activist leah faria on the campaign to close rikers, working out with remy ma, and what faith ringgold's art means to her
meet leah faria
meet leah faria
Leah Faria is always taking care of people. If she’s not snuggling her five-year-old grandson on a visit to North Carolina, she’s at the Rose M. Singer Center on Riker’s Island, in the community running support groups for women and young girls or driving families to visit loved ones in prison. If she’s not planning a convening of community organizers for Columbia or City Hall, she’s doing the same for the Women’s Community Justice Association (WCJA), where she serves as Director of Community Engagement. After briefly watching the Liberty victory parade on her couch, we talked about the campaign to close Riker’s, working out with Remy Ma, and what Faith Ringgold means to her at Leah’s dinner table.
“I think that a lot of times, when you're locked up, it's like you lock us up and throw away the key. Out of sight, out of mind. Bringing classes inside gives us value. It humanizes us. We get to sit right next to somebody who’s not impacted by the system. And it's a moment to educate, to bond, to have a connection with society without being in society. That's one of the things that kept the inside students motivated. Some people didn’t have custody of their kids, their kids were in the system, they’re facing football numbers for their sentences, which means ten years or more. These classes were still something they could look forward to. People volunteered to go to school from 6 to 9 PM when they could have been doing something else for money. That opportunity made us feel like we were outside of prison. For those three hours, we felt like we were in real college, not in prison."
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