COMMUNITY
PARTNERS & COLLABORATORS
short video documentary series
We Rise's Mayra Rios is based in Bakersfield, CA,
and works with ACLU SoCal advocating for migrants held in ICE detention centers. Together, we are partnering on a video series focused on ICE as an institution and the communities affected by ICE’s practices (raids, ruses, criminalization of people of color). These short videos will: offer popular education, highlight advocacy efforts for specific individuals, lift up advocacy campaigns, local efforts, national efforts, and more.
A We Rise Production
Great American Stories: Tin Can Phone Parables
book of stories & artwork by incarcerated men
Tin Can Phone began with Armon interviewing 12 currently incarcerated men from inside Columbia River Correctional Institution for a book project called Great American Stories. The interviews were long, in-depth, and full of a unique wisdom that could only come from those who have been living within the carceral system for decades. In the process of their interviews with Armon, each participant came to understand something about themselves that they had not thought of before, leaving a singular mark on the project that could only come from their insights.
Queaz and Joseph were interviewed by Armon early on in the project, and began to hang around for other interviews. Incrementally becoming more involved with the project, the resulting conversations were unlike those they were having with the guys on their block, or anywhere in life before.
The three remained in contact with Michael as they began to parole. At the beginning of the pandemic the Tin Can Phone team started recording episodes online over Zoom. Listen to their podcast Tin Can Phone on Apple Podcasts & Spotify. Together the hosts explore the ideas, experiences, and contemporary events necessary to unpack the issue of mass incarceration in the United States, the billion-dollar prison industrial complex, and libratory ideologies. Join the Tin Can Phone Crew as they leverage the podcast platform to uplift the voices of people and families suffering from the american prison system.
We Rise Production in collaboration with Tin Can Phone
podcast mini-series
In a collective, institutional response to sexual harassment and other harms happening in Bay Area theater spaces, Cal Shakes invited Mia Mingus of the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective to lead a year-long workshop for a cohort of diverse theater makers committed to studying transformative justice practices. We Rise Production recorded 4 of the 8 workshop sessions as well as one-on-one interviews, and from this footage is co-creating a podcast to tell the story of the cohort’s journey, its learnings, mistakes, joys, and transformation.
Go to The Real Work page for podcast episodes, transcripts, information on how to suppor this project, as well as resources on transformative justice.
We Rise Production in collaboration with theater workers
Partial support for this project comes from the City of Oakland's Cultural Funding Program – Tierra Allen is the recipient of the 2021 Neighborhood Voices – Individual Artist Projects Grant – and Center for Cultural Innovation Investing in Artists Grant
We are still seeking funding for this project. If you’re called to support, please visit our Patreon or donate via Paypal.
new podcast series
In this ongoing, collaborative series of the We Rise podcast, activists and community organizers share stories about how they are fighting for their motherlands and showing up in solidarity with others in shared struggle and brilliance. The need to raise awareness about the connections between our freedom struggles and the military industrial complex is potent. We will focus on current issues in each motherland, and lift up the strategies that are working in our decolonial movements for liberation. Listeners will receive calls to action and hear sounds of freedom and resistance.
A We Rise Production
Partial support for this project comes from the East Bay
Community Foundation. We Rise is a recipient of the
2020 East Bay Artist Fund Grant.
We are still seeking funding for this project. If you’re called to support, please visit our Patreon or donate via Paypal.
new podcast series
A new podcast series in with Erika Murcia of Sanadora Práctica Creativa Ancestral Teaching about healing, sovereignty,& indigenous praxis. Co-founders Cat Petru & nicky gervacio of We Rise Production join as co-hosts and the pilot season features guests Uzo Nwakpa, Ember Phoenix, and Karina Falcon.
We Rise Production in collaboration with Erika Murcia