Support Political Prisoners of all kinds and help fund our Memorial Garden project at the same time! The 23rd edition of “Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar” is a must-have for supporters of political prisoners and advocates against mass incarceration. This annual publication combines 12 inspiring essays and beautiful artworks, marking significant radical dates and providing space for personal planning.
On July 6th, 2023, P4W Memorial Collective community members gathered for “The Art of Survival: A P4W Memorial Collective Exhibition” opening event
Below you will find Artist Statements as well as Artwork Information. “The Art of Survival: A Prison for Women Memorial Collective Exhibition” was on view at the Kingston PumpHouse Museum from July 4 to September 2, 2023.
“The Art of Survival: A P4W Memorial Collective Exhibition” features work by artists Anonymous #1, Anonymous #2, Anonymous #3, Anonymous #4, Anonymous #5, Robyn Boersma Balfour, Danielle Betteridge, Audrey Bignose, Adele Breese, Chelsey Cook, Georgia Davis, Joint Effort, Heather Evans, Gayle K. Horii, Dr. Ludmila Ilina, Robyn Kina, Deeandra Papaquash, Cathee Porter, The Circle Project, Tightwire, Jackie Traverse, Georgia Ward, Walls to Bridges Collective, Natasha Warren, Walls to Bridges Class – Anonymous #6
The Kingston Prison for Women (or P4W) was a place of punishment, resistance, and resilience for over sixty years, and it continues to be a place where women gather to mourn, heal, and organize for social change.
In June of 2023, Senator Kim Pate visited the Prison for Women (P4W) at 40 Sir John A. Macdonald Blvd., Kingston with her students. A longtime advocate of decarceration and abolition, Senator Pate was instrumental in bringing attention to human rights violations inside P4W, as well as the collective efforts towards the institutions closure in 2000. Images provided by the Office of Senator Kim Pate, 2023.
We envision a world that does not require punitive systems of surveillance and social control to address harm but is instead building real safety and belonging through community-building efforts aimed at equity, diversity, and inclusion where everyone has access to the necessities of life and meaningful opportunities in society.
The Prison for Women Memorial Collective (P4WMC) was first inspired by a group of women, who had either done time or who had been volunteers at the Prison for Women (P4W), after attending the first public Healing Circle organized by the Kingston Elizabeth Fry Society and the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) at the now-closed P4W in the summer of 2015. At the time we believed it was the last Healing Circle that would ever happen there since the prison had been sold to Queen’s University in 2007 from the federal government…
Every year on August 10th since P4W’s closure in the year 2000, a group of women who were in prison there have gathered on these grounds to hold a healing circle in honour of the sisters they lost inside.
The P4W Memorial Collective is a group of women ex-prisoners from the Prison for Women (P4W) who are working towards the creation of a permanent memorial garden and community space on the grounds of P4W, in Katarokwi/Kingston, Ontario.
Through our work we honour the women who lost their lives in P4W, and uplift the stories of those women who survived.
