcerated parents. The project explores the issue of
mass incarceration and its effects on families, and creates documentary
films told from the life experiences of the filmmakers themselves.
The Osborne Association will be hosting a screening and panel
discussion with the youth producers, the filmmaker, and Liz Gaynes of
the Osborne Association.
Photo Credit: Echoes of Incarceration
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