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Searching for Justice at Steppenwolf Theatre. Photo credit: Tone Stockenstrom Photo Studio
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On January 16th, Searching for Justice premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre to a sold-out audience.
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Set in the office of a professor writing a paper on the school-to-prison pipeline, Searching for Justice tackles the question of what is justice. That question is asked again and again as a revolving door of visitors enter the office space: a burnt-out Illinois State Representative, an argumentative law professor who supports the status quo, a grieving janitor whose daughter was murdered, and a woman looking for support for her incarcerated brother. Poetry monologues full of emotion, depth, and rhythm are interspersed between nuanced conversations about the impacts of violence, the school-to-prison pipeline, and incarceration.
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Through the interactions between characters, it is clear that no one receives true justice in our current system. Even when the perpetrator of violence is incarcerated, the victim’s family receives no resources or support for their insurmountable grief and loss. Incarcerated folks’ families end up “doing time” with them—they have to take second mortgages to pay legal fees, or drive five hours to the detention center to see their loved one just to turn back because of a lockdown. Incarcerated people are often released with severe trauma and little support for their re-entry into a radically different society. Billions are spent on the incarceration system instead of on consistently underinvested and over-policed communities whose children grow up with little hope of a better future.
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The play received a standing ovation from the audience. The cast were overwhelmed with emotion seeing the full and ecstatic crowd. “Changing the narrative is how we’re going to change the law,” said Restore Justice staff after the performance.
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The road to Steppenwolf was a unique journey that brought together Mud Theatre Project and Restore Justice Foundation. Mud Theatre Project was formed by artists in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Members of the team have become national award-winning playwrights and writers. Executive Director Brian Beals is currently an apprentice in Restore Justice’s Future Leaders Apprenticeship Program (FLAP), which receives funding from the Reva and David Logan Foundation.
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FLAP is a full-time comprehensive program that supports and cultivates the leadership and advocacy skills in those coming home after serving extreme sentences, many of whom received these sentences as teenagers. Through the program, they receive a combination of on-the-job experience and related coaching, as well as a full-time salary with benefits. In addition to learning how to navigate life after incarceration, FLAP participants learn to advocate for policies that support their families, communities, and individuals still serving extreme sentences.
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Searching for Justice is Mud Theatre Project’s first performance outside of the correctional center. All cast members are either formerly or currently incarcerated, or impacted by incarceration of a family member.
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Congratulations to Mud Theatre Project and Restore Justice on a well-researched, well-written play with amazing performances from the cast. We highly recommend checking out Restore Justice’s new project “More Than a Conviction: Stories of Children Sentenced to Life Without Parole,” which shares the insights and lived experiences of formerly and currently incarcerated people and their loved ones, as well as research on the impact of life without parole sentences imposed on juveniles.
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Grantee Accomplishments
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Add to your watchlist...
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Two documentaries partially-funded by RDLF premiered on PBS recently and are available for streaming. We highly recommend you give them a watch.
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"The feature documentary "Resistance: They Fought Back" is a passionate refutation of [the myth of Jewish passivity]. Told by survivors, their children, and expert witnesses from the U.S. Israel, and Europe, it is a revelation based on extensive research of how the Jews of Europe fought back. It uncovers evidence of non-violent methods which served as crucial tools of resistance and evolved into Jewish armed revolts in ghettos, forests and death camps, even as the odds of success were vanishingly small."
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"The high-security Pelican Bay prison was designed for mass-scale solitary confinement, often for a decade or more, and with little due process. In 2013, 30,000 incarcerated people went on a hunger strike that spread into a feat of unity across California prisons. The Strike follows these solitary survivors who fought to abolish indefinite isolation."
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Congratulations to the following partners who were also recently featured in news and media:
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Open Applications
- Crisis Management Consulting for Nonprofits: This program is designed to provide nonprofit leadership with customized, hands-on guidance to navigate financial instability, operational disruptions, and challenges during times of crisis. This program offers personalized consultation in key crisis areas to help leaders stabilize and strengthen their organizations. Applications are due March 7th.
- Women Unite! Partner Application: Women Unite! partners with three Chicago-based nonprofits for 12 months, offering their services to them for free. These services include fundraising, marketing, thought partnership, and more. Organizations must have an annual operating budget of $5mil or less and focus on serving women, LGBTQIA+, and or communities of color. Applications are due March 14th.
- Dark Matter Residency: Elastic Arts Foundation's Dark Matter Residency supports emerging artists whose work challenges the hegemonic hierarchies of race through performance and visual representation. Chicago-based performing artists are welcome to apply. Applicable performing arts disciplines include (but are not limited to) music, performance art, dance, drama, poetry, film, multimedia, and puppetry. Applications are due March 17th.
- Arts Midwest Walking Together: Walking Together: Investing in Folklife in Communities of Color supports folklife and traditional arts rooted in communities by investing in artists/practitioners and the community organizations that care for them. Self Nominations are due March 19th.
- ComEd Powering Communities Grant Program: Municipal and community organizations in northern Illinois can now apply for the 2025 Powering Communities Grant Program. There are several different focus areas, including education and workforce development, environmental initiatives, community enrichment, and access to arts & culture. Applications are due by 5:00 pm CST on March 28th.
- Building Capacity for Health Advocacy: Committed to health justice, this grant program from the Rx Foundation envisions a future where all communities can address the root causes of poor health. Nonprofit organizations that function as hubs or coalition leaders to build advocacy, organizing, and civic engagement capacity and infrastructure and address health and health care priorities are encouraged to apply. LOI's are due March 31st.
- Lyra McKee Bursary Scheme 2025: The aim of this five-month bursary scheme is to train and mentor people from underrepresented backgrounds, who aspire to become journalists or who are at the very early stages of their journalism career. It is open to UK and Republic of Ireland residents only. Applications are due March 31st.
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Wisconsin Watch: "Homelessness has been increasing statewide, according to the annual PIT count conducted by volunteers. But these counts struggle to accurately capture the homeless population, especially in rural areas ... '“We’re not finding an eighth of how many are truly out there,' [a volunteer] said."
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The War Horse: “Veterans desperate to feel better are also not interested in waiting for laws to change. So they’re looking to the community they know has their back."
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MindSite News: “For every fatal encounter between police and a person experiencing a mental health crisis, non-fatal force was deployed against 78 people. The investigation also found that in these crisis situations, police used force against Black people – especially Black men – at rates vastly disproportionate to the racial demographics of their cities."
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The Washington Post: "Elon Musk and his cost-cutting U.S. DOGE Service team have been on a mission to trim government largesse. Yet Musk is one of the greatest beneficiaries of the taxpayers’ coffers." Data provided by our grantee Good Jobs First.
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We craft this newsletter for you. If you have any comments or suggestions, please reply to this email and you might see your ideas implemented in our next issue.
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We have an open call for content from our partners to highlight the brilliant work they're doing in the community. If you are a current grantee or partner with The Reva and David Logan Foundation, please send your content to Sabrina Boggs, Communications Coordinator at sabrina(at)loganfdn(dot)org. Please note that we will not share fundraising campaigns.
Thanks for reading, and see you next time!
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