About RAPP’s 10-Year Anniversary Gala
RAPP’s First Ever 10-Year Anniversary Gala, is a celebration and day of advocacy that honors all of RAPP’s work along with the family, comrades, and friends who stayed close to us, worked alongside us, and healed with us. This event will embrace RAPP’s history, victories, and pay homage to the leadership and community driven work of formerly incarcerated people and their families.
Join us for a cocktail reception, celebration, and ceremony to memorialize the lives of those to and after incarceration, including two of our four co-founders, Kathy Boudin and Mujahid Farid. We’ll also honor awardees making waves in the community, and celebrate 10 years of RAPP’s accomplishments.
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
6:30 PM
Threes Brewing Gowanus 333 Douglass Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11217
HOST COMMITTEE
Carol Joseph
Rachael Bedard
Jerrod McFarlane
Julia Greenburger
Susan Rosenberg
Mahan Saidi-Grant
MEET OUR AWARDEES
Common
Think Common
Academy Award, Emmy, and Grammy-winning artist, actor, bestselling author, and activist –
Common is known for transcending boundaries in every facet of his career. Yet, it’s Common’s unwavering commitment to activism that truly showcases some of his most profound contributions. Common has dedicated countless hours and has been deeply engaged in social justice and advocacy. Through the pillars of education, justice, and wellness, Common uses his platform to impact and illuminate thousands of underrepresented communities in America. From youth mentoring programs with Common Ground Foundation, to chartering Art in Motion creative arts school in his hometown of Chicago, to visiting and performing in more than 10 prisons across the country with Imagine Justice, Common is on a mission to share the power of love, redemption and hope.
On his commitment to justice, Common speaks about the need to restore human dignity and purpose for all those impacted by mass incarceration: “I’ve been in some of the darkest places I’ve ever been in my life in these prisons. I’ve met some of the most enlightened people I’ve ever met — people who have been dehumanized by a country and a system. But they see themselves differently, using their dreams to change their trajectories.”
From the Southside of Chicago to the Broadway Stage, Common remains rooted in his love for humankind and sharing his light with the world.
Cheryl Wilkins
Center for Justice at Columbia University
Cheryl Wilkins is the Co-Founder and Associate Director at Columbia University’s Center for Justice (CFJ), where her work is committed to ending the nation’s reliance on incarceration, developing new approaches to safety and justice, and participating in the national and global conversation around developing effective criminal justice policy. She directs CFJ’s Women Transcending, is the co-chair of the Women’s Community Justice Association (WCJA), advisory member of the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, and co-convener of the Justice 4 Women’s Task-Force. She is the recipient of the Brian Fischer Award, Davis Putter scholarship, the Sister Mary Nerney Visionary Award and the Citizens against Recidivism Award.
Anthony Dixon and Michelle Lewin
Parole Preparation Project
Anthony Dixon is Parole Preparation Project’s Director of Community Engagement. He is an activist, organizer, and prominent national speaker on long and life sentences. During his thirty-two years in prison, Anthony helped secure the release of people serving long sentences and developed successful anti-violence and therapeutic anti-drug programs. Today Anthony is considered a National Lawyers Guild scholar.
Michelle Lewin, Parole Preparation Project’s Executive Director, is an attorney in New York State and a graduate of CUNY School of Law. Born and raised in Atlanta, Michelle has been active in anti-incarceration work since 2005. Prior to law school, she worked for the Fortune Society in their Alternatives to Incarceration program, and as a 1L she co-founded the Parole Preparation Project of the National Lawyers Guild. She is now the Executive Director of the Project, training hundreds of volunteers and working alongside people serving life sentences in New York State prisons in their struggle for parole release. She is the co-author of “Collaborating Across the Walls: A Community Approach to Parole Justice,” which was published in 2017 in the CUNY Law Review.
CHAMPION SPONSOR:
Dr. Rachael Bedard
ADVOCACY SPONSORS:
Eve Rosahn, Esq
The Sparkplug Foundation
Families for Justice as Healing
Camilla Hammer
ORGANIZING SPONSORS:
Anastasia Chiu
Margaret Maguire
Meghan Magee
Nikhil Dharmaraj
GRASSROOTS SPONSORS:
Alan Cohen and Robert Bank
Barbara Zeller
Housing Works
The Marion W. Minton & Walter J. Minton Foundation, Inc
Diana Scholl
Issa Kohler-Hausman
Jeff Jones & Eleanor Stein
Martha Grace-Rayner
Ron Kuby and Marilyn Vasta
Diane Fujino and Matef Harmachis
The Gavin Family
Bend the Arc
Common Justice
Dr. Robert Cohen and Maddy Delone
Women & Justice Project
Phans for Racial Equity
VOCAL-NY
The Wardlaw Family Foundation
ADCO Foundation
Solidaire Network, Inc
