Earning your diploma is a big accomplishment. Getting your degree while being incarcerated is on a whole other level. That is the story of “New Suns,” a documentary film about the second cohort of Northeastern Illinois University’s graduates from Stateville Correctional Center.
A screening of the film will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 14 at Constellation Chicago, 3111 N. Western Ave. This event is free and open to the public. RSVP is strongly recommended.
Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Educational Inquiry and Curriculum Studies Erica Meiners and Professor of English Timothy Barnett serve as the co-directors of university curriculum for Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project (PNAP). PNAP is a visual arts and education project that connects artists and scholars to incarcerated students at Stateville Correctional Center.
Barnett said the film captures the intensity of the process to graduate and the magnitude of the students' achievements, but is a reminder that earning a college degree in prison is bittersweet.
“Graduation at Stateville is full of emotion because Northeastern students there prize education and overcome extraordinary odds to earn degrees with the support of NEIU's partner in this project, the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project,” Barnett said.
In partnership with Northeatern’s University Without Walls program, PNAP offers those in the program the opportunity to take classes and earn their college degree. They can also attend workshops, participate in a policy think tank and have the opportunity to attend guest lectures. In fact, Chance the Rapper performed at their graduation ceremony last October.
“Stateville students develop critical knowledge in the University Without Walls program and work to use that knowledge toward personal and social change, but the possibilities opened up by their studies are continuously challenged by a system that insists on restricting their minds and bodies,” Barnett said.
The event will also feature a discussion between the documentary creators, students’ loved ones, PNAP members who helped plan the graduation ceremony, some words from the graduates and a short film about the celebration held the day after the graduation ceremony called, “Building Abolition Feminism Now: A Chicago PNAP Function.”
Top photo: Northeastern Illinois University alumnus Michael Bell (B.A. '22 University Without Walls), speaks at a podium during his graduation ceremony at Stateville Correctional Center in October 2022. He is surrounded by professors and guest speakers sitting on a stage with audience members facing him in the foreground. Photo courtesy of Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project.
