THE CONFINED ARTS
The Confined Arts (TCA) is a charitable program created by Isaac's Quarterly, LLC and fiscally sponsored by Another Choice Youth and Family Outreach.
TCA offers a free grassroots advocacy and capacity building platform for artists who are justice-involved and for those people working to mitigate the imprint of the criminal legal system by seeking trauma-informed alternatives to incarceration.
Located at Another Choice Youth and Family Outreach at Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in East Harlem and formerly at Columbia University, TCA enables artists to express their voices through the visual and performing arts, poetry, and music as a means to abolish inhumane narratives and socially degrading stigmas that are used to describe the past experiences and limit the futures of individuals impacted by incarceration. Through artistry, collaborative activism, research, education, and training, TCA equips artists to influence policy change and use their artistry and knowledge to advocate for a world anchored in empathy and saturated with healing and prevention-based policies.
Since 2014 The Confined Arts supporters include:
TCA has a two-part mission
PART #1of TCA Mission
Foster public programming and storytelling projects that use narratives that enable the imagination to counter the dehumanizing narratives that are driving criminal justice policy, and act as catalysts for the implementation of scenarios and solutions transcending the stigmatizing and unjust status quo.
Our coalition seeks to advance alternative to incarceration (ATI) possibilities by positioning the arts as a necessary tool in prevention, pre-trial, supervised release, and post-conviction sentencing options by utilizing trauma-informed arts practices to inform public safety strategies and to center the humanity of individuals who are system-impacted.
VIRAL MONOLOGUES
Celebrated playwrights were paired with people who are currently or formerly incarcerated and advocates to hear their stories, either from live calls or previously documented material.
In January 2021, the Illinois legislature made history by passing the Pretrial Fairness Act, legislation that will end money bond and transform the pretrial legal system. Thank your legislators for supporting the bill or tell them you're disappointed they were on the wrong side of history. LEARN MORE
BEFORE TIME/AFTER TIME
Before Time/After Time is a film produced as the culmination of the Claiming the Justice Narrative media and advocacy project, which seeks to support recent incursions in the felony court space by furthering alternatives to incarceration policy shifts.
PART #2 of TCA Mission
Provide strategic arts engagement education to artists who are formerly incarcerated, teaching artists, practitioners, and legal advocates who want to learn more about how they can use the arts to mitigate the imprints of economic and social inequality.
STRATEGIC ARTS & EDUCATION INITIATIVE
Join the Arts, Justice, and Safety Coalition (AJSC) to connect with a vibrant network of artists, advocates, educators and practitioners committed to creating change through the arts. Through co-learning, financial support, and amplification efforts, the coalition seeks to elevate art as a powerful catalyst for systemic, cultural, and social change.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Through a blend of community service and digital media education, participants engage in valuable experiences that foster community connections and instill crucial skills for personal and professional development.
EXHIBITIONS AND COMMUNITY ARTS PROJECTS
TCA enables artists to express their voices through the visual and performing arts, poetry, and music. Additionally, TCA forms Community Convening Cohorts (CCC), which are designed to be made up of different community stakeholders with its primary function to collaboratively conceptualize, fabricate, and install public art and media that represents the values and experiences of community members.