FARMINGTON – A series of statewide events, exhibitions and workshops that examine Maine’s incarceration system is underway this fall. Several events will be taking place in Farmington over the course of the next two months and are open to the public.
Organized by Freedom & Captivity, local events are taking place in conjunction with TUG Collective and the University of Maine at Farmington Emery Community Arts Center. Freedom & Captivity has brought together a number of organizations and business from across the state with the purpose of sharing “critical perspectives from the humanities to the interrogation of incarceration.” Through a diverse collection of lenses, Freedom & Captivity aims to increase the opportunities for public engagement around the topic, ultimately offering a space to “imagine freedom in an abolitionist society.”
“I just think we’re coming to a point where, as a town and a country, we really want to solve the problem and not just pretend it’s not there,” Gaelyn Aguilar said.
Gaelyn and her partner Gustavo Aguilar are the creative force behind TUG- an arts collective that “creates contact zones” for people to gain insight on contemporary social issues. Locally, those “contact zones” will take the shape of a facilitated public discussion; an art installation with opening reception; and an evening of performance arts. Gustavo said the events will try to create moments where people can step back, and come together, to look at the big picture.
“It’s really about us being people. It’s about us seeing each other,” he said.
To begin that conversation, a Community Action Meeting will be held tomorrow, Nov. 2 beginning at 3 p.m. at the Emery Community Arts Center. TUG along with Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, Maine Prisoner Reentry Network and Maine Coastal Reentry Center will come together to facilitate the discussion which hopes to bring together local community leaders, substance use and mental health professionals, Maine Department of Corrections and County Jail partners, formerly incarcerated individuals, and others. All are welcome to participate.
“The question becomes what are our strengths and what pieces are missing? The idea is to get all the players together into one room to look at what resources we have and how we can best support one another,” Jan Collins said.
Collins is one of the organizational leaders of Freedom & Captivity and Assistant Director of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition. She also sits on the Board of Visitors for the Franklin County Detention Center.
“We want to figure out if we have the resources to help people succeed after leaving jail, and not only succeed by not going back to jail, but also be successful in their personal lives,” she said.
Collins can be reached at janmariecollins57@gmail.com with any questions for the specific event. Registration is required for capacity reasons and can be found here.
On Thursday, Nov. 4 beginning at 5 p.m., an opening reception will be held at the Emery Community Arts Center for sea/sky, blood, earth, you. The TUG-lead exhibit will combine visual, audio and hands-on opportunities for an immersive experience. Images will be drawn from the Aguilar’s collaborative project- “Who Will Care for the Dead?” which “traces a relationship of kinship between the unraveling body and the cycle of bereavement, isolation, and regeneration.”
While caring for her recovering mother, Gaelyn found herself processing the intense experience through the examination of the state’s tiny, voluntarily cared for cemeteries. As the project grew bigger, both Gaelyn and Gustavo drew connections to Maine’s population of incarcerated elders.
“Incarceration accelerates the aging process and complicates the essential, basic task of tending to the period of life before death,” the Aguilars wrote recently for a Maine Arts Journal essay.
The exhibit will run through the month of November until Dec. 9 and will be introduced with a presentation by Collins and a workshop performance by Larraine Brown. The evening will end with a Q&A.
Finally, on Nov. 8 beginning at 7:30 p.m., Maine Inside Out will present their performance art piece “We Do This For Them.”
The evening of poetry, music and performance, all created by system-impacted artists and community leaders, honors the friends and family who have been lost to the violence of the system and presents a vision for healthy and just community.
The event will be held at the Emery Community Arts Center and will take a closer look at the impact of incarceration on Maine’s youth.
