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Dia de los Muertos | Life Without Parole performance | Our Voices Within '04 | Our Voices Within '03 | Our Voices Within '02 | Protest

Our Voices Within: Healing from the Inside Out

Listen to Cheryl Sellers at Our Voices Within 2003

Listen to Marva Wallace at Our Voices Within 2003

Artwork by Andrea Mims, prisoner at the Central California Women’s Facility

On October 12, 2003, nearly 200 community members joined Free Battered Women for an inspiring and moving afternoon celebrating the release of three survivors of domestic violence from prison and supporting the healing of their sisters inside.

Survivors Marva Wallace, Susan Deering, and Cheryl Sellers each shared their amazing journeys to freedom. Friends and family members read poetry from women inside, and the audience competed for the remarkable artwork of incarcerated women in a silent auction.

Singer and song-writer FAITH NOLAN roused the crowd with songs of social justice. The dance collective DANCERS WITHOUT BORDERS amazed us with their compelling performance.

Family members and friends shared their feelings about the impact of their loved one's incarceration on their lives.

All who attended the event came away moved by the strength of currently and formerly incarcerated survivors of battering, impressed by their many talents, and committed to working for the release of those who remain inside.

Commemorative books of survivors' writing and artwork created for the event are available for $10 (+ shipping & handling) by contacting Free Battered Women.

Free Battered Women is grateful for the financial and in-kind support of the following event co-sponsors:

American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
American Friends Service Committee
Asian and Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
California Legislative Women's Caucus
California National Organization for Women
California Prison Moratorium Project
Critical Resistance
Rhonda Findling
Judy Freeman & Ellise Nicholson
Justice NOW
Legal Services for Prisoners With Children
Marjaree Mason Center
National Lawyer's Guild - San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Northern California Innocence Project
Out of Control Lesbian Committee to Support Women Political Prisoners
Purple Berets
San Francisco Women's Building

Event Endorsers:
La Casa de las Madres
Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
Socialist Action.