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2022-2023 PROJECTS
BRINGING HEART TO HARVARD
Claire Pryor
Advisor: Dr. Eleanor Craig
This project will bring together a small group of Harvard students in direct support of The Black Response (TBR), a Black-led Cambridge collective that is in the process of building up an alternative safety program (HEART) for Cambridge. The research group will support HEART by working with a TBR mentor to produce a public-facing report on HEART’s logistics, strategy, and values, intended for distribution around the community to spread the word about HEART.
About TBR:
The Black Response (TBR) is a Black-led group of Cambridge community members working to abolish the Cambridge Police and build up systems that actually keep us safe: in the words of The Black Response website, they are “dedicated to defunding and abolishing Cambridge Police Department, investing that money into black and brown communities in Cambridge, and uplifting black people in Cambridge.” For the past two years, TBR has been focused on visioning, developing, and implementing a Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team (HEART), an alternative public safety program with a community-response model that will respond to emergency calls to address the immediate needs of people in conflict or crisis, including those with mental illness and/or substance use disorders, without involving police.
ABOLITION EDUCATION/ACTION SERIES
Kiersten Hash and Brit Shrader
The Summer 2022 series focused on currently and formerly incarcerated individuals in Massachusetts, as well as activists and scholars. They invited these individuals to Harvard's campus to uplift the voices of incarcerated folks. The theme of the programming during Summer 2022 focused on uniting education with action. The theme of programming during the Spring 2023 semester will focus on uniting education with action.
The genesis for this approach to the work was that, in Kiersten and Brit's experience, separating education from action - especially at an institution of higher education - creates a disconnect that often stymies the creation of momentum. Students sometimes feel as though they are not sufficiently well-versed in the particulars of an issue to respond to those who witness, report on, or are otherwise tangential to an action. By integrating opportunities for action into education events, they provided a structure and environment that gave students the support they needed to confidently pressure various seats of power for the changes society needs to survive and thrive.
SCHOLARTSHIPS FOR BLACK STUDENTS IN THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE
RuQuan Brown
RuQuan will use the funding awarded by MPES to raise money for Black Youth Artists from the hood who didn't earn a college scholarship for academia or sports but still want to stay away from the dangers of the hood and live a dope life.
RuQuan's art mentor was in prison from age 16-38. Many of RuQuan's friends have been jailed or murdered. This scholARTship project, a sponsorship for college aged artists, serves as abolition since students can create and sell art instead of staying in the neighborhood and being more susceptible to imprisonment, policing, and hyper-surveillance.