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The Visiting Room Project in Atlanta
June 24 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Join the Southern Center for Human Rights as we host The Visiting Room Project in Atlanta.
The Visiting Room Project is a digital experience that invites the public to sit face-to-face with people serving life without the possibility of parole to hear them tell their stories, in their own words. More than five years in the making, the site is the only collection of its kind, containing over 100 filmed interviews with people currently serving life without parole. The interviews were filmed at Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which is, in many ways, the epicenter of life without parole sentences worldwide. As of 2022, more than 55,000 Americans are living in prisons serving life without parole, their lives largely hidden from public view.
Marcus Kondkar and Calvin Duncan created The Visiting Room Project. Marcus is chair of the sociology department at Loyola University New Orleans, where he researches incarceration and sentencing patterns. Calvin is an expert in post-conviction law. After being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life without parole, he served 28½ years in Louisiana prisons before winning his freedom in 2011. Originally, Marcus and Calvin gathered information on life sentences for an academic audience, but, due to their shared belief that the public needs to hear directly from people who had served decades in prison, their collaboration became The Visiting Room Project, documenting stories of growth behind prison walls. Arthur Carter, who has served more than 30 years of a life sentence, captured the meaning of The Visiting Room Project during his interview, stating, “If I have to die here, I appreciate this opportunity to be able to let my voice be heard.”
The event will include a screening of some of the stories from The Visiting Room Project as well as a discussion featuring SCHR clients who have participated in the project and have since been released. This event is hosted in partnership with the Auburn Avenue Research Library.
