Participation Type
Workshop
Session Title
Session 6.03 Activism and Organizing
Presentation #1 Title
Popular Education: Prison Expansion in Central Appalachia
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In the past quarter-century Central Appalachia has become one of the most concentrated areas of new rural prison construction nationwide. Promoted to struggling local communities as a sure path towards “recession proof economic development,” the story beneath the surface is far more complex. This panel will focus on a new popular education curriculum designed to support community-based organizations, organizers, student groups, and other community-minded individuals and groups in engaging in dialogue and action around the Prison Industrial Complex especially as it is related to Central Appalachia. Using popular education to build knowledge and action around the PIC in Central Appalachia allows those who participate to both learn and teach – to explore the connections between their own experiences and those incarcerated the communities they come from, and the communities that host these new prisons. We will briefly discuss the history of the PIC in Central Appalachia and how organizing and support work with those incarcerated in the region as well as their families led to the creation of this popular education curriculum. We will speak to why we chose popular education and will facilitate sections of the curriculum, exploring how participants could use this curriculum in their own work and communities.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Elizabeth Sanders is Operations Manager of WMMT 88.7 FM at the Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY. She is a member of the STAY (Stay Together Appalachian Youth) Network and provides leadership and service through the Central Appalachian Prisoner Support Network and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Sylvia Ryerson is a radio journalist and the director of public affairs programming for WMMT Mountain Community radio at the Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY. She is a co-host of WMMT’s weekly show “Calls from Home” which sends messages out over the radio from friends and family members to their loved ones in prison, and is currently producing a radio documentary series on the impacts of prison expansion in Central Appalachia.
Popular Education: Prison Expansion in Central Appalachia
Harris Hall 102
In the past quarter-century Central Appalachia has become one of the most concentrated areas of new rural prison construction nationwide. Promoted to struggling local communities as a sure path towards “recession proof economic development,” the story beneath the surface is far more complex. This panel will focus on a new popular education curriculum designed to support community-based organizations, organizers, student groups, and other community-minded individuals and groups in engaging in dialogue and action around the Prison Industrial Complex especially as it is related to Central Appalachia. Using popular education to build knowledge and action around the PIC in Central Appalachia allows those who participate to both learn and teach – to explore the connections between their own experiences and those incarcerated the communities they come from, and the communities that host these new prisons. We will briefly discuss the history of the PIC in Central Appalachia and how organizing and support work with those incarcerated in the region as well as their families led to the creation of this popular education curriculum. We will speak to why we chose popular education and will facilitate sections of the curriculum, exploring how participants could use this curriculum in their own work and communities.
