“FROM ASHES TO BEAUTY” TELLS STORIES WE NEED TO KNOW
“FROM ASHES TO BEAUTY” TELLS STORIES WE NEED TO KNOW
By Sherry Reames
On Oct. 12, Madison’s First Congregational UCC hosted the showing of a short documentary that deserves a much wider audience than the few dozen people who showed up on that rainy evening. This locally made film, “From Ashes to Beauty: Stories after Incarceration,” is narrated in part by Deb Mejchar, whose prison experience inspired her subsequent career as a chaplain ministering to prisoners and former prisoners. The film also includes commentary from Aaron Hicks, whose lived experience informs his work as the re-entry coordinator at Nehemiah. But the heart of this film is the stories of four other Wisconsinites who went to prison in their youth and have managed since then to transform the traumas of incarceration and re-entry into something beautiful and beneficial for their communities.
MOSES members may already have at least a rough idea of two of these stories. Eugene Crisler ‘El, a former MOSES organizer, suffered as a child from his mother’s incarceration and learned how to be a good father only during his own lengthy incarceration. Eugene now works for the Urban League of Greater Madison, leading programs on fatherhood and child support for struggling young parents. Anthony Cooper, who leads Nehemiah’s Focused Interruption Team and is vice president of Nehemiah’s re-entry services, was incarcerated decades ago for just two years, but still finds that lived experience invaluable in building relationships with people currently grappling with the system.
The other two stories were brand new to me. Vicky Harrison, a member of the Menominee and Ho-Chunk nations, survived 15 years of incarceration before returning to her community, where she now coordinates youth events, tries to preserve the positive traditions of her people, and offers trauma-informed care to her employees in her work at the Menominee convention center. Antonia Drew Norton, a Milwaukee native, found her calling during incarceration as a mentor and advocate for other women and eventually created the ASHA Project to address women’s particular re-entry needs for safe housing, health care, protection from domestic violence, and mutual support.
Despite this pattern of positive outcomes, however, “From Ashes to Beauty” is not just a collection of inspiring feel-good stories. The ashes in the participants’ lives — the harsh and painful ordeals they have been through — are powerfully suggested in the film. Antonia Drew Norton describes feeling so hopeless after her release, with her record as a felon making it impossible to find a decent job, that she actually tried calling the Department of Corrections to come and take her back to prison. Several of the participants emphasize the desperation of incarcerated parents separated from their children and the heavy toll these separations inflict on the children as well.
These difficult issues were further explored after the showing by the panel discussion that included most of the film’s participants. When asked why there’s so much recidivism, participants emphasized the many ways in which the criminal-legal system makes it hard to avoid getting sent back to prison. As Deb Mejchar put it, people released on supervision aren’t actually free; they’re just transferred to “the best prison the DOC has,” expected to keep satisfying a multitude of picky rules and potentially hostile authority figures. When asked specifically how they reconnected with their children after incarceration, the participants described some wounds that have not yet healed, even decades later.
Nonetheless, the event ended on a positive note when the panelists were asked for their parting thoughts. One panelist invited audience members with lived experience to stand up and briefly describe the work they are doing as a result, and several did so. Aaron Hicks suggested that dedicated people like these, as well as those in the film, need to know that they are “jewels” and “treasures,” since their experiences have empowered them to be “change agents for our community.” Eugene Crisler ‘El suggested that we can all make a positive difference just by remembering to be kind whenever the opportunity arises. Finally, everyone present stood to applaud Jerry Hancock, a co-organizer of this event, for his decades of dedication to prison ministry. Hancock, in his turn, asked the audience, “What can you do?” and pointed out that lots of people try to make you think you should fear people in prison or people who have been there. “That’s not at all true,” he said.
Although the panel discussion was apparently not filmed, the documentary itself has been posted on YouTube, making it accessible for wide showing. I hope many MOSES members will watch it and consider sharing it with their congregations and other groups.