Information Wants to Be Free & So Do We: A Pop Up Library

“Information Wants to Be Free & So Do We” asks audiences to question the idea that social, emotional, and intellectual control are necessary for public safety, rehabilitation, and justice.

This Pop Up Library will run September 6-30th at Comfort Station Logan Square as part of The P.O.W.E.R. Project and is open during any public event.

In October, the Pop Up Library will travel to 6018 North in Edgewater and run through January 2020 as part of their Social Justice Hotel in conjunction with the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Additional programs at 6018 North:

Information & Control: Dinner Discussion w/ Black & Pink - October 4 | 6-8pm

Additional programs at P.O.W.E.R. Project:

Cards for Clemency - September 21 | 2-4pm

"Information Wants to Be Free & So Do We" Reading Brunch - September 15, 22, 29 | 12-2pm

More to come.

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Information Wants to Be Free & So Do We Pop Up Library
Cards for Clemency

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About the Pop Up Library

In 2019 there are seemingly limitless ways to connect with family, friends, and to participate in our communities, whether we are physically close to them or far away. Education and self-improvement are easy to access and we can set our own course for what we want to learn.

While many privileged Americans take this for granted and bemoan our constant state of connection, information is increasingly controlled and restricted in jails, prisons, detention, and throughout the justice system — including while awaiting trial and after release.

This Pop Up Library and programs aim to make these punitive and often arbitrary policies and their effects on individuals, their families, and communities visible through collections of work made by currently and formerly incarcerated youth and adults in Chicago; materials from Illinois Deaths in Custody Project; censored and returned communications between family and friends; books banned from prison libraries; information maps; and conversations and workshops with individuals and organizations working to change these policies and end mass incarceration.

Featuring collaborative programs with Illinois Deaths in Custody Project, Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration, Black & Pink, Free Write and more.

“Information Wants to be Free & So Do We” is supported by an Envisioning Justice Grant from Illinois Humanities and will travel throughout Chicago in Fall 2019.

About The P.O.W.E.R. Project

Beginning in 2017, Comfort Station Logan Square and Art Leaders of Color Network - ALCN have joined forces to present the annual P.O.W.E.R. Project In lieu our regular programs over the course of one month, the Comfort Station will be transformed into an ‘empowerment hub’ with a series of performances, lectures, discussions, happenings, self-care exercises, and much more led by artists and members from the broader Chicago creative ecosystem. The hope is that through series of engagements, people will be able to not only to lead their own actions but inspire others to take a stand against injustice and intolerance through meaningful artistic experiences.

The 2019 edition of the P.O.W.E.R. Project will occur in September, with programming by Jamillah Hinson, Dewon Evans, and Alyssa Martinez. Brett Swinney is the ALCN director of the project.