End of Isolation Tour
The End of Isolation Tour brings immersive, transformative theater to communities across the country on the front lines of imagining a world without prisons and the torture of solitary confinement.
The Story of the End of Isolation Tour and The BOX
Loneliness. Sensory Deprivation. Torture. Words on a page that are now being brought to life for live audiences to witness, by people who have lived through it. The End of Isolation Tour is a theatrical production touring the United States, using immersive theater to make an impact.
As a means to reach audiences to enact political change (legislative art) and to engage people to promote healing through drama and artistic ritual (therapeutic theater), the END OF ISOLATION Tour centers around the play, The BOX, which underscores both the horror of solitary confinement and the humanity of people subjected to it, employing stories inspired by true events to bring awareness to the state-sponsored atrocities occurring in correctional institutions across the country.
The BOX is written and directed by Sarah Shourd, who was held in solitary confinement for over 400 days as a political prisoner in Iran. After discovering the prevalence of solitary confinement in the United States, she collaborated with other survivors and together, they have brought this project to life.
Help Us Hit The Road
Our tour bus hits the road in July, and we will visit nine cities in two months. Check the map below to find the closest venue to you and buy tickets!
Baltimore, MD
Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture
Donate
Last year, we raised over $300k for The End of Isolation Tour. Because of the pandemic, we only made it to one stop: San Raphael, California where we sold out all nine socially-distanced performances.
This allowed us to test-drive our socially-distanced, scalable, and immersive justice theater. In 2022, we’re taking it on the road, in an effort to create even more healing and impact.
We still need your help. Please help us raise the remaining $150k so we can hit the road in July 2022!
Get Involved
There are so many ways to be a part of the End of Isolation Tour and movement!
Join The Movement
Help us make an impact by signing up for our newsletter and sharing the word about the End of Isolation Tour.
Donate
We need your help to get on the road. We’ve already raised $300k and only need to raise $150k more. Any amount helps!
Buy Merch
Show your support and solidarity with ending isolation and beginning transformation. Rock our sweet EIT shirt.
FAQ's
Who we are
First and foremost, we are humans. Many of us are humans who have experienced incarceration and the horrors of solitary confinement first-hand.
Together, we’re a team of organizers committed to creating an impact through transformative theater- -and transformative justice. On the tour, we will travel, eat, work, and live together in a converted school bus for two months as we bring The BOX to communities across the US. This makes us more than a team. We are friends. We are a chosen family. Together, we are strengthening a movement.
Individually we are professionals: award-winning authors, interdisciplinary artists, activists, actors, educators, chefs, and storytellers.
Get to know us! Check out our bios and explore our personal websites.
What We Do
As a part of our tour, the team visits universities, community organizations, and advocacy groups with a curriculum designed to educate and empower changemakers around solitary
We create a unique, strength-based opportunity to connect communities, bringing together those who have been impacted by a brutal and outdated system to community and survivor-led support systems.
We bring policy makers to the table and sometimes bring the show to the policy makers, whether it’s rehearsals in front of the White House or panel discussions around specific legislation
Each performance ends with a survivor-led healing circle, using the experience of the show and artistic ritual to focus on collective healing and restorative justice.
What We Do
As a part of our tour, the team visits universities, community organizations, and advocacy groups with a curriculum designed to educate and empower changemakers around solitary
We create a unique, strength-based opportunity to connect communities, bringing together those who have been impacted by a brutal and outdated system to community and survivor-led support systems.
We bring policy makers to the table and sometimes bring the show to the policy makers, whether it’s rehearsals in front of the White House or panel discussions around specific legislation
Each performance ends with a survivor-led healing circle, using the experience of the show and artistic ritual to focus on collective healing and restorative justice.
National Partners
The End of Isolation Tour would not be possible without our Presenting Sponsor, The Pulitzer Center; our National Sponsor Unlock The Box, and our Organizational Ally, Solitary Watch.
Abolitionist Law Center
DC Justice Lab
DecARcerate Arkansas
Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition
ArchCity Defenders
Texas After Violence Project
Haymarket Books
Open MI Door
Interfaith Action for Human Rights
Disability Rights NC
Southern Center for Human Rights
Uptown People's Law Center Chicago
Detroit Justice Center
Designing Justice + Designing Spaces
Voices Unbarred
MUSE
NC Justice Center
Planting Justice
Visualizing Abolition
Eastern State Penitentiary
AMEND
Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture
Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Amistad Law Project
Community Partners
We’re honored and excited to partner with anti-solitary advocacy organizations across the United States. Together, we’re creating a borderless community committed to:
- Ending the use of solitary confinement and mass incarceration
- Fighting for Transformative Justice
- Creating healing opportunities for individuals and communities who have been affected by solitary confinement and mass incarceration
- Uplifting and resourcing the community of survivors, advocates, and allies with an opportunity to end and heal the harms of confinement
Dedication
In memory of Kalief Browder, Evan Ebel, Dannie Martin, Brian Nelson, Herman Wallace and all the others we’ve lost to the horror of solitary confinement.
With gratitude toward the people who shared their stories with us from solitary confinement, hugely contributing to this project:
- Billy Blake
- Alfred Dandoval
- Maher Suarez
- Rafael Cacique
- Ricky De Silva
- Judith Vasquez
- Leon Singletrey
- Caesar Villa
And the survivors on the outside, who will never forget those they had to leave behind:
- Dameion Brown
- Dolores Canales
- Jacqueline Craig
- Five Mualimm-ak
- Tash Nguyen
- Steven Czifra
- Emile Deweaver
- Jerry Elster
- Troy Williams
- Albert Woodfox
- Lonnie Morris
- Arnie Fischman
- Rudolph Howell
- Sara Kruzan
- Earlonne Woods
- Aly Tamboura
- Raul Rocha
And family members:
- Francisco Cacique
- Reyna Cacique
- Marie Levin