Andy Thibault's Blog, page 20
April 12, 2016
April 3, 2016
Breaking the Mold w/ New #RestorativeJustice Program at University of St. Joseph, West Hartford, #CT
'I hope students gain a passion for restorative justice theory and practice through their degree at USJ.'
By Kathleen M. Mullin, J.D.
Director,
Criminal / Restorative Justice Program
WEST HARTFORD, CT -- In the past, the criminal justice system has focused almost exclusively on punishment, with incarceration heavily favored. As a result, today the US is the largest jailer of people in anywhere in the world and approximately one in four US adults has a criminal record.
Knowing we cannot and must not continue with this trend, there is now a tremendous shift towards restorative justice – nationally, regionally and locally. Restorative Justice breaks the previous mold, offering individuals an opportunity for acceptance, healing and growth.
When there is a crime, that crime causes a break in our societal fabric, the same as other disruptive behaviors like truancy, delinquency and addiction. Each of those breaks leaves those around the break harmed and hurting and leaves those who caused the break scarred, ostracized and shut out of opportunity. Restorative justice encourages an acceptance of personal responsibility by those who have caused the harm and then focuses on giving a voice to those most affected by the harm, providing acceptable punishment and implementing a community supported opportunity for restoration back to society. Determined to go beyond incarceration as punishment, restorative justice is an alternate form of justice which focuses on the full scope of harm, the needs of victims, the responsibility of offenders and the roles of community and government.
I hope students gain a passion for restorative justice theory and practice through their degree at USJ.
In this program, whether you leave here to become a nurse, a social worker, or a lawyer, I want you to take with you this burning flame for the oneness our society and a deep understanding that there is no “us” and “them.” There is only us. We must work together, particularly when there is trauma or harm to heal and restore us all.
About Professor Mullin, From the Courtroom to the Classroom
From her early days as a public defender to running her own law firm specializing in high-profile criminal cases, Kathleen Mullin, J.D., has had a passionate love affair with the law for more than 25 years.
Her experience has taken her from courtrooms to television as a legal analyst and trial commentator and to law schools teaching as an adjunct professor.
Now, Professor Mullin once again uses her legal experience to better the next generation of criminal and social justice workers as the Director of the University of Saint Joseph’s (USJ) Criminal /Restorative Justice program.
“I love to empower my students to find joy and fulfillment in their studies and to share the wisdom that I’ve gathered along my way,” says Mullin. “To me, the teacher / student relationship is symbiotic. When I’m in a classroom, I teach and I learn, every single time. It’s something that I truly enjoy and which reenergizes my creativity, my spirit for the law, and my commitment to justice for all.”
The Importance of Field Work
Through her work in this program, Professor Mullin emphasizes the importance of real-world experience for students interested in pursuing this field. Offering intern- and externship opportunities with businesses and organizations in the area, USJ’s Criminal/ Restorative Justice program focuses on offering students first-hand experience in order to discover their passions.
“I hope to plant opportunities out there and allow USJ students to step into the world and experience something that may light a fire in them,” says Professor Mullin, who discovered her passion for criminal defense work during law school in the criminal clinic program at Boston University.
Restorative Justice Debut Newsletter
Restorative Justice Curriculum Highlights
Follow Restorative Justice Twitter Feed
University of St. Joseph Home Page
Follow University of St. Joseph Twitter Feed
University of St. Joseph Facebook Page
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Cool Justice Blog
March 13, 2016
#KrisAllen Quartet #Beloved #ButtonwoodTree, #Middletown CT #Jazz
Cool Justice photo by JOHN SALATTO
#KrisAllen Quartet 3-12-16 #ButtonwoodTree, #Middletown CT: Kris Allen, alto and soprano saxophones; #FrankKozyra, tenor saxophone; #MattDwonszyk, bass; #JonathanBarber, drums. Original music from their upcoming release “Beloved” on #TruthRevolutionRecords (June 2016).
Video short
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KRIS ALLEN
BELOVED
Lowborn
Mandy Have Mercy
Lord Help My Unbelief
Flores
One For Rory
Bird Bailey
More Yeah
Hate
Beloved
Threequel
Truth Revolution Recording Collective
Jonathan Barber
Buttonwood Tree
UPCOMING, at Black Eyed Sally's
The Fix Our Eyes Suite - Jen Allen
Cool Justice Blog
March 2, 2016
Coverage via @WINYRadio & @QVCC: Spring 2016 Speaker Series: Exploring Race & Identity
27 ½ yrs
on jacked-up charge
Special thanks to QVCC President Carlee Drummer & Prof Jon Andersen and the great students & staff in Willimantic & Danielson
Race, Class, Gender and the American Justice System
WINY Radio news report
Photos via WINY Radio
BACKGROUND:
The Fire Down Below: Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System
Suggested reading
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More photos
Via QVCC Willimantic Center Coordinator Randy Sanders
more COOL JUSTICE
Cool Justice Blog
March 1, 2016
MARTIN ESPADA, LAUREN SCHMIDT READ TO SAVE THE UCONN CO-OP
MARCH 24 at 5 p.m.
at UConn Co-Op Bookstore,
1 Royce Circle, Storrs CT
Via Jon Andersen
Celebrated poet Martín Espada will read from his new book, Vivas To Those to Have Failed (Norton), praised by Junot Díaz as "Espada at his brilliant best." Espada has an ardent following for his unforgettable public readings.
Lauren Schmidt will read from her collection, Filthy Labors, forthcoming from Curbstone/Northwestern University Press, as well as from her book Two Black Eyes and a Patch of Hair Missing (Main Street Rag). Schmidt’s awards include the Vilcek Prize for Poetry.
Espada, a long-time activist, has deep roots at the UConn Co-op and in Northeastern Connecticut. He has done numerous readings at the bookstore dating back to 1990, when he was a “Curbstonista,” part of the Curbstone Press family of poets and writers. (Curbstone, formerly of Willimantic, is now an imprint of Northwestern University Press.) At the heart of this new volume is a series of poems about the death of the poet’s father, community organizer and documentary photographer Frank Espada. Other poems confront grief in the wake of the killings at Sandy Hook and police violence against people of color. Espada’s poems show us the faces of Whitman’s “numberless unknown heroes.”
Espada and Schmidt offer this reading in support of the UConn Co-op and its role in the literature and culture of the University community. Suzanne Staubach will introduce the poets and speak on the threatened closure of the bookstore by the UConn administration. Anyone with a passion for poetry and a passion for the Co-op—the kind of independent bookstore that supports poetry—is invited to attend.
About Martín Espada
Martín Espada has published almost twenty books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator. His new collection of poems from Norton is called Vivas to Those Who Have Failed (2016). Other books of poems include The Trouble Ball (2011), The Republic of Poetry (2006), Alabanza (2003), Imagine the Angels of Bread (1996) and Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover’s Hands (1990).
His many honors include the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Creeley Award, the PEN/Revson Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. The Republic of Poetry was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The title poem of his collection Alabanza, about 9/11, has been widely anthologized and performed. His book of essays, Zapata’s Disciple (1998), was banned in Tucson as part of the Mexican-American Studies Program outlawed by the state of Arizona, and will be issued in a new edition by Curbstone/Northwestern this fall. A former tenant lawyer in Greater Boston’s Latino community, Espada is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
About Lauren Schmidt
Lauren Schmidt is the author of three books: The Voodoo Doll Parade (2011), Psalms of the Dining Room (2011), a sequence of poems about her experience at a soup kitchen in Eugene, Oregon, and Two Black Eyes and a Patch of Hair Missing (2013). Her next collection, Filthy Labors, is forthcoming from Curbstone/Northwestern University Press.
Her work has appeared in such journals as The Progressive, New York Quarterly, and Rattle. Her awards include the Vilcek Prize for Poetry from the Bellevue Literary Review, the So to Speak Poetry Prize and the Neil Postman Prize for Metaphor. She received her MFA from Antioch University, serves as a Poet-a-in-the-Schools for the Paterson public school system, and teaches in the Development Studies Department at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey.
READING & BOOKSIGNING WITH RECEPTION TO FOLLOW
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Cool Justice Blog
February 19, 2016
Suggested reading for #RaceClassGenderJustice @QVCC
February 18, 2016
Join the conversation @QVCC #RaceClassGenderJustice
Facebook event page
Quinebaug Valley Community College announcement:
Bonnie Foreshaw & Andy Thibault to Launch New Speaker Series
Norwich Bulletin article notes QVCC series on social justice issues
Quinebaug Valley Community College website
QVCC Willimantic
BACKGROUND:
Clemency granted after jacked-up charges exposed
The Blue Note
Advance story, appearance at Litchfield library
Photos and podcast, Litchfield library
Hartford Public Library announcement
Video of HPL event
Tweet
more COOL JUSTICE
UPCOMING PROGRAMS @ QVCC
Daniel Silvermint, assistant professor of philosophy and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Connecticut, will discuss “The Ethics of Passing” at 11 a.m. March 9 in the QVCC Auditorium at the Danielson campus.
Cuban poet, essayist and critic Nancy Morejón will present at 6 p.m. March 30 at the Arts at the Capitol Theater, 896 Main St., Willimantic. Morejón will read selections from her acclaimed collection, “Mirar Adentro/Looking Within: Selected Poems, 1954-2000.”
The Stonewall Speakers, a group of LGBT volunteers, will conduct a panel discussion from 9 to 10:25 a.m. April 7 at the Danielson campus and from 9:30 to 11 a.m. April 22 at the Willimantic Center.
Cool Justice Blog
January 29, 2016
Foreshaw & Thibault Launch New Speaker Series @QVCC Feb. 29: Race, Class, Gender and the American Justice System... #BlackHistoryMonth
UPDATES:
College posts official announcement:
Bonnie Foreshaw & Andy Thibault to Launch New Speaker Series
Norwich Bulletin article notes QVCC series on social justice issues
“Race, Class, Gender and the American Justice System: A Conversation with Bonnie Foreshaw and Andy Thibault”
The Quinebaug Valley Community College Cultural Programming Committee and the Office of the President will host “Race, Class, Gender and the American Justice System: A Personal Journey with Bonnie Foreshaw and Andy Thibault.” This will be the first event in the Conversations at QV: Identity and Race Speaker Series on February 29, 2016 at two times: 9 a.m. in the QVCC Willimantic Center, 729 Main Street and at 12:30 in Room W105 at the QVCC main campus in Danielson, 742 Upper Maple Street. Both presentations are free and open to the public.
[Additional programs in the Identity and Race Speaker Series listed at the bottom of this post]
For more information please contact Professor of English Jon Andersen jandersen@qvcc.commnet.edu (860) 932-4054) or Associate Director of Career Services Katie Gregory cgregory@qvcc.edu (860) 932-4089.
Cool Justice Editor’s Note: WINY Radio of Putnam previewed these upcoming appearances during a two-hour call-in show on Feb. 3 as part of the station’s Black History Month programming. [Sorry, no podcast available]. Special thanks to WINY’s Gary Osbrey, Kerensa Konesni Hammerschlag and Kerri Price for their hospitality and their smooth and professional community service-based operation.
Writing helped her survive prison:
Race & class kept her there twice as long
WINY Radio previewed upcoming appearances by more COOL JUSTICE author Andy Thibault and fellow writer Bonnie Foreshaw at Quinebaug Valley Community College.
The station broadcasts from Putnam at 1350 am and offers live streaming at its website, http://www.winyradio.com/streaming/. Thibault appeared on “The Talk Show with Bob Young” on Wednesday, Feb. 3, at 9 a.m. The live show accepts listener’s phone calls. Call 860-928-1350 or 800-246-WINY.
UPDATE: News Director Kerensa Konesni Hammerschlag hosted as attorney Bob Young was scheduled to be in court.
Foreshaw, a contributor to the acclaimed prison journals “Couldn’t Keep It To Myself” and “I’ll Fly Away,” has begun work on a memoir. Thibault’s second collection of columns — more COOL JUSTICE (http://morecooljustice.com/) — leads off with the story of Bonnie Foreshaw, who served more than 27 years on a charge of premeditated murder of a woman she had never met. Foreshaw was granted a clemency hearing and ultimately freed after Digital First Media published a memo known as The-Blue-Note by former public defender Jon Blue – now a Superior Court judge who presided over the Cheshire murder cases. Blue and others argued the proper charge for the accidental shooting should have been manslaughter.
The memo was made public in a Cool Justice column published in May 2013 by the New Haven Register, The Register Citizen of Torrington, The Middletown Press and Litchfield County Times. Foreshaw was granted clemency six months later after the state reversed a decision denying her a hearing.
Foreshaw and Thibault will present to classes and take question at QVCC’s Willimantic and Danielson campuses on Feb. 29. Their topic is “Race & Class in the Justice System.” QVCC poet and Professor Jon Andersen is the host. The public is invited.
Foreshaw will also talk about her struggles and growth as a writer via the Wally Lamb jailhouse writing workshops. Lamb, the New York Times best-selling novelist, edited “Couldn’t Keep It To Myself” and “I’ll Fly Away.”
In the fall of 2015, Thibault appeared with Foreshaw at libraries in Litchfield and Hartford to discuss her story and the post prison experience vis a vis Second Chance Society.
Professor Andersen said the Feb. 29 events will be sponsored by the QVCC Cultural Programming Committee and the Office of the President, and will be a part of a series of events this semester: Conversations at QV: Identity and Race.
Also, the events, taking place right at the end of Black History Month and the beginning of Women's History Month highlight the intersectionality of identities and the struggle for full equality.
WINY Radio
Quinebaug Valley Community College
QVCC Willimantic
BACKGROUND:
Clemency granted after jacked-up charges exposed
The Blue Note
Advance story, appearance at Litchfield library
Photos and podcast, Litchfield library
Hartford Public Library announcement
Video of HPL event
Tweet
more COOL JUSTICE
UPCOMING PROGRAMS @ QVCC
Daniel Silvermint, assistant professor of philosophy and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Connecticut, will discuss “The Ethics of Passing” at 11 a.m. March 9 in the QVCC Auditorium at the Danielson campus.
Cuban poet, essayist and critic Nancy Morejón will present at 6 p.m. March 30 at the Arts at the Capitol Theater, 896 Main St., Willimantic. Morejón will read selections from her acclaimed collection, “Mirar Adentro/Looking Within: Selected Poems, 1954-2000.”
The Stonewall Speakers, a group of LGBT volunteers, will conduct a panel discussion from 9 to 10:25 a.m. April 7 at the Danielson campus and from 9:30 to 11 a.m. April 22 at the Willimantic Center.
Cool Justice Blog
Details, Foreshaw & Thibault @QVCC Feb. 29: Race, Class, Gender and the American Justice System... #BlackHistoryMonth
“Race, Class, Gender and the American Justice System: A Conversation with Bonnie Foreshaw and Andy Thibault”
The Quinebaug Valley Community College Cultural Programming Committee and the Office of the President will host “Race, Class, Gender and the American Justice System: A Personal Journey with Bonnie Foreshaw and Andy Thibault.” This will be the first event in the Conversations at QV: Identity and Race Speaker Series on February 29, 2016 at two times: 9 a.m. in the QVCC Willimantic Center, 729 Main Street and at 12:30 in Room W105 at the QVCC main campus in Danielson, 742 Upper Maple Street. Both presentations are free and open to the public.
[Formal announcement on the Identity and Race Speaker Series to follow]
For more information please contact Professor of English Jon Andersen jandersen@qvcc.commnet.edu (860) 932-4054) or Associate Director of Career Services Katie Gregory cgregory@qvcc.edu (860) 932-4089.
Cool Justice Editor’s Note: WINY Radio of Putnam previewed these upcoming appearances during a two-hour call-in show on Feb. 3 as part of the station’s Black History Month programming. [Sorry, no podcast available]. Special thanks to WINY’s Gary Osbrey, Kerensa Konesni Hammerschlag and Kerri Price for their hospitality and their smooth and professional community service-based operation.
Writing helped her survive prison:
Race & class kept her there twice as long
WINY Radio will preview upcoming appearances by more COOL JUSTICE author Andy Thibault and fellow writer Bonnie Foreshaw at Quinebaug Valley Community College.
The station broadcasts from Putnam at 1350 am and offers live streaming at its website, http://www.winyradio.com/streaming/. Thibault will appear on “The Talk Show with Bob Young” on Wednesday, Feb. 3, at 9 a.m. The live show accepts listener’s phone calls. Call 860-928-1350 or 800-246-WINY.
UPDATE: News Director Kerensa Konesni Hammerschlag will be hosting Wednesday as attorney Bob Young is scheduled to be in court.
Foreshaw, a contributor to the acclaimed prison journals “Couldn’t Keep It To Myself” and “I’ll Fly Away,” has begun work on a memoir. Thibault’s second collection of columns — more COOL JUSTICE (http://morecooljustice.com/) — leads off with the story of Bonnie Foreshaw, who served more than 27 years on a charge of premeditated murder of a woman she had never met. Foreshaw was granted a clemency hearing and ultimately freed after Digital First Media published a memo known as The-Blue-Note by former public defender Jon Blue – now a Superior Court judge who presided over the Cheshire murder cases. Blue and others argued the proper charge for the accidental shooting should have been manslaughter.
The memo was made public in a Cool Justice column published in May 2013 by the New Haven Register, The Register Citizen of Torrington, The Middletown Press and Litchfield County Times. Foreshaw was granted clemency six months later after the state reversed a decision denying her a hearing.
Foreshaw and Thibault will present to classes and take question at QVCC’s Willimantic and Danielson campuses on Feb. 29. Their topic is “Race & Class in the Justice System.” QVCC poet and Professor Jon Andersen is the host. The public is invited.
Foreshaw will also talk about her struggles and growth as a writer via the Wally Lamb jailhouse writing workshops. Lamb, the New York Times best-selling novelist, edited “Couldn’t Keep It To Myself” and “I’ll Fly Away.”
In the fall of 2015, Thibault appeared with Foreshaw at libraries in Litchfield and Hartford to discuss her story and the post prison experience vis a vis Second Chance Society.
Professor Andersen said the Feb. 29 events will be sponsored by the QVCC Cultural Programming Committee and the Office of the President, and will be a part of a series of events this semester: Conversations at QV: Identity and Race.
Also, the events, taking place right at the end of Black History Month and the beginning of Women's History Month highlight the intersectionality of identities and the struggle for full equality.
WINY Radio
Quinebaug Valley Community College
QVCC Willimantic
BACKGROUND:
Clemency granted after jacked-up charges exposed
The Blue Note
Advance story, appearance at Litchfield library
Photos and podcast, Litchfield library
Hartford Public Library announcement
Video of HPL event
Tweet
more COOL JUSTICE
Cool Justice Blog
. @WINYRadio to preview Foreshaw-Thibault appearances @QVCC #BlackHistoryMonth
Writing helped her survive prison:
Race & class kept her there twice as long
WINY Radio will preview upcoming appearances by more COOL JUSTICE author Andy Thibault and fellow writer Bonnie Foreshaw at Quinebaug Valley Community College.
The station broadcasts from Putnam at 1350 am and offers live streaming at its website, http://www.winyradio.com/streaming/. Thibault will appear on “The Talk Show with Bob Young” on Wednesday, Feb. 3, at 9 a.m. The live show accepts listener’s phone calls. Call 860-928-1350 or 800-246-WINY.
Foreshaw, a contributor to the acclaimed prison journals “Couldn’t Keep It To Myself” and “I’ll Fly Away,” has begun work on a memoir. Thibault’s second collection of columns — more COOL JUSTICE (http://morecooljustice.com/) — leads off with the story of Bonnie Foreshaw, who served more than 27 years on a charge of premeditated murder of a woman she had never met. Foreshaw was granted a clemency hearing and ultimately freed after Digital First Media published a memo known as The-Blue-Note by former public defender Jon Blue – now a Superior Court judge who presided over the Cheshire murder cases. Blue and others argued the proper charge for the accidental shooting should have been manslaughter.
The memo was made public in a Cool Justice column published in May 2013 by the New Haven Register, The Register Citizen of Torrington, The Middletown Press and Litchfield County Times. Foreshaw was granted clemency six months later after the state reversed a decision denying her a hearing.
Foreshaw and Thibault will present to classes and take question at QVCC’s Willimantic and Danielson campuses on Feb. 29. Their topic is “Race & Class in the Justice System.” QVCC poet and Professor Jon Andersen is the host. The public is invited.
Foreshaw will also talk about her struggles and growth as a writer via the Wally Lamb jailhouse writing workshops. Lamb, the New York Times best-selling novelist, edited “Couldn’t Keep It To Myself” and “I’ll Fly Away.”
In the fall of 2015, Thibault appeared with Foreshaw at libraries in Litchfield and Hartford to discuss her story and the post prison experience vis a vis Second Chance Society.
Professor Andersen said the Feb. 29 events will be sponsored by the QVCC Cultural Programming Committee and the Office of the President, and will be a part of a series of events this semester: Conversations at QV: Identity and Race.
Also, the events, taking place right at the end of Black History Month and the beginning of Women's History Month highlight the intersectionality of identities and the struggle for full equality.
An official announcement from the college will follow in the coming weeks.
WINY Radio
Quinebaug Valley Community College
QVCC Willimantic
BACKGROUND:
Clemency granted after jacked-up charges exposed
The Blue Note
Advance story, appearance at Litchfield library
Photos and podcast, Litchfield library
Hartford Public Library announcement
Video of HPL event
Tweet
more COOL JUSTICE
Cool Justice Blog
