MILWAUKEE COMMUNITY JOURNAL FAMILYFAMILY VOL. XXXVII NO. 40 DEC. 14, 2018 50 CENTS NEWS & VIEWS ON ALL THINGS EDITIONEDITIONBULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN PERMIT 4668 RELATED TO THE FAMILY WEEKEND TIMEAlmostTIME half of U.S. WEEKEND adults know an immediate family member who spent at least a day in jail... In this Nov. 30, ...while 6.5 MILLION Americans 2018 photo, actor Stephan know a close relative currently James, left, and KiKi Layne behind bars, report finds pose for a por- Article courtesy of the DailyMail trait in New York to pro- Mass incarceration in the United States is so mote their film prevalent that almost half of all American adults "If Beale street Could Talk. know a close relative who was either in jail or in prison at some point in their lives, a new study has found. FWD.us, a criminal justice re- In 'Beale form advocacy group, and Cor- nell University co-wrote a report Street,' a which found that 113 million adults in the U.S. - or 45 per cent HIS& of the adult population - have had Radiant an immediate family member locked up behind bars for at least one night. these movies emotional wars, these emotional bat- HERS The statistics show that minor- Portrait of tles, and the evolution that comes out of that." ity communities are dispropor- In "If Beale Street Could Talk," which opened Fri- tionately affected. day in limited release, Jenkins sought to capture an African Americans are 50 per Young experience of love that has seldom been seen on screen, just as it had been seldom inked when Bald- cent more likely than whites to win published his Harlem-set 1974 novel. have a family members incarcerated, according to the report. BLACK LOVE In bringing "Beale Street" to screen, little was more In total, nearly 6.5 million adults have a family member who is cur- important than finding the book's central lovers: the rently either in jail or prison. BY JAKE COYLE, via U.S. humble but resilient 19-year-old Clementine "Tish" The report also found that almost 54 per cent of incarcerated par- Rivers and Alonzo "Fonny" Hunt, the sculptor Tish ents were the primary wage earners in their household. NEWS&WORLD REPORT has known since childhood. An ‘immediate family member’ is defined in the report as a parents, "When I read a book, I don't really see faces," says child, sibling, partner, or spouse. Jenkins. "The hope was to find two young people ‘The emotional toll that it takes on families, the financial toll, it's dev- Barry Jenkins years ago went on who just seemed so young, vibrant, pure, uncor- astating and it's causing families to lose much of their income,’ said rupted by the world — who had chemistry." Carlton Miller of FWD.us. Etsy to have a James Baldwin quote Jenkins cast Fonny first, handing the role to The report found that the system of cash bail imposes hardships embroidered onto his leather phone Stephan James, the Toronto-born, up-and-coming on families who must scrounge together money that is scarce - or, for case. 24-year-old who played Jesse Owens in "Race" and those who can’t afford it, watch helplessly as their loved ones are in The line so resonated with the filmmaker John Lewis in "Selma." KiKi Layne, a 26-year-old the- jail before they are tried. ater actress who hadn't before acted in a film, landed The U.S. prison population currently stands at approximately 2.1 that it's also spoken in Spanish by a char- Tish after Jenkins flew her to New York for a chem- million, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. acter in his short film "Chlorophyl." Jenkins istry read with James. That doesn’t include about 3.7 million on probation and 840,000 on no longer has the case but when the Bald- "There was just an energy about KiKi and it's evi- parole. win line is read to him, he quickly takes up dent in the film — just a raw, pure energy," James In total, the American criminal justice system has control of the lives the reciting. says, sitting next to his co-star. "I realized her willing- of nearly 7 million people. ness to be open and to be giving with me pretty early "Love does not begin and end the way we seem to Just under half a million - 456,000 people - are held for nonviolent on. In that chemistry read it was like: I just met you think it does," he quotes. "Love is a battle, love is a drug offenses, including possession and trafficking. five minutes ago and now we need to touch faces war; love is growing up." The U.S. has more people in pre-trial detention - 465,000 in local and I'm proposing to you." That sentiment hovered over the making of Jenk- jails - than most countries have in their jails and prisons combined. They laugh, remembering how immediately "Beale ins' latest film, his lyrical, mournful portrait of a young The country with the second largest prison population in the world Street" prompted their intimacy with each other. As black love torn tragically apart: the Baldwin adapta- is China, which has 1.65 million people behind bars, according to they launched into shooting the film without the ben- tion "If Beale Street Could Talk." It was there, too, in World Prison Brief. efit of rehearsal, both actors quickly found they were the anguished journey of Chiron on Jenkins' best pic- But China’s overall population is nearly 1.4 billion, while the U.S. is forging a fictional relationship with broader meaning. ture-winning "Moonlight," a young man warped by 325 million. "We don't really see two black people portrayed as the absence of affection. In both, love is a magical, That means for every 100,000 people, the U.S. jails 655. soul mates," says Layne. "I know Barry talks about mystical force molded by the obstacles of a harsh re- China imprisons just 118 people for every 100,000. that a lot. These two people are meant to be together ality. Russia is almost as prolific a jailer as the U.S. It imprisons 615 peo- from a very, very young age and that is powerful." "I did an interview where people were saying you're "It felt like we were going to be able to do some- ple per a population of 100,000. kind of building this career as a chronicler of black thing for the first time, show people a different side ‘Look across our country, you'd see a trending pattern that lock up love. of what it means to be black or what it means to be too many folks for non-violent offenses,’ said Miller. “And I always hear that in the pejorative because I in love," says James. ‘We are sending folks back to jail for technical violations, on parole, think people's idea of love is so simple," Jenkins said Both actors differed, in ways, from Baldwin's de- on probation, and as a result, those individuals are sent back to prison on a recent November morning. "But if I go back to and they're being sent to prison for longer sentences.’ that quote, yeah, of course, because I'm making (continued on page 3) The Weekend Edition•FAMILY TIME•December 14, 2018 Page 2 NEWS & NOTES ON WHAT EVERY FAMILY NEEDSMILWAUKEE TO KNOW FAMILIES vis- ited MESSMER'S K-12 OPEN REFRIGERATOR DOOR MATERIAL...HOUSE last weekend to learn BETTY BRINN Messmer schools hold open house more about Messmer Catholic Schools. Students met teach- MUSEUM & BRINN ers, took tours of our high school campus and talked with current students about our LABS to Host STEM program, arts and ex- tracurriculars and why Mess- Winter Break fun mer makes a difference. Messmer Catholic Schools is December 21-31 now enrolling for the January The Betty Brinn Museum will host special work- semester. shops, exhibits and a New Year’s Eve party for fami- Call or email our Admissions lies during Winter Break week, when many area Office to take a tour today! students are off from school. Betty Brinn Museum is —Photo provided by Messmer located at 929 E. Wisconsin Ave. MESSMER CATHOLIC Here are a list of activities during Winter Break week, December 20- Ulice Payne and wife honored by Messmer SCHOOLS hosted its annual 31: gala event, the Community Part- Be A Maker Workshops and Maker Activities: Journal-Making nership Dinner (formerly known Workshop (children age 4 and older) as the Portraits in Leadership December 21 & 22, 12-2 p.m. Dinner), in October at the Wis- Join us for our facilitated workshop in our Be A Maker space to learn consin Club. President Jim Piatt all about journal making and paper printing. and emcee Portia Young pre- A workshop fee of $8 for members and $10 for non-members ap- sented awards to Vincent Lyles, plies. Children must be accompanied by an adult and Museum admis- Charlie Uihlein, and Ulice and sion is not included. Families can register at Carmella Payne for their leader- ship in our greater Milwaukee bbcmkids.org/exhibits/be-a-maker/ community. Guests were treated Natural Dyes Workshop (children age 4 and older) to a keynote presentation by December 26-29 from 2-4 p.m. Gale Klappa and a powerful wit- Join us in the Be A Maker space to experiment with all-natural dyes ness of a Messmer education by and make a colorful, take-home handkerchief.