Bergþórugata 20, 101, Reykjavik andrymi@riseup.net

Letter Writing to Trans (and Other) Prisoners 2: Transgender Day of Visibility

When:
31st March 2019 @ 18:00 – 20:30
2019-03-31T18:00:00+00:00
2019-03-31T20:30:00+00:00
Contact:
Black & Pink Iceland
Letter Writing to Trans (and Other) Prisoners 2: Transgender Day of Visibility

This is an independently organised event.

After a year, we are meeting for another letter-writing evening. Carrying on the tradition of the Anarchist Black Cross and other collectives as well as celebrating the Transgender Day of Visibility, we will meet and spend the evening in solidarity writing to trans prisoners. We will write to Chelsea Manning, Kanautica Brown, Marius Mason and others.

We focus especially on reaching trans prisoners as they are not only oppressed by the prison–industrial complex, but in addition also face omnipresent transphobia, transmisogyny, physical and sexual violence, frequent prolonged solitary confinement, and denied access to HRT.

At the same time you are absolutely welcome to use the space and time to write to people of your choice. It would be especially good if you have contact information for people in prison here in Iceland. You could for example write to Nara Walker, a woman imprisoned for 3 months for defending herself against her abusive partner (https://grapevine.is/news/2019/02/20/video-nara-walker-beings-prison-sentence-petition-for-pardon-surpasses-17000-signatures/). 

We will provide a short list of names and addresses (independent research is welcome!), guidelines on how to write to prisoners, envelopes, and a limited number of stamps. Bringing stamps and/or donating towards their cost is very welcome, as well as bringing pens and paper.

A short intro about a few well-known cases of trans prisoners and the situation in general will take place in the first 15-20 minutes. There might be a movie screening (TBA) as well.

This is a trans-focused event: everyone is welcome to attend, but please be aware of your behaviour and make sure you are not assuming anyone’s gender or pronouns and so are not reinforcing the casual transphobia around us.

Name/pronoun tags will be available.

 

Accessibility:

The building is currently not wheelchair accessible, unfortunately, but it is our top priority to make it accessible as soon as possible.

There is a step before the garden gate and then 5 steps leading to the main entrance, each 17 cm high, door widths in the building vary between 50 cm (upstairs washroom door) and 80 cm (entrance door), and the washrooms are so far only on the upper floor and in the basement. The door to the meeting room is 75 cm wide (as most other doors in the building).

The event takes place on the ground floor. Both washrooms in the building are gender neutral.

Photo credit: radical queers in Minneapolis