Join us on Thursday, March 21, for an IN-PERSON program on "Voices of Reentry: Film Screening and Community Conversation"

The event includes a screening of the film, Voices of Reentry (~40 minutes), followed by a conversation between the audience and one or more of the film’s storytellers, local providers of reentry support services, and formerly incarcerated members of our community.

About the film: Each year, over 600,000 people return from jail or prison to our communities, where they face countless barriers to employment, housing, and reintegration. The film explores the challenges of reentry and the role communities can play in reducing these barriers. Viewers will hear from four storytellers–George, Shaquan, Sing and Armando–who share portions of their life stories, illuminating the common threads that run through the experiences of many of the over two million people incarcerated in the U.S.

Meet the panelists: 

George Halfkenny is the co-founder of THRIVE Communities in Lowell, MA, a nonprofit that uses a restorative justice model to support formerly incarcerated people returning to our communities. George has over three decades of lived experience in the U.S. criminal legal system and now works to repair the harms of incarceration and addiction. He is a Certified Peer Specialist who has served as a reentry expert and support provider in a variety of organizations. With partners from Emerson College, George is co-developing a storytelling project that centers the experiences of unhoused people in Boston's Mass and Cass neighborhood. He is also working on a multi-disciplinary memoir project and recently published a commentary in the Ideas and Opinions section of The Boston Globe.

Sean “2ruTh7” Evelyn is a Massachusetts-based poet, writer, restorative justice practitioner, and social justice advocate with 15 years of lived experience in the U.S. criminal legal system. Since his release on parole in the fall of 2022, 2ruTh7 launched EXPLANATIONS FROM EXILE (E.F.E.) — a multimedia storytelling company focused on the interconnection between urban trauma, violence, and the devastating impact that incarceration has had on communities of color. In addition to his work with E.F.E., 2ruTh7 serves returning community members in the Merrimack Valley as a Reentry Coach with UTEC Inc. 2ruTh7 will be releasing his debut trauma-informed spoken word mixtape and visual album, “ARS MORIENDI: Ruminations of a Rogue Prophet” in the summer 2024.

Joanne "Jojo" MacKeen is a THRIVE Fellow supported by the Massachusetts Service Alliance/Commonwealth Corps program. She began her reentry journey in 2023, and she is now supporting others who face the same barriers and challenges that she continues to struggle with as she rebuilds her life. Jojo is a member of the THRIVE team that is working to repair the harm of incarceration and addiction and build a community that supports its members who are transitioning from incarceration.

About the team: The Voices of Reentry team is a small group of dedicated individuals who are largely volunteering their time in service of a shared mission to undo the harms of mass incarceration through storytelling and community engagement. Find out more HERE.

This program is supported by a Racial Equity & Inclusion grant from The Sudbury Foundation.