Conferences and Asian Political Prisoners

So during the past weeks, I’ve been going to conferences left and right: Critical Resistance 10: Strategizing to Abolish the Prison Industrial Complex (for me, it was just learning more about this wicked system), ESPINOS (Escuelas Si! Pintas No! – similar work, but specifically for so called at risk youth) and Words Beats Life Conference, which was an array of Hip Hop non-profits, youth agencies, etc. that came together to collaborate via Hip Hop and social change.

First of all, if you don’t know about the Watts Prophets, you need check for this brother, who did the keynote, Amde Hamilton of the Watts Prophets at www.wattsprophets.com.

Secondly, one of the workshops I attended at CR10 was on Asian Political Prisoners. Around the time I picked up Live from Death Row by Mumia Abu Jamal was the same time I picked up Prison Writings: My Life is a Sun Dance by Leonard Peltier – I’ve always wondered about Asian and Pacific Islander Political Prisoners if they existed and if so, it what capacity. Will we be on the next Hip Hop song like Mumia is? (See KRS ONE) Often, voices from Asian Political Prisoners like Eddy Zheng, who was tried as an adult for committing a home invasion robbery and kidnapping are the voices I do not hear about period.

http://www.eddyzheng.com/
http://eddyzheng.blogspot.com/

So check this out Eddy and the Asian Prisoner Support Committee put together this book: Other: an Asian & Pacific Islander Prisoners’ Anthology – it’s well written, organized and visually stunning. Contributions go to support prisoners’.

http://www.myspace.com/asianprisoners