Voice of Witness

Your support for Voice of Witness helps share the stories of people like Lorena, whose moving narrative from Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives, can be read here. She left her home in Puebla, Mexico at the age of six, walking across the desert with her mother, stepfather, and two brothers. When asked about why she shared her story, Lorena explained:

“Being able to tell my story has provided me with a sense of existence that I didn’t have before. I’ve lived my life hoping I could inspire or motivate just one person. Having my story published has ensured that my experiences, struggles, and most importantly, victories are testaments about the power each person possesses within.”

Click here to read Lorena’s Story.

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This week, Inside This Place, Not of It editors Ayelet Waldman and Robin Levi published a powerful piece on the Daily Beast, exploring the realities behind life inside U.S. women’s prisons. “Shackles, sexual violence, humiliation.” they write, “Sounds like a medieval torture chamber, but it’s modern life for many women in prisons across America.” To read the full article, click here.

To order our latest title, Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives from Women’s Prisons, click here.

Join editor Robin Levi and legendary human rights activist Angela Davis in conversation at the Hammer Museum

Event Details:

December 1st, 7:00 pm

The Hammer Museum

10899 Wilshire, Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024

Join Robin Levi, co-editor of Inside This Place, Not of It and Human Rights Director of Justice Now in conversation with activist Angela Davis. Davis’ recent work has focused on incarceration and the criminalization of communities that are most affected by poverty and racial discrimination. Her recent books are Abolition Democracy: Beyond Incarceration, Torture and Empire and Are Prisons Obsolete? For more information on this free event, click here.

This week, the Huffington Post featured a review of our latest title Inside This Place, Not of It, edited by Ayelet Waldman and Robin Levi and created in partnership with Justice Now.

In it, author Meg Waite Clayton writes:

“These narratives are incredibly compelling. To me, they are a reminder of how thin the line is between those of us who thrive and those of us who struggle, and how much our lives can be changed as a result of bad circumstances, bad choices, or bad luck.” Click here to read the full review.

Last weekend, Ayelet Waldman and Robin Levi, editors of Inside This Place, Not of It were interviewed by bestselling author Caroline Leavitt (Pictures of You) about the origins and process of creating this groundbreaking new book. They discuss the roadblocks to conducting interviews inside prisons, the perseverance and strength of the narrators, and more.

To see why Caroline called Inside This Place, Not of It, “nothing short of extraordinary”, click here.

In light of the immigration crackdown in Alabama this fall,  Susan Straight has written an article for the Los Angeles Times, Immigration: For the sake of the children, about the sacrifices made by parents to secure better futures for their children.

“This is what I learned in Mexico: that parents will make any sacrifice for their children. Why do so many come across the border illegally? If you told me that one of my daughters would die young after stepping on a nail in a village without a doctor, or that my girls would have to leave school because they were needed to work and support the family, or that they would be in danger every day from drug …