UPCOMING EVENTS
Involved with a local abolitionist event that you’d like us to share? Email decarceratewmassfundraising@gmail.com with the name, date, and time of your event with a short description and contact information.
March Courtwatch
Decarcerate Western Mass runs a monthly courtwatch project to observe the workings of the district courts in Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties.
February Courtwatch
Decarcerate Western Mass runs a monthly courtwatch project to observe the workings of the district courts in Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties.
January Courtwatch
Decarcerate Western Mass runs a monthly courtwatch project to observe the workings of the district courts in Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties.
Anti-Inauguration Party
Join us on Monday, January 20, in Turners Falls for our anti-inauguration party!
December Courtwatch
Decarcerate Western Mass runs a monthly courtwatch project to observe the workings of the district courts in Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties.
Participatory Defense Training
A two day training facilitated by Silicon Valley De-Bug on participatory defense, a community organizing model for people facing charges, their families, and communities to impact the outcome of cases and transform the landscape of power in the court system.
Student Organizing Series: Security Culture
This workshop in our 2024-25 Fall student organizing series will be focused on security culture.
Courtwatch
Decarcerate Westenr Mass runs a monthly courtwatch project to observe the workings of the district courts in Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties.
Student Organizing Series: Direct Action
This workshop in our 2024-25 Fall student organizing series will be focused on direct action skills and considerations.
November Bail Fund Book Club: “Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt”
Join the Decarcerate Western Mass Bailout Project in reading and discussing “Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt.”
Student Organizing Series: Legal Observer Training
The first event of our 2024-25 student organizing series will be a workshop on developing legal defense strategies for direct actions, focused on the different approaches to legal support and why having a plan ahead of an action is crucial.
Free Film Screening: “Sleep Dealer”
Join us for a free screening of Join us for a free screening of “We’re Alive” and “Angola 3” at Bookends in Florence.
Student Organizing Series: Legal Defense Strategies
The first event of our 2024-25 student organizing series will be a workshop on developing legal defense strategies for direct actions, focused on the different approaches to legal support and why having a plan ahead of an action is crucial.
Free Film Screening: “We’re Alive” and “Angola 3”
Join us for a free screening of Join us for a free screening of “We’re Alive” and “Angola 3” at Bookends in Florence.
July Bail Fund Book Club: “Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, Second Edition”
Join the Decarcerate Western Mass Bailout Project in reading and discussing “Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, Second Edition.”
Free Film Screening: “The Prison in 12 Landscapes”
Join us for a free screening of Join us for a free screening of “The Prison in 12 Landscapes” at Unnameable Books in Turners Falls.
Get Involved: New Volunteer Training
Learn more about volunteering for the Decarcerate Western Mass Bailout Project
Free Film Screening: “Criminal Queers” and “A Song of Love”
Join us for a free screening of Join us for a free screening of “Criminal Queers” and “A Song of Love” at the Brick House Community Resource Center in Turners Falls.
May Bail Fund Book Club: “Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World” by Dorothy Roberts
Join the Decarcerate Western Mass Bailout Project in reading and discussing “Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World” by Dorothy Roberts
Get Involved: New Volunteer Training
Learn more about volunteering for the Decarcerate Western Mass Bailout Project
Free Film Screening: “The Columbia Revolt (1968)” and “Riotsville, USA”
Join us for a free screening of “The Columbia Revolt (1968)” and “Riotsville, USA” in Turners Falls.
2024 People’s Science Fair
Learn more about volunteering for the Decarcerate Western Mass Bailout Project
Get Involved: New Volunteer Training
Learn more about volunteering for the Decarcerate Western Mass Bailout Project
Get Involved: New Volunteer Training
Learn more about volunteering for the Decarcerate Western Mass Bailout Project
Solidarity Benefit Show
Via 10 Forward:
Bring your rage, your grief, your dollars, and your collaborative spirit to a benefit show for the Defend the Atlanta Forest/Stop Cop City Bail Fund and E-Sims for Gaza. We will have educational materials, an incredible lineup to help you dance through the darkness, and plenty of opportunities to connect with liberation-minded friends
SCOTIA on Soundcloud
NITU @niiitu_ on IG
BIPRODUCT on Soundcloud
BITCRUSHR on Soundcloud
SPACE CAMP on Bandcamp
JOI AVERY @joy_avery on IG
MADEL on Soundcloud
Doors @ 6 / Show @ 7 / 18+ / $10-$20 Donation
Masks Appreciated. Elevator Access available through Mesa Verde’s foyer.
March Bail Fund Book Club: “The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison” by Hugh Ryan + Author Q&A
Join the Decarcerate Western Mass Bailout Project in reading and discussing “The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison” by Hugh Ryan.
Film Screening & Discussion: “Scheherazade’s Diary”
The UMass Prison Education Initiative is organizing a film screening and discussion of "Scheherazade's Diary" with film director Zeina Daccache in partnership with the Department of WGSS and the Decarcerate Western Mass Bailout Project. The film, "Scheherazade’s Diary" (2013), features a theater production that was created and performed by women incarcerated in Baabda Prison in Lebanon.
Screening | 2:30-4pm
Q&A with the director | 4-5pm
Remote option available for registered attendees. Click here to register.
Community Event: Legal Observers Virtual Training with the National Lawyers Guild
National Lawyers Guild is hosting a virtual training for Legal Observers (LO) on March 9, 2024 at 5pm ET, hosted by Elliot Oberholtzer, a National Lawyers Guild attorney. LO’s particular role in an action is to observe and record the actions of police: their presence serves as deescalation and as protection against police violence. Anyone can be an LO; you do not need to be a lawyer or legal worker in your daily life!
Complete the form and sign up using this link or the button below.
A few notes about the form:
The form serves two purposes: 1) to collect some information from you to screen for eligibility to attend the training, and 2) to ensure that the National Lawyers Guild has the necessary background info on file if/when you begin to operate as a Legal Observer.
The form has 12 questions and should take about 8 minutes to fill out. Once you submit your form, you'll receive an email with a confidentiality agreement attached: please fill out and sign that agreement and return it to elliot.oberholtzer@gmail.com.
Once the screening is complete and we have your confidentiality agreement on file, you will receive the Zoom link to the training via email.
Brew & Forge Poetry Night: A Celebration of BIPOC Poetry in the Valley
The Bailout Project is thrilled to be participating in Brew & Forge Poetry Night: A Celebration of BIPOC Poetry in the Valley. We hope to see you there!
Via Northampton Arts Council: Please join us for the first event organized by Franny Choi, the new Poet Laureate of Northampton, and Brew & Forge, an organization that builds connections between writers, artists, and social justice movements. Along with a reading by Franny, this event will showcase poets of color from across the Pioneer Valley and introduce attendees to powerful grassroots organizing happening locally. Readers include Jai Dulani, Abigail Chabitnoy, Lyrical Faith, Omkari Williams, and Cameron Awkward-Rich. Celebrate the richness of BIPOC poetry in our region, learn about local initiatives, and support writers and activists working for racial justice!
Admission is free. Donations are welcome and will go toward Brew & Forge’s work supporting poets and community organizers of color in Western Mass and across the Northeast.
Friday, March 1, 2024
Northampton Center for the Arts Flex Space at 33 Hawley
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
RSVP HERE
ABOUT:
Franny Choi is the author of three poetry collections: The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On (Ecco, 2022), a finalist for the Maya Angelou Book Award, Soft Science (Alice James Books, 2019), winner of the Elgin Award for Science Fiction Poetry, and Floating, Brilliant, Gone (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014). Their writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Paris Review, the Nation, and elsewhere. They are Faculty at Bennington College and the founder of Brew & Forge. The current Poet Laureate of Northampton, Franny is at work on a forthcoming essay collection. You can see their work at www.frannychoi.com.
Brew & Forge’s mission is to amplify the collective power of writers to alchemize dreaming and build capacity in movements for liberation, justice, and survival. Taking to heart Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherrie Moraga’s assertion that change requires both “the witch and the warrior, the myth-smasher and the myth-maker,” Brew & Forge is currently planning for the 2024 Witches & Warriors Retreat for BIPOC poets and community organizers. See more at www.brewandforge.com