Please join Astraea on May 27th for Letters To CeCe, an afternoon of letter-writing to support CeCe MacDonald as she awaits sentencing. Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald is a young African American transgender woman who is charged with two counts of “second degree murder” after an incident that began when she was violently assaulted because of her gender and race.
Instead of pleading her innocence at the beginning of her trial to a sentence of 40 years in prison, CeCe accepted a plea agreement on May 2nd to a lesser charge of second-degree manslaughter to most likely serve a 41 month sentence. CeCes case is among many others that reveal the inequities within the prison industrial complex.
Astraea will attend Letters to CeCe at Radiator Gallery from 1pm to 3:30pm on Sunday, May 27th. Take part in supporting CeCe and learn how having a pen pal in prison can help make a difference. Letters to CeCe is co-sponsored by the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, Pretty Queer, and Visual AIDS. Read more about CeCe’s case from Colorlines and Pretty Queer’s article about writing to someone in prison.
Participants welcome to stay at Radiator Gallery for I am not alone in this way, a salon as part of DONT WORRY WHAT HAPPENS HAPPENS MOSTLY WITHOUT YOU. Curated by Kris Nuzzi, the exhibition explores the personal identities of artists Jeanie Choi, Camilo Godoy, Ted Kerr, James Richards, Aldrin Valdez and Sam Vernon, as they navigate through a world shaped by experiences of marginalization, silencing and difference. Whether speaking from their own life, recreating a historical memory or representing an underrepresented community, their work explores poetic and subtle ways to communicate issues of immigration, race, queerness and desire. Together they reveal the connections and differences between these loaded social issues and invite the viewer to share in their intimate experiences.
