Artist Gregory Sale and members of The Anti-Recidivist Coalition will discuss their community building and advocacy work that engages people coming out of prison, to make a future that keeps them from going back in. They’ll unpack their strategic use of art to change the narrative around incarceration through their collaborative art project Future ID’s for Alcatraz. Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) is a movement of formerly incarcerated individuals, advocates, and allies committed to transforming the justice system and improving reentry outcomes. Today, the Coalition has grown into a support and advocacy network of more than 300 members, and hundreds of volunteer mentors and allies, committed to helping one another through reentry, and advocating for a fairer criminal justice system. Working nationally, Gregory Sale has generated aesthetic frameworks for individuals directly affected by the system, connecting them with communities and initiating discourse around social justice. Sale is now undertaking a series of projects focused on the challenges of reentering society after incarceration. He recently completed Rap Sheet to Resume [masked]), a workshop and social practice project for the New York-based Urban Justice Center and is currently producing Future IDs: reframing the narrative of re-entry (2016-present), with the Los Angeles-based Anti-Recidivism Coalition. Future IDs at AlcatrazOpening in Fall 2018 at the iconic prison-turned-national park in San Francisco Bay, Future ID’s at Alcatraz is a year-long exhibition featuring ID-inspired artwork by men and women with conviction histories. In stark contrast to prison-issued IDs, these artworks are about individual stories of transformation and how those stories collectively can help re-frame the narrative of re-entry. The installation will be accompanied by a series of monthly public programs and workshops created in collaboration with local organizations and communities. Developed with individuals honing their ability to succeed after incarceration and desiring to make that transition easier for others, the project is led by a core project team of Dr. Luis Garcia, Kirn Kim, Ryan Lo, and artist Gregory Sale who are working in partnership with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, the William James Association, the National Park Service, its nonprofit partner the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and others to realize this art and social justice campaign. The project will activate the public’s imagination, changing underlying cultural biases and helping to generate the critical community support necessary to advance justice reform. The event is part of LA Poverty Department’s “Public Safety for Real” project. The project reconsiders the idea of “Public Safety” as something applied to communities by the authorities, and articulates an alternative vision, one in which “Public Safety” is generated by cultivating a sense of mutual responsibility among community members for creating the well being of their community. The June 23 event is the fifth in a series of public conversations integral to building an LAPD performance of the same name that will be presented in late fall / winter 2018. LAPD’s “Public Safety for Real” project is supported by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The MAP Fund, The National Endowment for The Arts-theater and The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. This evening’s conversation was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org