Hello, and welcome back to another week of Industrious Illustrating! It’s been a few days since Sakuracon 2024 and I still feel really exhausted O(-( You can see my table setup below:
Overall Sakuracon was an expensive convention to attend, especially since I flew my usual helper to Seattle with me and paid for his expenses in addition to my own. However, I actually broke my previous earnings record (which I just made last month at Katsucon) and made a significant profit, so I’m very happy with the results! I had an amazing time meeting so many wonderful people at Sakuracon, ate so much good food, and I hope I can come back to the Pacific Northwest for more conventions either later this year or next year!
I ended up using Monday to visit the Seattle Aquarium and the International District/Chinatown before hopping on a late-night flight back to Michigan, as the prices for Easter weekend flights were more expensive than spending an extra night and day in Seattle. I picked up some limited-time collaboration merch from Animal Crossing and Honkai Impact 3rd while I was there, and I also took a bunch of reference pictures of marine life that will inspire future original pieces.
If any of you guys are interested, I’ll be selling leftovers from Sakuracon at Con Ja Nai, which is UMich’s very own annual one-day anime convention that happens in the Modern Languages Building from 12-7pm (Artist Alley closes at 6pm) on April 6th. Come say hi! 🙂
In other news, I’ve also been accepted into Anime Park (subsidized Canton IKEA trip!) on May 4th and I got off of the waitlist for Motor City Comic Con Spring (May 17-19), which I am still considering whether or not I want to accept since it overlaps with Anime Central and I’m still lowkey hoping that I can get off of the waitlist for Anime Central or grab a no-show table on the actual convention weekend. Either way, I’m looking forward to a summer of making new art, doing events, and (if it’s in the cards for me) summer classes/an internship!
As a New Yorker who has lived in New York for 7+ years, how could I not draw manhattan for my map design project? Manhattan is divided into Upper, Middle, and Lower City, and there are famous landmarks near the universities in each area. 1️⃣Manhattan Island Uptown 🏫 Schools: Columbia University, Juilliard, Cornell Medical School, Hunter University 🌟Environment: Quieter, with a strong arts scene 📍Landmarks: surrounded by Lincoln Center for the Arts, Broadway, NY Museum Met, Guggenheim, Central Park, Central Park Zoo
2️⃣Midtown Isle of Man 🏫Schools: nyc university, brooke university, new york fashion institute, new york school of visual arts, parsons school of design 🌟Environment: the busiest area, lots of entertainment, luxury buildings and cars all over the place 📍Landmarks: surrounded by the famous Times Square, Empire State Building, Koreatown, vessel, and even the Love Love Museum
3️⃣ Downtown Isle of Man 🏫Schools: pratt school of art, pace university, NYU, NYU tadon, parsons school of design 🌟Environment: busy area with many office buildings 📍Landmarks: Wall Street, soho, ice cream museum, color factory, china town, lots of good food!
A Student-made Project Centering Incarceration as Experienced by Women
“I am the voice for the voices that can’t be heard.”
Everyone on the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus knows Penny Kane.
You’d be hard pressed to find a single person on the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus who doesn’t know Penny Kane. And all those (many) same people would be able to tell you that Penny— chatty and genuine, kind and overbooked Penny Kane— is also formerly incarcerated.
Though her sentence is often considered short compared to most and less immediately “scary” as a financial crime, Penny has always made sure to put her experiences with the MDOC (Michigan Department of Corrections) out in the open, humanizing a population so often deprived of their humanity.
Penny represents the women of Huron Valley Correctional Facility, who she calls “the ugly step-children of the MDOC” for the mistreatment, dismissal, and silencing they face while incarcerated. Her writing has been monumental in sharing her story, and in her newest project, Penny has used her writing skills to bring forth stories of 25 women in condensed monologues in a new format: film.
The Monologues premiered at the 25 year anniversary of the Inside Out Prison Exchange in Philadelphia, then showed at DePaul University; I attended the screening that occurred last Thursday. Partially I attended to support Penny, but the other large part of me just wanted to attend something that centered incarcerated women, which is rare.Â
The film was produced by Journalism and Media Production studio interns with professional lighting and angles. The end result is perfect in its simplicity as it made the words spoken by the women central.
5 different readings presented in the Monologues, each read by a different formerly incarcerated woman explores themes of degradation, loss, beauty, sexuality, abuse… in short, what it really means to be a woman in prison. The film succeeds in balancing common experiences of the women interviewed and their personal experiences.
It was emotionally heavy to hear the experiences of Indigenous women in the prison system from Dakota Shananquet, who likened her deprivation of her Anishinaabe cultural practices while incarcerated to the residential schools her grandmother and mother suffered through. “The criminal justice system can be savage at times,” Dakota says in the film, tearing up at recounting her being forced to miss her own daughter’s funeral and not being able to practice her and her ancestors’ way of life even while grieving.Â
Another monologue read by Machelle Pearson described “having all her firsts” taken by prison after being incarcerated at 16. While in prison, she was raped by an officer, gave birth, and lost contact with her child quickly. Coming out of the facility at 51 years old, she was able to meet the man he’d become for the first time. She also drove for the first time.
Other topics explored in the Monologues included the dealing of period products in prisons (women were never given sufficient pads and thus they became a treasured kind of currency), making and wearing makeup and perfume in prison, meeting their intimate needs in various ways, and the support systems AKA “prison families” women form. Each story was genuine, full of life and humor. Each segment felt powerful and overwhelmingly human.
Following the film, Penny and two of the women featured in the film, Felicia Cotton and Machelle Pearson were available for questions from the crowd. It’s safe to say that the film brought up many questions and reactions from the viewers and resulted in a heathy, open conversation, including the perspective of an attendee who used to work within the justice system overseeing jails. Machelle spoke about her experience meeting her son and learning how to survive in prison after coming into it with a young, less cynical mind. Felicia was one of the women that really looked out for her, and this lead us into deeper discussion describing the prison family dynamic. All three remain involved in activism on behalf of “the women left behind”, as Machelle put it.
Q+A Portion of Monologues Screening event. Pictured here from left to right: Machelle Pearson, Penny Kane, Felicia Cotton.
Penny continues to work towards this goal, seeking to expand the film and the perspectives offered into a 45 minute documentary film. She plans to finish writing the Monologues of Women in Blue (which name she is considering changing due to some confusing it as an event centering women police officers) this Summer, and finish filming in the Fall.
After seeing the film, I pestered our Campus Video Network President, Sydney Mckinney-Williams, to slot it into the student film screening that occurred earlier today. Although I was unable to attend, I heard it was a great event and the film was received well! Penny is hoping that the next screening will be at Wayne State in the Fall. I feel it is a film that needs to be seen and appreciated by many, many people. I have faith that it will be.
The Monologues of Women in Blue: Many Women, One Voice is certain to spark empathy and respect for the incarcerated women that speak through it and create a broader community that will share hopes that other women will have to endure less at the hands of the MDOC.
“When you look at us, don’t feel sympathy; feel empathy. Look at our success.”
“You know, there’s no rhyme or reason for the way it turned out to be.”
My friends and I were talking a couple of days ago about how busy we are going to be from now up until graduation. We’ve had exams and papers due this week, and in just a few more weeks, we will have to take final exams for the last time as undergraduates. Attempting to stay on top of schoolwork and extracurriculars while also trying to fit everything else in before I leave Ann Arbor while graduation is fast approaching means that my days and weeks fill up very quickly. This week has been no exception – I am currently writing this at a time where I was supposed to be busy, but my plans got canceled at the last minute – (disappointing, but my writing, both for this blog and for a paper that I’m working on that is due on Friday, will surely benefit from it).
“I didn’t go and try to change my mind, not intentionally.”
Bittersweet is a word that has been on my mind a lot recently. That’s what led me to the song for my blog this week: “The Wire” by HAIM. While the song is about a breakup, I see parallels between the lyrics and my current situation as a senior. It’s hard to know that the end of an era is near, but it’s comforting to be reminded that I’m going to be okay regardless. While I know this to be true, with such mixed emotions in the air, I’ve felt undeniably overwhelmed this semester, and not just because I’ve been busy.
“I know it’s hard to hear me say it, but I can’t bear to stay in.”
Finishing up my undergraduate degree and moving into a new future means I have a lot to think about, a lot to worry about, and a lot to be excited about, all at once. It’s not surprising that I’ve been abnormally emotional these past few weeks. After this post, I will only have four Song Scribbles blogs left before I officially graduate, and I’m starting to feel a natural ending in sight. Although I’m going to miss writing these blogs, living among all of my friends, and taking classes in Ann Arbor, I’ve also got a promising future on the horizon that I can’t wait to experience.
“I just know, I know, I know, I know that you’re gonna be okay anyway.”
walk into the deep end, clothes on, mind off. let the water wash over you. feel the gills split the side of your neck, the rush of oxygen in your veins. countercurrent exchange. i remember that from a textbook. the diffusion of pixels across gradients, pages bursting with color, paper airplanes in mind and motion. your smile transcends eras. i look up, out, on the breeze, ashes scattered on the wind. a kite blocks the sun for a moment–the child looks up with dinnerplate eyes at a diamond eclipse, ephemeral in every sense of the wor(l)d.
I hate walking between cars.
Why? Is it because they can’t see you?
Walgreens, 5:00PM, 2/22/2024
it’s a game we used to play when the branches were frozen and winter stretched beyond our imaginations. you would crunch your way into the forest and disappear with a cry of glee. i would follow your footsteps but they marched in circles and made me dizzy. you won every time–let’s play something else, this is too easy–until i discovered that you were climbing the trees instead of braving the snow. today i look at the cream-crusted treetops and pray for a shadow–groundhog or otherwise–even though i know that it is futile, that the feet of the lantern-bearer are permanently trapped in the dark.
I got paid a hundred dollars, and the instant I had it I blew it on clothes…
Exile Vintage, 5:00PM, 2/27/2024
a walking chiropractic, turning heads and cracking necks. balance the heels, skip the flannel, crunch the numbers. he picks out a suit and she grabs a sweater off the rack. the price tag bears the date of acquisition, a reminder of the shoulders who have shrugged past wear and the fingers that have picked at the hems. blueprints of humanity can be measured, like tree rings, by counting the colors and the tears and the cigarette burns on the sleeves. lived-in is good; the scarred fox foes not get skinned. you pull your sleeves down and pass the store and i crack my neck and catch my breath against the window. i wave to the mannequin, delirious, and the mannequin waves back.
