Imagining a world where all hearts can heal with the No Kids In Prison music video by Circles and Ciphers.

From Circles and Ciphers: “In collaboration with Performing Statistics, we believed it would be really powerful to show a world where black kids from Chicago reclaimed their own narrative and showed what black leadership could like from an abolitionist framework. This music video was deeply important to us..from AnnMarie tailoring all of the suits the young men wore to Marko working with our young people on their verses..we saw this as a chance to pay homage to Hip Hop as a vessel of storytelling and movement work. Making the video did not come without its bouts but we made it through and we're deeply appreciative of the whole experience! We hope this video will continue to spread hope and positivity all across the globe. From Chi-town to da world!”

Free Da Homies Snack Bags

When we asked Circles and Ciphers about sites in Chicago they wanted to activate we heard, “Could we play with a chip bag? Corner stores are so central to neighborhood activity across the city.” It was a moment of huge inspiration and we all got to work to bring it to life! What could it look like to play with packaging and create chip bags that could hold abolitionist dreams inside and out?!?! The Circles team worked with their youth leaders to create poetic content. They explored questions like, “What are the ingredients of liberation?” “What does it look like when youth receive all they need to be free?” “What should we call this abolitionist snack?” Special shout out to artist Keshun who designed the Free Da Homie text!

Performing Statistics worked to integrate content from Circles and Ciphers, portraits of Circles and Ciphers youth leaders and watercolor backgrounds and shapes to create the packaging designs. Circles and Ciphers team decided to fill the bag with Chicago abolitionist love including cards featuring abolitionist leaders throughout history, friendship bracelets, stickers, Frooties and Super Donuts. Performing Statistics added pins, stickers and patches. Healthy Hood added cards featuring questions from Crime Drought conversations! The Final Five Campaign added information about how to support young people when they return home after incarceration. When it was time to stuff bags, Healthy Hood jumped in to support! Together with rotating teams from Final Five, Circles and Ciphers and Performing Statistic, we stuffed hundreds of Free Da Homies bags that we gave away over the course of the month #NoKidsInPrison was in Chicago.

An immersive sculpture featuring letters and voices from local incarcerated youth by Final 5.

The Final 5 campaign collaborated with incarcerated youth in Chicago to create an installation that carried their voices into the exhibition. Each youth collaborator chose interview questions and wrote letters to the exhibition audience to create a reflective space where attendees could read letters from young people inside sharing about their experiences and dreams of a Chicago without youth incarceration. The installation was even more powerful because Final 5 recorded each young person reading their letter, so people had the option of listening to the voices of each youth behind the letters.

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