What would it be like to live in a community where each person belongs?
MIO’s Lewiston Site Acquisition Team visiting potential locations. From left to right: Tyler Jackson, Bruce King, Margot Fine, Bashir Matan, Adan Abdi, John Nidiry.
Hi Friends,
How do we know that we belong?
How do the communities we live in impact our sense of belonging?
What would it be like to live in a community where each person belongs?
The common narrative is that prisons are for people who “do not belong in the community.” MIO believes we can invest in relationships and systems that honor the ways that each of our well-being is interconnected. We imagine a vibrant ecosystem and social infrastructure centered on belonging and connection.
Since 2008, MIO has built a culture of belonging inside prisons and in community groups of young people returning home. This year we are preparing to open a community site in Lewiston, a pilot for future sites in communities with MIO youth leaders. The site will be a landing spot for people the legal system has judged “do not belong,” and a laboratory for art and transformative justice projects that imagine and build local infrastructure for support, accountability, and well-being.
These are big visions made up of small steps, trial and error, steady support, and close partnerships. The Lewiston site acquisition team has been pounding pavement looking for the first site. MIO artists, including those currently inside, designed a blueprint for the site and are creating original art to share this Fall. Program alumni have stepped into staff roles, facilitating art workshops and preparing for leadership roles in the community site. The advocacy and support team continues to show up for crises, connect people with resources, and advocate for humanity and dignity in our legal and social systems.
Thank you for being a part of this vision and for all your support. Stay tuned for updates about the site acquisition progress and join us for an incredible series of Fall events. Reach out if you would like to connect, we would love to talk.
Lewiston Community Site Blueprint created by Radical Roadmaps in collaboration with MIO artists.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Photos by Henry Ametti and Alexandra Morrow
This month marks one year on the staff team for Project Facilitators Darryl Shepherd Jr. and Tyler Jackson. Adan Abdi and Bashir Matan officially joined the team this month following a series of contracted projects. Each of their leadership has been crucial to MIO’s creation and sharing of powerful new artwork during this challenging year and the planning and preparation for the Lewiston site. Congratulations!
MUTUAL AID
MIO artists build networks of peer support to navigate the challenges of re-entry, employment discrimination, poverty, and a lack of access to quality education, housing and health care. A crucial part of our work is to invest in and amplify these relational practices of community support and well-being. MIO’s mutual aid fund is part of our ongoing advocacy and support work to respond to personal and family crises, connect young people with resources, and advocate in the legal and social systems.
FALL EVENT SCHEDULE
MIO tabled at the launch of the Freedom & Captivity project on September 2 in Portland. The evening was hosted by Skye Gosselin and featured performances and calls to action by Abdul Ali, Bobby Payzant, Joseph Jackson, Marcia Minter, Michael Kebede, and Myles Bullen. Thank you ACLU of Maine, Gateway Community Services, Indigo Arts Alliance, Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, and Maine Youth Justice for putting on a truly incredible event. The Freedom and Captivity project will be showing artwork by incarcerated Maine artists in galleries and events across the state, so follow their website for more information.
RALLY FOR RECOVERY
Saturday, September 18 at 10:30am - 2pm
Kennedy Park in Lewiston
Join MIO, Recovery Connections of Maine and our partners in Lewiston for a celebration of recovery and connection featuring art, music, poetry, food trucks, speakers, games and a dunk tank. Come join us!
ABCs of Abolition & TIME
Wednesday, September 22 at 6pm
Congress Square Park in Portland
Join us for the premier of Freedom & Captivity's film The ABCs of Abolition followed by a screening of Time, sponsored by PMA films and MPAC. Available on the Freedom & Captivity website after September 22.
Healing Inside Out: Health and Recovery in the Carceral State
Thursday, October 14 at 11am
Virtual Webinar
The National Acupuncture Detoxification Association trains people in the NADA protocol, an ear acupressure and acupuncture intervention for trauma, substance misuse, abuse, dependence and related behavioral and mental health conditions. NADA’s roots and history come from community care for the people, by the people. MIO will share original art and facilitate conversations about social change at NADA's annual meeting. This is a closed event.
Anti-Racist Organizing in Maine
Saturday, October 16 at 9am - 4:30pm
Virtual
Community Change Inc. invites you to come take part in a convening of organizers, activists, leaders, and educators committed to the movement for racial justice in Maine. This is a unique opportunity to deepen in regional anti-racist education, learn from front line activists, and strengthen our community relationships towards more robust collective action. Learn more and register here!
ART & Art for Social Change
October 21 at 6pm
Virtual Webinar hosted by the Colby College Museum of Art
Join us for a conversation that delves into how art has the ability to strengthen social justice work. We’ll hear the perspectives of educators and artists from a diversion program in New York City called, Project Reset, in which participants attend an arts program as an alternative to appearing in court, as well as leaders of Maine Inside Out, an arts organization that builds a movement for transformative justice. A Q&A will follow the conversation. This program is the first in a three-week series of talks that connect to the exhibition, Bob Thompson: This House is Mine.
Freedom & Captivity Performance
November 8 at 730 pm
Emery Community Arts Center at the University of Maine in Farmington
Join MIO and the Freedom & Captivity Project for original performances followed by dialogue and action. In association with the exhibit: sea/sky, blood, earth, you.
Stay up to date on MIO’s upcoming events on our event calendar