End of Isolation Tour and Documentary
End of Isolation uses art & education to knit-together local campaigns across the country seeking to replace mass incarceration and solitary confinement with real safety and justice in their communities.
1 BUS
9 HUMANS
10 CITIES
25 PERFORMANCES
INFINITE IMPACT
We accomplished the impossible...
What's Next?
In the summer of 2022, nine people embarked on a two-month tour to 10 cities across the US, traveling 8,000 miles in a converted school bus to perform The BOX, a critically-acclaimed play about prison resistance, in communities on the frontlines of reimagining justice. In the words of D.C. theater critic John Stoltenberg “I cannot recall a theater experience that had a greater lock on the conscience of its audience. It was not just good theater, it was phenomenal.”
The momentum from the tour is palpable and the movement to transform our carceral system unstoppable. The End of Isolation Tour is being transformed into a feature length documentary. Through our continued partnership with The Pulitzer Center the film will travel the country as impactful advocacy and communication tools. Join us!
We Did It!
Our tour bus hit the road in July 2022, visiting ten cities in two months.
Documentary
The End of Isolation Tour Documentary Film follows the mesmerizing journey of nine theater activists–three of whom are formerly incarcerated, all fresh out of a global pandemic–as they adapt to unpredictable life on the road–the unsettling setbacks imposed by extreme weather, the highs and lows of collective living and the demands of pop-up theater. When the journey gets rough they all have to dig deep and try to re-focus on why they embarked on this journey in the first place. Will they succeed? Is it worth it? Will their legislative theater have the impact they desire–to uplift communities on the frontlines of ending the torture of solitary confinement and challenging our country’s reliance on prisons, police, and punishment? Or will it be a “beautiful failure,” as their co-organizer and bus driver Rob Connell fears?
Presented by The Pulitzer Center and currently in post-production, the completed full-length film will trace parallel journeys for justice–with the content on the play, on the bus, and in the lives of local organizers often mirroring and intertwining with one another. This will include short, in-depth chapters that highlight the work of formerly-incarcerated organizers around the country and go deeper into the trials and tribulations on the bus–from taking a critical look at the impacts of white leadership, to fighting over dishes to. Drawing from 150 hours of interviews, our intention is to delve deeper into the conversation about what prisons were designed to do and show the incredible impact our art and activism have had on audience members (90% of those that filled out our survey would vote in favor of legislation limiting solitary confinement and reducing incarceration.) “You succeeded in opening my mind,” said Beverly Lewis, “If someone in one of the most unlikely and unimaginably horrific circumstances can become an agent of transformative change, I too can accomplish profound things!”
Get Involved
There are so many ways to be a part of the End of Isolation Tour and movement!
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We need your help to get on the road. We’ve already raised $300k and only need to raise $150k more. Any amount helps!
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FAQ's
“It was so real. This was the closest I’ve ever come to being able to understand what prison is like.”- Bobby Moore, audience member
“I really loved that I could tell that the artists who’d been in prison and solitary confinement had written this play. It was in the details that reminded me of both the struggles and community in prison.”
-Emile Deweaver, Audience Member and Formerly Incarcerated Co-founder of Prison Renaissance
”The BOX was very powerful. It brought up some hard realizations around all the hurt we’ve created with our prison system, and the amount of work required to repair all the broken lives.” -Stacy Crinks, The Battery
“This tender, funny and sharp play about humans that live in conditions of solitary confinement within the prison industrial complex is so necessary in our world,” Jihan McDonald
Transformative Theater is a broad term, generally applied to the use of plays and other theatrical experiences to address social justice challenges, using storytelling to bring awareness to or connection over a shared real world concern.
For us, transformative theater is rooted in healing and action. We use an immersive theater experience as a springboard to create impact. Each production ends with a survivor-led healing circle, using the experience of the show as a way to focus on collective healing and restorative justice. Transformative theater reaches out beyond the show itself. – –
Our tour emphasizes community outreach and engagement. In addition to performing our show, The BOX, we:
- create space for legislators and advocacy groups to come together around the experience to discuss policy impacting the use of solitary confinement.
- organize educational outreach opportunities with universities, community organizations, and advocacy groups.
- promote collective and personal healing through artistic ritual including healing circles and by creating a network of survivors and those affected by solitary. This connection allows those who have a shared lived experience to heal together
Ultimately, The End of Isolation Tour will create space for us all to envision a transformed correctional system- -one rooted in healing the wounds caused by the racially-biased, over-criminalized use of mass incarceration and solitary confinement in the United States.
The BOX has already changed lives and legislation. Performed at conferences, well-known theaters and in the former penitentiary on Alcatraz Island, the show has not only reached thousands of people, but also served as a powerful organizing tool for activists and politicians in California. Former California Senator Mark Leno affirmed that the the 2016 performances contributed to the passing of his bill ending the use of solitary in juvenile facilities throughout California.
This tour isn’t just about ending isolation. It’s about beginning transformation.
The BOX goes beyond traditional theater to impact communities and policy. The BOX and the tour amplifies local programs for collective healing and restorative justice. Each performance and each stop on the tour knits together advocacy groups, anti-solitary campaigns, legislators, educators, and people impacted by solitary and mass incarceration in healing circles, educational outreach and policy discussions to bring about a more just future.
As Jon Comstock from DeCarcerate Arkansas says “This tour will act like a booster-shot that will infuse the community with energy for action and help us to the finish line.”
To learn more about solitary confinement and it’s alternatives, visit Unlock The Box and Solitary Watch.
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.
We are also artists, teachers, healers, mentors, parents, allies, founders, movement strategists and movement weavers. We change laws, save lives and shut down carceral facilities.
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