Art As a Form of Healing and Liberation
Sunny, Kimye, Leo
Andre and Josh work with Youth Art & Self-Empowerment (YASP) YASP conducts art, poetry, music, and empowerment workshops at Riverside Correctional Facility (R.C.F.) every Saturday with young people under 18 who are being tried as adults. YASP believes that it is important to talk to youth both in the adult jails and in public schools to help them stay out of the system. Their mission is to inform people about the school-to-prison pipeline, because they believe that the reason that so many young people from urban communities end up going through the school-to-prison pipeline and incarcerated is because most of them didn’t realize that this system was even in place.
We interviewed Josh and Andre to explore if art can heal trauma experienced by incarcerated youth. We were also interested in how art can be used as a means of educating and depicting the problems of the prison industrial complex.
Meet the Artist
Josh Graupera,
Creative Arts + Multimedia Coordinator
Josh Graupera (he/him, they/them) is an artist, activist and educator. They work with groups and organizations to explore the relationship between visual art and community organizing, using painting, screen printing and socially-engaged processes. Josh is an Arts and Media organizer with Stadium Stompers, a worker-owner of Bonfire Media Collective, and an Art and Multimedia Coordinator with the Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project (YASP). Josh began working with YASP in 2019 as an arts workshop facilitator at RCF and joined the team as a staff member in 2020. Josh leads YASP’s workshops with youth incarcerated in Philadelphia adult jails and is working closely with other staff to publish an anthology of art and poetry created by YASP members.
Meet the Artist
Andre Simms, Creative Arts
Andre (he/him) is a musical artist and activist. He leads YASP’s workshops with youth incarcerated in Philadelphia adult jails. He himself was an incarcerated youth and has returned to help put an end to holding teens in adult prisons. He decided to get involved in YASP after being released from prison and was inspired by the organizations like YASP that helped him while he was serving time.
Speaking to your own identity how do you think that relates to the youth you work with?
Josh: I have a lot of family and friends who've gone through the system. think about my role like auxiliary support, and just being an Afro-Latinx human being think that's helpful. We're just a group of people of color in the jail, doing this work, talking about how it's impacted our people, drawn into a historical context. Prison is slavery in this modern form. You being able to connect that back is profound. When we first started going up to RCF that connection was really profound and immediate. I think my kind of angle is I'm gonna keep showing up. You know, I'm not going anywhere. You're gonna see that I care. That we both really care. And, you know, some weeks are really great. And some weeks the kids challenge us, you know. They really like to challenge us, you know. And we're not going anywhere, right? In fact, I leave being like, “Next week, they're gonna see, it's like, we're still there.” You know, like, it gives more resolve. I'm like a non-binary, Afro-Latinx human being, I know, I look more ambiguous than my identity, but I feel the connection there. And I think it just takes time. And I think that's one of the powerful things about YASP, like, a lot of programs in RCF have to list an end date for their workshops, we don't have an end date. And we've already been doing this for 16 years. So we're just gonna keep going and going and going; we're playing long games for the long haul, you know, some of these kids are going to age out. And unfortunately, new kids are going to come in, and we're going to be there for them.
What would you say sustains you in your work at YASP?
Josh: One thing that I keep in mind, is something that our co-director, Sarah Morris, told me, which is that when, when they first started going up to the jails in 2005-2006, I believe there were 180 young people up in the RCF in the adult jail. You know, I'm not exactly positive, I'm pretty sure that was the number. Before the pandemic we were down the 30. Now we're at 13. You know, and, and we're at the end of the road here. Where we can see there, is very much going to be a day where there are no longer young people held in this adult jail. I don't know when that'll happen, but we've never been closer. And I think that's something that when I'm frustrated, in the day to day or in the minute and lost in the weeds, I think about that long span of time and how that's changed. And how hopefully, YASP will last 50 years, you know, and we're just doing our part to push it forward for as long as that's worthwhile.
Could you tell us about a challenge that you faced and how you overcame it?
Josh: There's a lot of pain that we see in our young people and what they're going through. Sometimes we feel this duality of we pushed it forward, we got a little bit further, but also that was hard. To be able to hold both of those can be difficult. Something that's difficult is that a lot of our young folks who come out and become organizers, they're in the front, they're the vanguard of this organization us old heads are in the back trying to support them. Andre is one of our youth organizers so we try to support people like him to do the organizing work. They're going to be the main beneficiaries of this work. And we've lost a couple folks who have caught new cases, and have gone back into the system. The criminal justice system only focuses on what you did, this finite minute action, and not the totality of the person so we go to court a lot and argue for the totality of the person their full being. Andre was talking about those socio bio videos we make. We make those for court. You know, those don't get seen publicly. But that's to show, look at this person, this person i sway more than what you see on paper, look at all the people that need this person out in the community. So that's, that's hard for the organization to go through, especially for like our longer term staff who have deep personal relationships with folks who get caught in cases.
Our Own Art Inspired by Josh
What would you say drew you to your work?
Andre: I actually experienced incarceration at the age of 17, I did eight years of prison. And so, you know, our options are limited as far as, like, jobs and opportunities that we added. And also throughout that time, like, part of my healing process was, you know, music, creativity, being at parties. And so the fact that, YASP, gives me the opportunity to, you know, express myself through my art and use that very art to, you know, serve a greater purpose, a greater mission, that's like the best of both worlds, it doesn't even feel like work. I use my, my talent to like, change my circumstances, and try to make the world a little bit better for, you know, people like me. So that's what drew me to my work.
What would you say sustains you in your work at YASP?
Andre: What sustains us, what excites me about the work with YASP is the fact that I mean we really are making differences in people's lives. And we're attacking it from all angles. Because we're making those small impacts. Like when I'm connecting with the families of people impacted, when I'm talking to the young people at RCF, you can see the differences. You can see the support that they've been given is actually benefited them in some way in a connection. For me, that keeps me going. But then also, on the back end we're sitting down with legislators, and we're talking about bills, and we're advocating for new laws to end direct file and to prevent certain kids from going to placement, and to eventually end placements and the practice of locking juveniles up. It's like, we're attacking this problem from every level. And it seems, like, in the back end it’s slow. We all know how politics move. I honestly hate politics. And I hate that that's part of my job. But I also love the fact that it's alright, while we're waiting on these bills to pass, I could do this work on the ground level and make real differences. Just the, the fact that we've seen, real progress, we're seeing real change. There's definitely hope for a brighter future because the system that we have is not working. We know it's not working. I think society is at the point where whether you're directly impacted, or you know what's going on it's apparent that we need something better.
Could you tell us about a challenge that you faced and how you overcame it?
Andre: Personally, one of the hardest things I had to do was walk back into jail. After being released, after doing eight years to go back inside, I think the first time I did it, it was just, I don't know, I felt chills all over my body. I can't. It's hard to even explain the feeling because for so long you've been craving, to like, get out of this and your system has been, your very body has been fighting and, you know, wanting to, you know, escape, like, these walls. And to actually go back in there willingly and do this work. It's like a shock to the body that you have, that I had to overcome. And the fact that not only, that not only being in that environment, but a lot of the guys we work with have very similar cases, as far as very similar circumstances to mine, like I was very young, when I first went there. And there was so much that I didn't know that I was taken advantage of by the system in so many ways. And so just seeing that be repeated, seeing this cycle continue. That's something that's hard for me, but it’s challenging. There's a reason why I do it, because we have to end this cycle, you get what I'm saying. There's no reason why the recidivism rate should be over 60%, when this is supposed to be treatment, and this is supposed to be something that makes the community safe and is obviously not working. So we have to do the work that they're not doing. So that's a challenge. But it's also what really drives the movement, what really drives what we do. We're part of a coalition that advocates for ending youth incarceration. And so with that, we're meeting with legislators, we're sharing our stories with the press. I just did an interview with Pennlive. We're doing these type of meetings, and I'm having to tell my story over and over again, I'm having to relive these traumas over and over again. And that's something that also can also be challenging, but we do it because it's serving a purpose. It’s making sure that everything that we've been through is given a platform, is given a voice and not being silence, and hopefully you can make a difference and somebody else not going through it. But those are some of the challenges that I face personally as an organizer.
DayOneNotDayTwo is an activist, artist, and entrepreneur with a mission to use his craft to heal the masses.
After serving an eight year prison sentence at the age of 17 he reentered society with purpose and passion. Using his music to teach and guide others, DayOneNotDayTwo has partnered with many Philadelphia based nonprofit organizations to combat gun violence within the city. He works as an organizer with the Youth Art and Self Empowerment Project using his story to advocate for young people impacted by the criminal justice system.
Through a collaboration with Beyond The Bars DayOneNotDayTwo develops and facilitates workshops that teach local artists to create socially responsible music and through his position within the CareNotControl Coalition DayOneNotDayTwo uses his influence to urge law makers to pass legislation ending youth incarceration in Pennsylvania.
Our Own Art Inspired by Andre
Thank you