Sorrows
Isadora Duncan Dance Award nominee for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Design (Lighting)
To support prison reform and social justice, visit: sentencingproject.org
Direction & Choreography
Jo Kreiter
in collaboration with the dancers
Set Design
Lighting Design
Jack Beuttler
Costume Design
Music
Carla Kihlstedt
Kalyn Harewood
Dancers
Sonsherée Giles
MaryStarr Hope
Jhia Jackson
Megan Lowe
natalya shoaf
Razelle Swimmer
Rigging Design
Dave Freitag
Production Electrician
Stage Manager
Ariana Boostani
Production Manager
Matt Leonard
Photos by Brooke Anderson
Letter to a Prison Bed
by Tomiekia Johnson
Dear 2UP: why you gotta do me like that? You provide no privacy, I can’t even put up a sheet or curtain to block me from groggy inmates and staff stalking by. The way you position me is like when busy minded people walk by department store displays on the street. Except this is internment, the oldest American experience. The blind assassins are loud clumsy ignorant addicts and classless. Their jokes aren’t even funny. The light above my head gives me headaches. It’s brighter than the sun, perfect for the tweekers. Fractions of my skull adjust to the chaos. This is war—a combat zone. You used to provide me with more refuge, a small sense of security because prisons aint never safe. It gives an illusion of safety. But you are a lesser of evils, so I do appreciate that. You’re a trench, I a soldier. You provide loose cover. You’re lumpy, gray, flat, ugly but still here for me. You allow a spiritual beam to shine from heaven to my heart. I love that most about you. Get ready though because I am about to leave you forever.
Sincerely,
Tomiekia
