🔊Announcement! Our podcast is now live
We are pleased to announce the release of our “Unmaking the Prison Image podcast.” “Unmaking the Prison Image” is a three-episode podcast series from Visualizing Abolition exploring the role documentary can play in imagining a world without prisons. Hosted by Pooja Rangan, author of Immediations and The Documentary Audit, and co-author with Brett Story of the forthcoming Why Look at Prisons?, the series brings together filmmakers, scholars, and system-impacted artists and organizers who are rethinking how prisons are represented, with an eye toward collective liberation.
Each week we will release a new podcast episode. Our first episode, “Film Pedagogy as Abolitionist Practice”, explores how abolitionist filmmaking can teach us to unlearn dominant ways of seeing and knowing the prison.
Unmaking the Prison Image is available to be listened to on our website at [email protected], Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud or where you listen to your podcasts!
A terrific third episode of Unmaking the Prison Image podcast now up! On the social costs of carceral entertainment, from reality TV shows filmed inside prisons to self-appointed vigilantes and “predator catchers.” Feat.
Davit Osit, director of Predators, Michelle Brown, author of numerous books on crime media and the culture of punishment, and Vidal Guzman, policy advocate and the leader of the #AIRS (Abolish Incarcerated Reality Shows) campaign. #visualizingabolition #prisonabolition #abolitionnow #unmakingtheprisonimage trainer by Jennifer Cui — subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts!
New episode of Unmaking the Prison Image now up! ** content note: contains discussion of sexual violence **
What happens when abolition meets its most common objection?
Curator and scholar Rachel Nelson, documentary scholar Laliv Melamed, and feminist filmmaker Deepa Dhanraj confront the question that often marks the limit of abolitionist imagination: “But what about the rapists and murderers?” This is a tough but riveting conversation examining how rape becomes a powerful moral and emotional boundary in debates about prisons across multiple geopolitical contexts. Trailer by Jennifer Cui. #visualizingabolition #prisonabolition #documentary #abolitionnow #unmakingtheprisonimage
📝Upcoming events in May happening at the IAS!
All events take place at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave Santa Cruz, CA 95062 unless otherwise noted.
May 22 | 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Workshop hosted by poets ronaldo V.Wilson and Terri Witek for UC Santa Cruz students, faculty, and staff. Something held by poetry is part of there are no words, but melodies and will be held in the galleries. RSVP is required and available in bio.
May 23 | 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
In conversation: Aminah Elster, Jennifer James, and Carlos Martinez on the intersection of prison abolition and healthcare. In 2025 Martinez co-edited All This Safety Is Killing Us: Health Justice Beyond Prisons, Police, and Borders to which Elster and James contributed the chapter “Medical Neglect as Carceral Violence.”
May 30 | 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Site-specific, endurance performance by Ronaldo V. Wilson and special guests as part of his exhibition, there are no words, but melodies. Drop in anytime between 12:00pm - 5:00pm.
📍Where: Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Avenue
As always, our events are free!
🗓️When: Saturday, May 16, 2:00 - 4:00 pm
Join us for the opening celebration of Visions from Within: Resilience, the second exhibition installation happening at Barrios Unidos on Saturday, May 16!
Visions From Within is a continued series of art exhibitions dedicated to uplifting and platforming artists who are currently system impacted. Celebrate artwork and poetry by incarcerated artists, offering powerful reflections on identity, hope, justice, and transformation, revealing creativity and humanity beyond prison walls.
Join us and indulge with free food and agua fresca, screen printing, button making, access to the Barrio Science Lab, and more!
📍Where: Barrios Undios, 1817 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
⏱️Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm
💵 Free event
🗓️Wednesday, May 13, 9:30am - 5:00pm
Organized by Visualizing Abolition Visiting Scholar Pooja Rangan, “Carceral Media Ecologies—and How to Break Them” is an in-person event featuring a cumulative series of conversations that examine how contemporary documentary forms participate in both the making and unmaking of carceral power.
This symposium brings together organizers, filmmakers, scholars, and artists—both with and without experiences of mass incarceration—for a daylong conversation on disrupting the carceral state and its media ecologies across multiple scales of intervention: from feminist organizing and prisoner-initiated programs to incarcerated media production, participatory defense, counterforensic art, and legal advocacy.
Speakers include: Adamu Chan, Sharon Daniel, Gina Dent, Ashraf Hamdan, Raj Jayadev, Keisha Nicole Knight, Rachel Nelson, Pooja Rangan, Gilda Sheppard, Anthony “Tony” Tafoya, and Thanh Tran.
Gilda Louise Sheppard, Director. Cahn Nguyen, Director of Photography. Since I Been Down, 2020
Please RSVP if you would like to attend this event.
📍Where: Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Avenue
⏱️Time: 9:30am - 5:00pm
📝Rsvp link in bio!
💐 Spring Exhibitions Recap
Thank you to everyone who came to our Spring opening celebration. We enjoyed introducing our three new exhibitions; Everything is Going Right by Libia Posada, Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins and Disentanglements by Gina Athena Ulysse and there are no words, but melodies by Ronaldo V. Wilson.
There will be several related events for each of these exhibitions over the coming months. Follow us to learn more.
🗓️Upcoming May events at the IAS
All events take place at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave Santa Cruz, CA 95062 unless otherwise noted.
May 1 | 5:00pm
May First Friday: Join us at the IAS and enjoy student-led tours, free snacks, and letter-writing in conversation with Libia Posada’s current exhibition, Blue Portraits.
May 2 | 2:00pm
In Conversation: Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition, a group of women and gender expansive folks who have been incarcerated and are building a movement to support each other, shift power, and lead systems and policy change.
May 7 | 6:00pm
Rasanblaj as Spirit Turn: Gina Athena Ulysse in conversation with Jennifer Gonzalez discussing Ulysse’s solo exhibition Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins & Disentanglements.
May 15 | 5:30pm
Rasanblé / Rasanblaj: Call and Response between dancer Portsha Jefferson, artistic director of Rara Tou Limen, and artist-scholar Gina Athena Ulysse.
📍Where: Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Avenue
💸Free
Take a look at what’s to come at the IAS!
Our Spring Exhibitions will include:
Everything is Going Right by Libia Posada
Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins and Disentanglements by Gina Athena Ulysse
there are no words, but melodies by Ronaldo V. Wilson
All three artists are from our Visualizing Abolition program. The Visualizing Abolition program aims at reimagining a world without prisons and any carceral systems, through art and education.
To learn more please visit our website at ias.ucsc.edu
Spring Exhibitions Celebration
🗓️ TOMORROW, April 10th, 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m
📍Institue of Arts and Sciences
100 Panetta Avenue
Santa Cruz, California 94060
🗓️April 10th, 5:00 p.m - 8:00 p.m.
Join us for the opening of our spring exhibitions this April 10th, 2026, from 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Everything is Going Right by Libia Posada
Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins and Disentanglements by Gina Athena Ulysse
there are no words, but melodies by Ronaldo V. Wilson
Curated music will be played by DJ Sabine Blaizin, and complimentary appetizers and refreshments will be provided.
To learn more about each exhibition and our upcoming events, please visit our website at ias.ucsc.eduor click on our bio
📍 Institute of Arts and Sciences
100 Panetta Avenue
Santa Cruz, California 94060
Student intern Weather and the Whale installation highlight.
Written by Lupin Amstutz
Photos by Glen Cherriton, Macquaticos and student interns, Lazaro Acosta, Ousseynou Ndoye and Tyana Tran.
Mother-Calf Humpback Whale Migrations from the Gulf of Tribugá, Colombia to Antarctica
Research conducted by Dr. Natalia Botero-Acosta, Postdoctoral Researcher, Ocean Sciences, UC Santa Cruz / General Director, Macuáticos Foundation Colombia
The Gulf of Tribugá in Colombia serves as a crucial breeding ground for humpback whales, before they migrate further south towards Antarctica to feed. However, whales in Tribugá, along with many other habitats, are threatened by commercial fishing and shipping. In 2016, Dr. Natalia Botero-Acosta and others came across a whale, trapped in a fishing net in this gulf, and spent hours working to free it. This experience, along with observations that there were fewer whales that made it to Antarctica than those that started in Tribugá, prompted Natalia and her team to tag mothers traveling with their calves heading south.
In this display, we see a painted map of South America, and the paths of three tagged mother whales: Cruz, Betty and Eva. All three started in the gulf, but the signals of two were lost near Peru. One, was confirmed to have been entangled in fishing gear and the other, although uncertain, likely faced the same fate.
The fact that two out of three whales likely experienced entanglement threats on their migratory path shows that this is a prominent issue. Eva and Betty’s loss of signal is an example of the inconsistent management of offshore waters and prioritization of economic interests over the environment.
Weather and the Whale is an exhibition featuring immersive displays of original science research and newly commissioned contemporary artworks, on view at @ucscias through March 8, 2026.
