Art for Justice: Discussion/Performance: Darren Walker, Anna Deavere Smith, Bryan Stevenson, Agnes Gund

Monday night the Ford Fdtn hosted an event at the MoMA:  Art for Justice Fund, an evening of conversation, performance & action.  Darren Walker, Pres. of the Ford Fdtn welcomed everyone and introduced Agnes Gund.  Gund is an avid art collector and philanthropist.  She spoke of the Lichtenstein painting she sold to benefit the Art for Justice Fund focusing on the abhorrent massive incarceration problem in our nation & the racial & economic inequalities that demand to be rectified. Bryan Stevenson, is an author (Just Mercy) & atty representing the poor, the incarcerated & condemned.  He is also Dir of the Equal Justice Initiative.  He spoke eloquently & passionately on our oppressive incarceration & unjust legal presentation.  He's hopeful for positive change forward to "the beat of justice" to rectify the injustices.  Singer/social activist Toshi Reagon performed an original stirring song about a mother coming to get her child from prison.  Anna Deavere Smith recited an interview she had with a female inmate incarcerated for almost 30 years.  It was one of the people she embodies from her moving one woman show "Notes from the Field."  Piper Kerman, author of her memoir "Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison" which has been made into a TV series and Glenn Martin, former inmate & President/found of JustLeadershipUSA were on a panel moderated by Charles Blow, NYTimes columnist & CNN reporter.  The disturbing, informative & hopeful messaging from all those on stage addressed prison reforms aimed at eliminating excessive sentencing, providing proper legal representation, exonerating innocent inmates, ending children being prosecuted as adults, and strengthening human rights initiatives for connecting us a united front in a just & compassionate society.  Much work needs to be done.  There is progress & hope for reforming the present dire situations relating to inequality and our destructive & punitive mass incarceration.