Stories from the Inside: Incarceration & Redemption

Code: SL22202

Dates: March 25, 2025

Meets: 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM

Sessions: 1

Location: Lower Merion High School

Course Fee: $39.00

There are still openings remaining at this time.

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Join Rachel Dalinka, host of Opening Doors, a podcast focused on moving forward after incarceration and addiction and making lasting life change, for a panel discussion with three men who have very different experiences of incarceration and redemption in Pennsylvania. Suave Gonzalez was sentenced to Life Without Parole at 17. With the passage of Montgomery V. Luisiana which outlawed life sentences for juveniles, he was released from prison after serving 31 years. Since release Suave has won a Pulitzer prize for the Podcast, Suave, and a piece of his artwork will be installed in the Smithsonian this year. Jeffrey Abramowitz was a trial lawyer who made bad choices and served a 5-year sentence in the Federal Prison System. Since his release he has the Executive Director of Justice Partnerships and Executive Director of Reentry Services for JEVS Human Services, he has worked with over 5,000 individuals, spoken and lectured across the country to educators, administrators, business professionals, employers, communities, and those touched by our criminal justice system. Through the Petey Greene Program he continues to create educational opportunities for those behind bars. Kimpedro Rodgriguez, a musician and artist was incarcerated because of his involvement with the Philadelphia drug scene, he was able to overcome his addiction and has written and illustrated a book which contains a piece of music with each chapter. We will discuss the experience behind the walls and the process of reentry to society and the challenges faced. We will also explore the changes that can make the carceral system more equitable so that time served truly means time done.
Fee: $39.00
You could save $4.00 on this course by becoming a member of MLSN Membership

Lower Merion High School

315 E Montgomery Avenue
Ardmore, PA 19003
Click here to visit their site

Rachel Dalinka

Rachel A. Dalinka, Owner RAD Consulting Business, Community & Workforce Development Podcaster, Writer

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Suave Gonzalez

Suave Gonzalez is the first formerly incarcerated person in the United States to ever win a Pulitzer Prize Award and IDA International Documentary Award for his podcast "SUAVE". Through his colorfully confrontational works, Philadelphia artist and activist Suave Gonzalez proves the political power of art. Suave is a self-taught street muralist and artist, working mostly with acrylic and mixed-media. He inventively reimagines pop style portraiture and highly political work that visually speak to issues of human struggle and justice. Suave grew up in the South Bronx. While serving a Life Sentence in the sixth largest prison in America, Graterford State prison in Pennsylvania, Suave committed to becoming the voice for the voiceless-he earned a BA from Villanova University and worked as president of LACEO, a latin organization that has given away 110 scholarships funded by inmates from their own wages. In 2008 Suave created the Education Over Incarceration scholarship with his own prison wage. Suave continued this community based work after his release. He had worked as a case manager for the 25th Police District, assisting low level offenders avoid prison. He was also the Director of a resource center in the heart of North Philadelphia; In 2020 Suave painted 100 essential workers who are risking their lives to help others during the Covid pandemic. Suave was a 2014 TEDx talk presenter, a 2018 Philadelphia TEDx presenter, and a 2018 Art For Justice Reimagining Reentry Fellow. He is the creator and co-host of 'A Justice Conversation' , author of 6 novels, and had taught a watercolor course at the University of Pennsylvania off campus site 'The Center for Carceral Community'. Suave is the subject of the acclaimed podcast 'SUAVE'. Suave Gonzalez was born to inspire, and his drive to do so is boundless.

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