read about the show in ROC Wisconsin’s December 2018 newsletter
Like an Animal in a Cage is a staged reading of written correspondences from people either currently held in solitary confinement and first-person testimonials of those who have survived it. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections routinely subjects incarcerated people to months and years of extreme isolation in solitary confinement. Locked-down and alone for twenty three hours every day, their one hour of daily “recreation” takes place in an empty pen that resembles a dog pen. Many never get the opportunity to leave their cells or have any meaningful human contact. People emerge from these experiences deeply traumatized and damaged. In the hour-long performance at Plymouth UCC Church in Milwaukee, survivors share their experiences from solitary confinement and tell how it has changed them.
LAC was conceived and produced by Talib Akbar, a social justice activist, a formerly incarcerated person, who spent most of sentence in solitary. It is co-written by Talib and Tonen O’Connor. Learn more about Talib’s work in this profile for MOSES December 2018
filmed and produced by Timothy W Coursen
People Against Solitary Confinement 