Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Carter Brothers Backpack GiveAway
Mayor's Backpack Giveaway REGISTER HERE Thanks Janice Weaver!
This week we are hosting the National Urban League for their conference tis week. They will be hosting a back pack giveaway this Saturday
Th Mayors back to school will be held Saturday, August 5, 2023 - 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., or until supplies last Register at the below link:
https://www.houstontx.gov/
Lastly we are hosting the Mayor’s One Safe Houston Community Day that will be held at Tidwell park on August 11th.
Please find the attached flyer for One Safe Houston Community Day (if sent by email you can click on the flyer)
otherwise here is the link to register https://www.houstontx.gov/
Please feel free to share this flyer with the community. Every child must register individually. We look forward in you and the community in being a part.
As you can see we have a number of events schedule for back to school here in the Mayors office.
Sincerely,
We are encouraging groups and organizations to attend since this is the Mayors last term.
Monday, July 24, 2023
Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC) Expands Its Relationship with the Harris County Jail - thanks efamily member John Guess for sharing!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact:
Davinia Reed
713.526.1015
HMAAC Expands Its Relationship with the Harris County Jail
Through a national project to expand arts programs in correctional institutions, the Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC) has begun working with California Lawyers for the Arts (CLA) to bring arts classes to the Harris County Jail Women’s Empowerment Center. Classes began July 17, 2023. Through the “Arts in Corrections” project, CLA is adapting its successful strategy of building evidence-based demonstration projects to evaluate the benefits of arts programs in state prisons and county jails in Louisiana, New York, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas. Project funders include the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the Art for Justice Fund.
For Harris County, HMAAC Project Manager Danielle Finnerman forged a partnership with Inprint Houston, which has previous experience with arts education at the Harris County Jail, to provide both art and writing courses at the new Harris County Jail Women’s Empowerment Center. In addition to Finnerman, artist Henry Membreno and writer Mathew Weitman will provide instruction.
According to CLA Director Alma Robinson, “We were looking for a strong partner to enter into Texas, and HMAAC, of course, with its considerable community experience was an obvious choice.” HMAAC worked previously with CLA in 2018 as part of its Ford Foundation “Arts for Justice” grant, in which the Museum was one of eight venues for statewide conferences that included state representatives, state arts organizations and incarcerated prisoners support groups. HMAAC CEO John Guess, Jr. agreed this project was an easy decision. “Given that we had worked previously with CLA with national success,” he said, “that we had completed a successful mural project with the Harris County Jail earlier this year, along with the Museum’s desire to positively impact the local correctional environment, this project was a no-brainer.”
Working with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) earlier this year, HMAAC installed an indoor message mural at the County Jail’s new Women’s Empowerment Center’s in February. The Visitor Visitation Room mural, based on a work by artist Zsavon Butler, was managed by muralist and HMAAC Project Manager Danielle Finnerman. For HMAAC, the transformation of the Center’s visitation room from the previous yellow walls into a space where visitors encounter a more colorful and positive messaged environment can possibly change the nature of discussion between incarcerated women and their visitors. The Museum wants visitors, and not just the incarcerated, to see this new rehabilitation facility for its possibility to help forge better inmate futures. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office agreed, and HMAAC is proud of this noteworthy effort to create positive behaviors in a novel rehabilitation space.
HMAAC Project Manager Danielle Finnerman, who spearheaded the implementation of both projects, remains a strong voice for correctional rehabilitation; “Art is a wonderful way to build confidence in those who create it, and I’m thrilled that through CLA and HMAAC, and in partnership with Inprint, we are are able to do our part to make this exciting new Women’s Empowerment Center a rehabilitative life changer for those who are currently incarcerated.”
ABOUT THE HOUSTON MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE
The mission of HMAAC is to collect, conserve, explore, interpret, and exhibit the material and intellectual culture of Africans and African Americans in Houston, the state of Texas, the southwest and the African Diaspora for current and future generations. In fulfilling its mission, HMAAC seeks to invite and engage visitors of every race and background and to inspire children of all ages through discovery-driven learning. HMAAC is to be a museum for all people. While our focus is the African American experience, our story informs and includes not only people of color, but people of all colors. As a result, the stories and exhibitions that HMAAC will bring to Texas are about the indisputable fact that while our experience is a unique one, it has been impacted by and has impacted numerous races, genders and ethnicities. The museum continues to be a space where a multicultural conversation on race geared toward a common future takes place.
ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA LAWYERS FOR THE ARTS
California Lawyers for the Arts empowers the creative community by providing education, representation and dispute resolution. In addition, CLA aims to be a model arts organization, focusing on innovation and collaboration, while providing statewide and national leadership in the field of art/law organizations and articulating a role for the arts in community development.
ABOUT THE HARRIS COUNTY JAIL WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT CENTER
Harris County is devoting $4.7 million million in federal pandemic funds to bring supportive programming to incarcerated women in Harris County. The Women’s Empowerment Center, opened by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in February, houses minimum and medium security women who are charged with crimes like vandalism, trespassing, disorderly conduct, drug possession, non-aggravated theft. It will provide mental health support, trauma counseling, job training and substance abuse support to those housed in the Center, a subset of the larger Harris County Jail. Offering these services on a one-to-one basis is unprecedented at this scale.
ABOUT INPRINT
Inprint is a nationally recognized nonprofit literary arts organization connecting and nurturing readers and writers in Houston. Inprint House is located in the heart of Houston's Museum District, where it continues to serve the city's creative arts communities with accessible, equitable arts education, workshops, and programming. Its programs support and engage readers and writers of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.
