This past Saturday at Locked up Locked out, community members came together to talk about the impact of the criminal justice system on our community. Shvonne Johnson Associate Dean of Students at St. Catherine’s offered a powerful spoken word piece that ask the question, what is our response to the system that criminalizes us? I think it is safe to say that 122+ signatures (and that is just the beginning) for Governor Dayton to stop by North MPLS and talk about this issue is a solid response.
See you on the doors, but until then, here is Professor Johnsons spoken word piece.
Thank you to everyone who made #LockedUpLockedOut a success!
Locked up, Locked Out…
“To discuss the inhumanity of a system that is failing is not what this is about…
Although the system is failing…
To discuss a system that is broken is not what this poem is about.
Although it is broken…
This is about the pain of not having a place for mistakes and it being socially acceptable, and expected to be on the outskirts of humanity which might make you feel locked out.
We can talk about the socialization of our penal system which deems it lawful to subject a human being entirely to the domination of some influence or person.
How are we infected with inhumanity and affected by the loss within our families which directly and indirectly affect our community…which makes it impossible not to affect you and to affect me…
What these words are about is a community we create that offers second chances to human beings, for our brothers and our sisters, our mothers, our sons, and our daughters, our children… Who have found themselves on the outskirts of humanity? Isolated from community, restoration looking faraway redemption not a box they can check. What is our response to being locked up, therefore locked out.”
#Justice4All
