An Oral History of Incarcerated People’s Fight for the Right to Vote in Massachusetts
In 2018, elly kalfus produced an audio documentary on incarcerated people’s fight for the right to vote in Massachusetts over the past 50 years, in completion of her Oral History Master of Arts degree from Columbia University. This project was completed with the generous support of currently and formerly incarcerated activists and allies, who chose to explore and share their nuanced and complex relationships with voting.
Combining clips from original oral history interviews conducted with activists who played pivotal roles in the fight for incarcerated people’s power; written history collected from local and national newspaper archives; and an intellectual framework informed by currently incarcerated collaborators, Ballots Over Bars: The Fight for a Voice is an attempt to document incarcerated people’s ongoing fight for the right to vote in Massachusetts and across the world, and to particularly highlight “Prisoners as Organizers,” and agents in their own right.
Listen to the 7-track audio documentary embedded from Soundcloud, and read along with the downloadable PDF Companion Transcript attached below.
Want to hear more from Bill C, Bill S and Greg about their experience of fighting for voting rights from inside prison? Listen to these 9 clips sharing different parts of their experiences with the right to vote mediated by the carceral state.
Finally, here is a video of elly presenting her 5-minute pitch, as part of Columbia University’s Master’s SynThesis Competition 2018.
Want to get involved? Have a part of the story to share? Or thoughts for where this project can go? Leave a comment here, or e-mail elly at BallotsOverBars [@] gmail.com