CEPA GALLERY PRESENTS OPENING, ARTIST TALK & PANEL DISCUSSION
COMING HOME: Reentry After Incarceration
Collaborative Photo-Essay Documentary Exhibit
Errol Daniels, Photographer & Katherine Russell, Writer
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 28, 1:30 – 4:30 PM
Artist Talk: 2 PM & Panel Discussion 2:30 – 3:30 PM
Exhibition Dates: July 28 – August 31, 2018

Panel Discussion
“Community Approaches to Fostering Reentry Success”
Panel Members
Gary Damon Jr., Executive Director, CEO Buffalo
Pastor James Giles & Pastor Charles Walker, Back To Basics Outreach Ministries
Jerome Wright Returning Citizen/Moderator
(there will be several other Returning Citizens participating in the discussion)

CEPA Gallery is pleased to present COMING HOME: Reentry After Incarceration, a collaborative photo-essay documentary exhibition illuminating the challenges and insights of returning citizens. Photographer Errol Daniels and writer Katherine Russell bestow a humanization counter to criminal justice statistics, ultimately depolarizing what the public sees in those who are returning from prison. There will be a reception on Saturday, July 28 from 1:30 – 4:30 pm with an artist talk by Errol Daniels at 2 pm followed by panel discussion on the topic “Community Approaches to Fostering Reentry Success.” This event is free and open to the public.

By personalizing the stories of individuals as they re-enter society, Daniels and Russell encourage others to remove barriers that lead to recidivism and to shift the tone toward restorative, rehabilitative approaches. The images and stories highlight the vast number of barriers from housing and employment discrimination, to the little things such as learning how to use a computer or drive a car, which work in concert to prevent success after incarceration. It is critical to acknowledge the troubling state of our criminal justice system and its poor outcomes, as well as its disparate impact on people of color and the economically disadvantaged. In many respects, ordinary onlookers may see themselves in this group of returning citizens, but the subjects’ stories of overcoming their past are extraordinary. Daniels and Russell followed each of their twenty-two subjects to document their return to their communities in Western New York, Washington, D.C., and New York City from November 2016 – February 2018. The essays that accompany the images contain a range of reflections on reuniting with family, making changes inside and outside of prison, finding and retaining work, coping with traumas from childhood and imprisonment, addressing the effects of institutionalization, and shedding the stigma of being an “ex-prisoner.”