This weekend, Creative Time, The Fortune Society, artist Phil Collins, and over 100 collaborators hosted the first weekend of Bring Down The Walls, a public art project which turns an unconventional lens on the prison industrial complex through house music and educational programming.
During the day, visitors descended upon the Firehouse at 87 Lafayette St. for a school for radical thought, and enjoyed conversations that included Baz Dreisinger, author of Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World, Pilar Maschi, a formerly incarcerated, queer, anti-establishment abolitionist involved with Critical Resistance, Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, known for her book Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, and artist Phil Collins, who hosted an album-listening party which features music created by formerly incarcerated individuals in collaboration with mainstream musicians.
Once the sun went down, the Firehouse turned into a dance party with Brooklyn’s Soul Summit, and a special performance by DJ Kim Lightfoot.
If you missed last weekend’s festivities, Bring Down The Walls, will focus on dismantling the prison industrial complex, with discussions on the economics of bail, the War on Drugs, and the challenges of parole and probation. At night, DJ and producer MikeQ will host his crowd-pleasing ball, House of Vogue.
Keep up by following Creative Time on instagram, twitter, and hashtag #bringdownthewalls.
View the full schedule here.
Images // Akintola Hanif and Nema Etebar for Creative Time
