Friday 7/18 – Thursday 7/24
19 SATURDAY Among the 40,000 or so people currently incarcerated by the state of Illinois, approximately 400 are “C-number” prisoners–the classification for inmates serving open-ended sentences. Most are African-Americans between 50 and 60 years old, and all were sentenced prior to 1978, when determinate-sentencing laws were implemented. In 1978 their parole rate was 57 percent, but these days it hovers between 1 and 4 percent, even though advocates for C-number prisoners say they have the lowest recidivism rate (14 percent) in the system. Several groups, including the Chicago-based Campaign in Support of C-number Prisoners, are working to change the policies of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, which rules on petitions for parole. Today’s free town hall meeting on the issue will include former C-number prisoner Grady Brown, PRB chairman Craig Findley, senate Judiciary Committee chair John Cullerton, former Illinois Department of Corrections warden Edna Lee, Uptown People’s Law Center attorney Alan Mills, state representative Lou Jones, and assistant state’s attorney Mark Shlifka. It’ll be moderated by Howard Saffold of the Positive Anti-Crime Thrust and takes place from 1 to 4 at the Church of the Good Shepherd, 5700 S. Prairie. Call 773-871-3938 for more information.
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23 WEDNESDAY “There are a ton of great disabled performers and writers and visual artists in the Chicago area,” says Terri Thrower, the producer of Crip Slam! Disability Takes on the Arts. The three-event festival started July 16 with performances by actors Susan Nussbaum and Tekki Lomnicki. Tonight’s installment features a song and monologue by dancer Alana Wallace, a polio survivor who performs in a wheelchair; a slide presentation by visual artist and spina bifida survivor Riva Lehrer; and a rap performance by T-10 and Psycho (T-10 takes his stage name from the medical term for the location of his spinal cord injury). It’s emceed by activist Mike Ervin, one of the organizers behind “Jerry’s Orphans,” an annual protest of the MDA telethon, and starts at 7:30 at UIC’s IIDD Auditorium, 1640 W. Roosevelt, room 166. It’s free, wheelchair accessible, and includes captioning and audio description; there will be a reception afterward. The final, poetry-oriented event takes place July 30 and features work by Peter Cook and Kenny Lerner’s Flying Words Project as well as by Jim Ferris. For more information call 312-355-1253.
