Culture takes center stage at LA’s Justice + Art Jam
Saidah Gray, Program Coordinator
July 9, 2025
Gabriel Gonzalez with fellow ACTA Art Breaks In teaching artists open the Justice + Art Jam in Los Angeles in May 2025. Photo: S. Gray/ACTA.
On May 24, ACTA proudly joined a dynamic lineup of nonprofits and cultural workers at Freewaves’ Justice + Art Jam at Los Angeles State Historic Park in Downtown LA. The event brought together organizations committed toreentry programming (initiatives that support individuals returning to their communities after incarceration) and social justice through the arts, creating a vibrant space for connection, creativity, and community. ACTA was invited to participate because of our long-term investment in reentry work, administered as part of our Art Breaks In program, which offers culturally rooted arts programming for justice-impacted individuals across California.
Hosted by LA Freewaves and Future IDs, the day featured free performances, installations, workshops, resource-sharing, and healing spaces—all focused on the role of cultural practice in shaping a more just and compassionate Los Angeles. From record-clearing clinics—helping individuals remove eligible convictions from their records—to restorative justice circles and participatory art, the event centered the experiences of people directly impacted by incarceration and connected them with the broader public through art and advocacy.
ACTA’s Art Breaks In teaching artists take the stage at the Justice + Art Jam. Video: B. Marín/ACTA.
Eduardo Martinez playing traditional Colombian maracas at Justice + Art Jam in Los Angeles in May 2025. Photo: S. Gray/ACTA.
ACTA took the stage with an unforgettable performance, showcasing corridos (ballads), West African Mande drumming, Afro-Colombian drumming and dance, and storytelling. The performance was led by our Art Breaks In teaching artists Mary Alfaro, Eduardo Martinez, Evan Greer, Gabriel Gonzalez, Nikki Campbell, and Tamara Martinez, as well as our Program Manager Federico Zúñiga. The audience was fully immersed, responding with energy and emotion as our artists shared expressions deeply rooted in cultural identity and lived experience.
Throughout the day, guests engaged with a wide range of offerings from partner organizations working at the intersection of art and justice. API RISE hosted a “missed opportunities prom” for individuals who were incarcerated during their high school years. Project Protocol offered an anonymity booth where attendees could record personal stories about encounters with law enforcement. Public readings of letters written from inside prisons were coordinated by California Families Against Solitary Confinement, bringing forward voices often excluded from public discourse. Dancing Through Prison Walls presented performances of dances choreographed inside CRC prison, and Healing Dialogue and Action facilitated a restorative justice circle open to all. These offerings, among many others, reflected a shared commitment to creative practice as a tool for visibility, healing, and connection.
Traditional arts as restorative justice and healing from trauma
Read our workbooks developed from several years of facilitating traditional arts programming in California prisons.
ACTA was excited and honored to spend the day sharing space with guests and fellow organizations. At our table, we shared our publications featuring curriculum from our work teaching in prisons, and other programs focusing on health equity and the deep role culture bearers play in our communities. Visitors were eager for resources and to be in conversation and community with others doing work with people impacted by the justice system. We were grateful to be in dialogue with so many partners whose work in reentry, arts-in-corrections, public health, and community-building continues to deepen the impact of cultural work across California.
Being part of this gathering reaffirmed our belief in the transformative power of cultural practice. Whether through performance, dialogue, or quiet moments of exchange, we saw how traditional arts can open space for healing, belonging, and imagining what justice might look like—together.
Saidah Gray, Program Coordinator
