Ageno School of Business Brings You...
Prison Talk
March 22, 2022
Join us!
Tuesday, March 22:
12:00 PM Prison Talk: Social Justice Communication Reform from the Inside Out Register
This event is co-hosted by GGU Ageno School of Business IPS program and the GGU School
of Law.
Tuesday, March 22, 12:00 PM
Prison Talk: Social Justice Communication Reform from the Inside Out
The United States has the largest prison population in the world, numbering more than two million people, and yet restrictions on internet access in prisons and one-sided reporting have prevented incarcerated people from being able to tell their own stories and get heard. Today, however, prison newsrooms, nonprofit organizations, and activists are changing how the public views prisoners and reframing the conversation about criminal justice reform.
At Prison Talk we will:
- Understand why it is important for PR/communication practitioners, members of the legal profession, and those interested in social justice to hear these first-hand narratives
- Hear about prison journalists and the barriers that make it difficult for prison journalists to share their stories and perspectives
- Discuss how the pandemic created new challenges and barriers to journalism from jails and prisons Gain knowledge about prison newsrooms and organizations like Empowerment Avenue that support incarcerated writers and journalists, and why these programs benefit society
- Learn how to gain proper access to support incarcerated people
We’re honored to welcome our speakers and moderator, respectively, Adamu Chan, Emily Nonko, Eli Wirtschafter, and Ken Stram. The speakers will share their experiences covering imprisonment from the “inside” and “outside” and discuss where this movement is heading.
“Artists, like those at San Quentin, understand the work of narrative; that it’s not only your object of focus but also your vantage point that determines what becomes obscured and what becomes visible.” - Adamu Chan
Speakers:
Adamu Chan is a filmmaker, writer and community organizer from the Bay Area who was incarcerated
at San Quentin State Prison during one of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the country.
He produced numerous short films while incarcerated, using his vantage point and experience
as an incarcerated person as a lens to focus the viewer’s gaze on issues related to
social justice. Adamu draws inspiration and energy from the voices of those directly affected, and seeks
to empower them to reshape the narratives that have been created about them through
film.
Emily Nonko is a Brooklyn, New York-based social justice and solutions-oriented reporter. Over
a decade of reporting, seven years as a freelancer, Emily has covered everything from
New York City real estate to the prison newsroom inside California’s San Quentin State
Prison. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Curbed
and other publications. She is also an organizer with Empowerment Avenue, a program that supports incarcerated writers publishing their work in mainstream
media. You can read her work at emilynonko.com and follow her on Twitter at @EmilyNonko.
Eli Wirtschafter is the Program Director of Uncuffed, KALW Public Media's audio journalism training program for people in California prisons.
Participants learn how to record and edit powerful audio stories that air on KALW
and the award-winning podcast Uncuffed. He trained as a musician and theater maker
before becoming a radio producer, editor, reporter and teacher. Raised in the Bay
Area, he now lives in Southern California, where KALW hopes to expand Uncuffed.
Moderator:
Ken Stram is the founder of 2Bridge Communications, a full-service PR firm that provides mission-driven organizations with a holistic communications solution that ignites conversations, drives value and produces lasting impact. Ken has more than 25 years of experience working with business owners and entrepreneurs as the director of field operations at the U.S. Small Business Administration; as a member of the technology practice at Burson-Marsteller, a leading global PR firm; and as the founder of the world’s first LGBT Economic Development Program in San Francisco.
This event is co-hosted by GGU Ageno School of Business IPS program and the GGU School
of Law.