Freedom Tour For Prisoner Justice with Taina Asili & Michael Reyes

FreedomTourFreedom Tour For Prisoner Justice is a collaboration between Taina Asili and Michael Reyes, prominent artists and activists in the fight for prisoner justice, and ending mass incarceration. Recently, they released a music video, “Freedom.” It is being described as a new #BlackLivesMatter anthem, and has already received national attention in Mic.com, Okayplayer, Latina Magazine, Democracy Now!, Boing Boing, Feministing, Truth-out, Colorlines, and Everyday Feminism. Reyes and Asili seek to take their music and message on the road, booking performances and workshops at colleges, venues, and community spaces in the Northeast and Midwest during April 17 – May 3, 2016 designed to amplify local organizing around issues of prisoner justice, political imprisonment, mass incarceration, and state violence.  

Our Art

Taína Asili is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter and bandleader carrying on the tradition of her ancestors, fusing past and present struggles into one soulful and defiant voice. A powerful fusion of Afro-Latin, reggae, and rock sounds, Taína Asili y la Banda Rebelde, bring love, resistance, and ancestral remembrance to venues, festivals, conferences and political events across the globe. During Taína Asili’s 20-year career of creating music for social change she has toured the country many times, toured Europe from Ireland to Germany, and has performed in Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

Michael Reyes performs his poetry internationally and facilitates educational performances and workshops by merging creative expression and critical thought. His mission is to provide a participatory educational environment through poetry and hip-hop to address issues of social justice and cultural identity. Combined with community activism and artistic contributions in both Chicago and Detroit his work has added to the multiple layers of Chican@/Latino identity. His work has been featured on HBO, CNN, PBS, The Chicago Tribunes Hoy Noticias, Latin Nation, Chicago Public Radio, National Public Radio, Pacifica, WBAI, and Democracy Now.

Our Activism

Taina Asili, from Albany, NY and Philadelphia, PA, and Michael Reyes, Detroit, MI and Chicago, IL. both have a decades long history of working in prisoner justice, political imprisonment and mass incarceration. Taina Asili is the co-founder the New York State Prisoner Justice Network, as well as the Arts In Action Committee of Capital Area Against Mass Incarceration, and has worked for almost 20 years on the campaign to free political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Michael Reyes he has worked extensively with the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago on the campaign to free political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera. As an interdisciplinary artist and activist he has worked with both national and international prisoner justice organizers including: Dr. Cornel West, Lolita Lebron, Dolores Huerta, Oliver Stone, and Minster Louis Farrakhan.

Freedom Tour Workshop Menu

All workshops can be in presentation, discussion and/or creative art format.

reyes workshopPrisoner Justice and Ending Mass Incarceration
This workshop looks at how the movement for prisoner justice and bringing an end to mass incarceration in the US are in intimately linked with US history of slavery and white supremacy, as well as the legacy of resistance by people of color. Asili and Reyes will highlight important lessons from their long time work in this movement, and engage participants in strategizing for the work ahead.

Reclaim the Thunder: Songs For Social Change
Asili and Reyes will share methods they have gathered from their long history writing poems and songs that seek to reclaim power, break barriers inspire, and unite. The workshop begins by looking at historical and contemporary examples of social change songs and songwriters. They will then guide participants in a hands-on songwriting exercise, first turning our ideas into lyrics, and later, bringing these words to the music.

Reclaim workshop1Organizer’s Toolbox – Arts, Activism and Community Organizing
Understand the basics to organizing around issues that are important to your student organization or department. This series includes, selecting issues that are relevant, selecting partners, identifying structures of power, identifying generative themes and finding solutions that work for your community or campus.

Freedom for US Political Prisoners
By discussing their work in the campaigns to free US political prisoners Mumia Abu Jamal and Oscar Lopez Rivera, Asili & Reyes will engage participants in a discussion about how the movement to free US political prisoners fits in with the justice movements of today.

Booking and Inquiries at info@tainaasili.com