Black and Pink is a United States

prison abolitionist The prison abolition movement is a network of groups and activists that seek to reduce or eliminate prisons and the prison system, and replace them with systems of rehabilitation that do not place a focus on punishment and government institutiona ...

organization supporting

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

and

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

-positive prisoners. The group organizes a

pen pal Pen pals (or penpals, pen-pals, penfriends or pen friends) are people who regularly write to each other, particularly via postal mail. Pen pals are usually strangers whose relationship is based primarily, or even solely, on their exchange of let ...

program, distributes a prisoner-written newspaper to its incarcerated members, provides court accompaniment, and educates people on their

rights Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory ...

History

Black and Pink was founded in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, in 2004–2005 by Jason Lydon, a

Unitarian Universalist Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to: Christian and Christian-derived theologies A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism: * Unitarianism (1565–present) ...

minister and prison abolitionist. Lydon had been active in prison justice work as a teenager, and decided to form Black and Pink after spending six months in county jail when he was twenty years old. Lydon was the National Director of the group until stepping down in September 2017. He was succeeded by Tray Johns, who served as National Director until Dominique Morgan was appointed Interim National Director in December 2017. In January 2018 Morgan accepted the position of National Director on a permanent basis. The current Interim Executive Director is Tena Hahn-Rodriguez. Black and Pink's national office is based in Omaha, Nebraska.

Work

Pen pal program

Black and Pink maintains a pen pal program in which they match their incarcerated members with pen pals who correspond, build relationships, and participate in

harm reduction Harm reduction, or harm minimization, refers to a range of public health policies designed to lessen the negative social and/or physical consequences associated with various human behaviors, both legal and illegal. Harm reduction is used to d ...

. The group states that receiving correspondence is itself a harm reduction strategy, saying that potentially abusive guards and prisoners are made aware that the recipient has a support network outside of prison when they hear the recipient's name called at the mail room, and may be less likely to target that prisoner as a result.

Newspaper

Black and Pink publishes a newspaper that they distribute to prisoners for free. They began distributing the newspaper in 2010, and as of October 2017, they distribute the newspaper to 13,000 prisoners across the United States. The newspaper contains submissions from incarcerated Black and Pink members, as well as material from people who are not in prison. Because of regulations surrounding materials allowed to be sent to prisoners, the newspaper is denied from many prisons, including all prisons in the state of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

Other work

In 2016, Black and Pink collaborated with

Tatiana von Fürstenberg Princess Tatiana Desirée von Fürstenberg (''Tatiana Desirée Prinzessin zu Fürstenberg''; born February 16, 1971) is an American art curator, singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and filmmaker. Early life and family Von Fürstenberg ...

to organize an art exhibition called ''On the Inside'' in New York at the Abrons Art Center. The exhibit featured several dozen pieces of artwork from prisoners. Because art supplies are difficult to obtain within many prisons, some of the pieces use unconventional materials such as envelopes and ink made from melted magazines.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Black and Pink website
Prison abolition movement LGBT political advocacy groups in the United States 2005 establishments in the United States Prison-related organizations Organizations based in Boston