Date: April 22, 2015
Venue: Joe’s Pub (NY)
Review by Dawoud Kringle/Photos by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
Videos approved by Marie Incontrera (Eco-Music Big Band)
February 21, 2014
The international movement to free political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz from solitary confinement has achieved an historic victory: on Thursday, February 20, 2014, Maroon stepped into general population for the first time in 22 years. There is no doubt; this is a PEOPLE’S VICTORY!
The coordinated efforts of Scientific Soul Sessions (SSS) and the Campaign to Free Russell Maroon Shoatz – particularly those organized groups in NYC, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia – showed the true power of the people. When SSS (a multigenerational collective of revolutionaries prefiguring a new society and working directly with the lessons laid out by Maroon) sparked this international movement three years ago, Maroon’s name was hardly known beyond a small circle of dedicated prisoner rights activists. Over the past years – on the political, artistic, and cultural fronts – we have seen the founding of the Campaign, the funding and initial coordination of Maroon’s Legal Team, the publication of Maroon’s collected essays, and the organization of countless events and soul sessions across the US.
Text by Matt Meyer
The insanity of the recent Pennsylvania Department of Corrections set-back in the case of Russell Maroon Shoatz, and his decades-long struggle to get out of solitary confinement, is detailed in this latest Free Maroon Campaign urgent update: http://russellmaroonshoats.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/good-faith-bad-faith-urgent-holiday-update/
On August 23 & 24th, 2013, from 7pm-9pm, the Campaign to Free Russell Maroon Shoatz, in collaboration with Scientific Soul Sessions, Movement in Motion, and Human Rights Coalition-Fed Up! will be hosting events in Pittsburgh and New York City to celebrate Maroon’s 70th birthday.
Maroon, who has spent close to 30 years in solitary confinement in the state of Pennsylvania, is a crucial symbol in the growing movement against the long-standing practice of solitary, which amounts to unconstitutional torture under international human rights law.
Date: May 3, 2013
Venue: The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York City
Text by Dawoud Kringle
“There is a war going on in America.” Thus began the book release event for Maroon the Implacable: The Collected Writings of Russell Maroon Shoatz.
