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In conjunction with Coby Kennedy’s Summer 2021 exhibition Kalief Browder: The Box, Pioneer Works, For Freedoms, and Negative Space presented Beyond The Box, a four-part program series that considered the realities of mass incarceration through the lens of art and activism. Over the course of four weeks, The Broadcast is releasing Beyond The Box’s accompanying video series, each paired with a newly commissioned text that further elaborates on the thematic pillars charted by For Freedoms: Awakening, Listening, Healing, and Justice. Below, for Listening, Pastor Isaac Scott speaks to the harms of incarceration and introduces works by several writers whom he’s worked with through his program The Confined Arts.
 Isaac Scott, founder of the Confined Arts, sits in his studio. "Mental health is stigmatized in this space. If I show you the scars of my incarceration, it’s only going to make you have more judgments," Isaac said. "I’m carrying two stigmas simultaneously. You feel like you have to show your best self coming home, wear these masks. You can’t show the trauma. That becomes more emotionally distressing." Art gave him a space to express his emotions.
 Pastor Isaac Scott, who founded the Confined Arts at the Columbia University Center for Justice, said the group’s work and outreach actually expanded during the pandemic since everything went virtual “It’s kind of bittersweet, but you can actually do more work when everyone is Zooming,” he said. “It was easier to reach across state lines to get to people. We’ve been able to collaborate with artists all across the country.”
OP-ED BY PASTOR ISAAC SCOTT IN COLUMBIA DAILY SPECTATOR  America is a violent, petty nation. The people of this country call for humane justice from the highest hills, but “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” is the way this nation handles its own failures. I’ve said much in the past about the hypocrisies of the current movement to abolish prisons. Until we clearly define exactly what true justice looks like for every group of people, we will continue to see people protest against systemic oppression in the form of incarceration for some people and justify state violence incarceration as a system of punishment. America’s go-to response, prison, is a violent monster without taste buds but with an inexhaustible appetite. The immediate emotional response when a person breaks the law is to seek out punitive responses to deter their behavior rather than invest resources and time into addressing the root causes of the issues that led to the crime. Moving toward and creating a more harm-reductive criminal legal system means that we must define accountability outside of the context of punishment. We live in a nation where the line between accountability and punishment is not clear, and because there is no distinction, the two concepts become one in their application.
OP-ED BY PASTOR ISAAC SCOTT IN COLUMBIA DAILY SPECTATOR  Too often, the role of strategic arts engagement as a transformative tool for social justice is overlooked and undervalued by leaders who don’t traditionally take artistic approaches to social change within their own work strategies. However, when it comes to creating more informed and culturally inclusive policies, the role of the arts in the social justice landscape cannot continue to be minimized to supplemental involvements, which only feature artistic activities as a secondary option for social engagement. Instead, art should be in every change agent’s toolbox as a means to change perception, build relationships, and foster action.
OP-ED BY PASTOR ISAAC SCOTT IN COLUMBIA DAILY SPECTATOR  It is imperative that organizations and institutions actively center the voices of people affected by the criminal legal system. Moreover, organizations should not simply ask people to share their life stories or seek to offset the organization-wide imposter syndrome, but must equally center the experiential expertise and personal knowledge of those who are called upon as sources of much needed wisdom for creating inclusive environments in policy as well as under the law for Black and Indigenous people.
You perpetuate systemic oppression through your elite standards and unrealistic expectations2/16/2021 OP-ED BY PASTOR ISAAC SCOTT IN COLUMBIA DAILY SPECTATOR  Long-standing institutions that seek to move toward social correctness in 2021 are often proud to declare that those who are closest to the issue are closest to the solution and should be driving the change. While true, in its current application, this proximity to justice and advocacy rhetoric for the oppressed manifests only in mere concept. It is nothing more than rubber-stamped language rearticulated from organization to organization that expresses understanding and empathy. The reality is that well-known organizations continue to profit from prioritized funding, accessible social resources, and supportive networks that would be more beneficial to Black and Indigenous people in communities like Harlem. These benefits should be reallocated to smaller, nontraditional community-based projects and organizations that are birthed right out of the neighborhoods they serve.
OP-ED BY PASTOR ISAAC SCOTT IN COLUMBIA DAILY SPECTATOR  I believe that combatting the stigmas associated with poverty will encourage people who did not previously use state or government supplemental nutrition programs to take advantage of the food pantry and food program resources that they may need immediately.
OP-ED BY PASTOR ISAAC SCOTT IN COLUMBIA DAILY SPECTATOR  I think it’s ignorant to believe that the deeply-rooted issues in communities of color can be solved by simply taking money from law enforcement and putting it into community resources. There are greater issues regarding cultural migration, integration, and gentrification that remain unspoken in deeply impacted communities like Harlem.
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July 2022
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