BEFORE TIME/AFTER TIME is a film produced as the culmination of the Claiming the Justice Narrative media and advocacy project, which seeks to support recent incursions in the felony court space by furthering alternatives to incarceration policy shifts.
Beginning in the fall of 2021, 20 system-impacted people participated in eight workshops led by teaching artists from four organizations: Recess, Theatre of the Oppressed NYC, Dances for Solidarity, and The Phoenix Players Theatre Group. During these sessions, participants were introduced to various performance techniques in movement, improvisation, and autobiographical storytelling.
Nine individuals were available at the conclusion of the workshops to start the process of creating an autobiographical performance piece. Beginning in late January of 2022, participants met in both virtual and hybrid settings once a week, facilitated by AJSC collaborators. Through prompts, storytelling, improvisation, and written submissions, we developed a script that focuses on incarceration and its effects, early trauma, post-release issues, and the personal histories and events that lead to individuals becoming justice impacted.
The resulting short film, BEFORE TIME/AFTER TIME, takes the audience on a journey through the lives of nine returned citizens. They share with us fragments of their lives before and after incarceration. These fragments explore turning points in the lives of our collaborators, beginning in childhood, that, when viewed from the perspective of the present, create a direct line to the events that lead to system involvement. Other segments of our piece make evident the remorse felt by those who have done harm and the redemption they seek. The piece delves into the challenges of “coming home” and the effort it takes to survive “on the outside.” The piece is a tribute to the resilience, compassion, and generosity of those whose stories make up the devised text. And finally, the piece, and the process that created it, is an example of the kinds of communities that the arts can create at almost any age—communities where self-realization, shared goals and transformation are made
Speakers:
Shaun Leonardo, Artist
Bruce Levitt, Professor, Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University
Reverend Isaac I. Scott, Multidisciplinary Visual Artist, Journalist, and Ordained Minister, Isaac’s Quarterly
About the Speakers:
Shaun Leonardo is a Brooklyn-based artist from Queens. His multidisciplinary work negotiates societal expectations of manhood—namely surrounding black and brown masculinities and related notions of achievement, collective identity, and experience of failure. He joined Recess in 2021 as Co-Director, helping guide the organization’s continuous evolution as an engine of social change. His performance practice, anchored by his work in Assembly—the organization’s diversion program for court-involved youth—is participatory and invested in a process of embodiment. He received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, is a recipient of support from Creative Capital, Guggenheim Social Practice, Art for Justice, and A Blade of Grass, and was recently profiled in The New York Times and CNN. His work has been featured at institutions including the Guggenheim Museum, the High Line, and the New Museum.
Bruce Levitt has been a Professor in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University since l986. He served as Chair of the Department from l986 to l995 during which time he oversaw the final phases of construction of the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts and, together with the faculty and staff, restructured the academic and productions programs of the department. Previous to assuming the Chair of the Department at Cornell Dr. Levitt headed the MFA programs in Acting at the University of Iowa and served as program coordinator of the MFA program in Directing at Columbia University. Professor Levitt has had a distinguished career as a freelance director in New York and regionally, and has been involved with the development of dozens of new plays in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Recent credits include Cornell productions of The Cherry Orchard, The Glass Menagerie, Strider, A Lie of the Mind, Equus, The Three Sisters, Cocoanuts, Beat Box Bard, Hamlet, and the American premier of David Edgar's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Levitt is a former chair of the New York State Council on the Arts Theatre Panel. From 1995 to 2001 Levitt served as the Producing Artistic Director of The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival in Kansas City, where he has directed productions of Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Love's Labour's Lost, Macbeth, King Lear, and Measure for Measure, which won the 1999 Kansas City Drama Desk Award for best direction. Professor Levitt teaches several levels of acting classes, text analysis, solo performance, and directing. He was elected to membership in the National Theatre Conference in 2008.
Isaac I. Scott is a Multidisciplinary Visual Artist recognized with multiple awards for his creative endeavors. Scott was ordained in 2018 at God's Touch Healing Ministry, where he served with dedication for three years as the Associate Pastor. Currently, he is actively engaged in ministry within the African Methodist Episcopal church, holding a Certificate of License to Preach, where he integrates faith, art, and social justice. Scott is an experienced community organizer, currently serving as the Director of Community Initiatives at Another Choice Youth and Family Outreach Inc as well as the Chairperson for the Human Services Committee at Manhattan Community Board 11. His leadership as President of the Justice Arts Coalition and his ongoing service on the National Religious Campaign Against Torture’s Prison Program Advisory Council highlight his deep understanding of the intricacies of both the prison and reentry systems.
AIANY Architecture for Justice Committee
