Upcoming
ASSEMBLY vol. 2
The Spark of Hudson, 502 Union Street, Hudson, NY
Friday, October 10, 6 to 7:30pm
Free and open to the public, RSVP requested
Shandaken Projects, The Spark of Hudson, and The Columbia Collective are pleased to announce ASSEMBLY vol. 2, presenting short films and stories that describe lived experiences of incarceration, and trace connections between the United States' carceral, child welfare, and public education systems.
A 45-minute film program will feature Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter’s 2022 Ain’t I a Woman, a documentary and rap video calling on reproductive justice movements to center the experiences of incarcerated women; selections from Songs, Skits, Poetry, and Prison Life, a 1974 documentary video project taped inside of Bedford Hills Women’s Correctional Facility by incarcerated individuals and edited by Ariel Dougherty; and the Hudson-area premiere of the new film Marilynn Plays Time by Maggie Hazen, presenting Marilynn Donato’s reflections on her three years of juvenile detention that reveal layered textures of girlhood, imagination, and identity.
After the films, artist Maggie Hazen will offer a slide show and presentation about her work with the Columbia Collective, a group of artists who were incarcerated together at the Columbia Secure Center, a youth prison just ten minutes outside of Hudson, NY. Then, Lukee Forbes, Executive Director of We Are Revolutionary, will share the story of litigating his own appeal from prison as a teenager, and how his incarceration led to his current work as an advocate for social justice.
Copies of Fraught Imaginaries, an adult coloring book published by Shandaken Projects and featuring artwork by Hazen and the Columbia Collective with an interview with Forbes, will be available for sale at this event.
MORE ABOUT THE FILMS:
Ain’t I a Woman by Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter (2022) 15 min
Ain’t I a Woman reanimates Sojourner Truth’s historic battle cry through the story of Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, who exposes the human rights violations of incarceration while advocating for Black women’s voices, leadership, and bodily autonomy. At once documentary and rap video, the film traces Baxter’s journey from system-impacted youth to prison abolitionist, insisting that any reproductive justice movement must center the experiences of incarcerated women.
SONGS, SKITS, POETRY AND PRISON LIFE, by the Women of Bedford Hills Correctional Facility and edited by Ariel Dougherty (1974) 16min
A 1973 video project at Bedford Hills Women's Correctional Facility, where 80 women documented their songs, poetry, skits, and grievances—later edited and shown as a rare work of women’s media from inside the system.
Marilynn Plays Time by Maggie Hazen (2025) 12min
Columbia Collective artist Marilynn Donato reflects on three pivotal years spent within five youth and juvenile detention facilities in New York State, beginning in childhood. Against the quiet gesture of applying makeup, her story emerges—braided with animation and an exchange with Hazen—revealing the layered textures of girlhood, imagination, and identity.
MORE ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS:
Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, writer, pedagogue and cultural worker based in Philadelphia PA. As a visionary thought leader creating socially conscious music, film, performance and visual art, her practice embodies resilience, care and community-centeredness while working at the intersections of reproductive justice, Black feminist thought and transformative change. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues including MoMA PS1, New York; the African American Museum of Philadelphia; Frieze LA and NY; Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia; the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Ohio; Brown University, Rhode Island; the Schomburg, New York; Yale Art Gallery, Connecticut; the National Museum of World Cultures Leiden, Netherlands; as well as a solo exhibition in 2023 at the Brooklyn Museum. Ms. Baxter is also an inaugural 2017 Right of Return fellow; a 2018 and 2019 Mural Arts Philadelphia Reimagining Reentry fellow; a 2019 Leeway Foundation Transformation awardee; a 2021 Ed Trust Justice fellow; a 2021 Frieze Impact Prize award winner; a 2022 S.O.U.R.C.E Studio Corrina Mehiel Fellow; 2022 Art 4 Justice grantee partner; 2022 Pratt Forward fellow; 2022 Artist2Artist Art Matters Foundation grantee and grantor; 2023 Soros Justice fellow and a 2024 Anonymous Was a Woman awardee.
Ariel Dougherty is an independent filmmaker with over 50 years experience as a practitioner in the feminist cultural community. Her expertise intersects at money, women's rights and feminist media. Her advocacy is grounded in women's cinematic story-telling, encouraging it unleash from patriarchal domination. Co-founder of Women Make Movies, now in its fifth decade, she has mentored hundreds of filmmakers, produced dozens of works, and directed 15 films of her own. @MediaEquity
Marilynn (she/her, b. 2004) is a visual artist from Jamestown, New York. She was first placed into the system at the age of thirteen, and remained there for about three years. She’s been to a lot of different juvenile detention facilities. The system has taught her so much, but so little at the same time. She enjoys drawing, painting, and reading, which gets her through most of her many rainy days. She aspires to help those who have gone through situations similar to her own. In 2024, Marilynn published She/Rose, her first collection of poetry, in collaboration with Border Patrol and the Columbia Collective. She is now the mother to a baby boy.
Miss Video is a USB-based video distribution network. How does she work? MV4U compiles videos from you and 9 other artists onto USBs + each contributor is mailed the USB chain letter with the batch of videos. + a physical and digital zine featuring pages from each artist! Read more at mv4u.club.
Maggie Hazen (she/her, b. 1989) is an LA and NY-based visual artist working between collage, sculpture and experimental digital media. Her work has been exhibited, screened, and performed at the Bronx Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Tolerance, CICA Museum, South Korea, Granoff Center at Brown University, Pulse Miami Beach as part of Pulse Play, The Boston Young Contemporaries exhibition, and the Center for Photography at the University of California Riverside as part of Southern California’s Pacific Standard Time; among others. Public works include Hidden in Plein Site, a billboard about carceral landscapes in the Catskill Mountains, Transmimic, a projection on the Manhattan Bridge, and Of Departed Delineations, a transformative memory commemorating the 1992 LA Riots. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at venues throughout the United States and internationally, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and Philadelphia.
Hazen has had fellowships, grants, and residencies from Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY; AIM Fellowship at the Bronx Museum, Squeaky Wheel Media Arts Center, New York State Council on the Arts/Wave Farm; Lighthouse Works Visual Artist Fellowship; Vermont Studio Center and the Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art in Switzerland; and many others. She has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, NYU, The Stevens Institute of Technology, The Shanghai Institute of Visual Art, and as part of the Bard College Clemente courses in the humanities. She is a visiting artist-in-residence at Bard College in the Studio Arts program. She has studied at Brown University, MIT, and the European Graduate School. She holds a BFA from Biola University in California and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Lukee Forbes is a community advocate whose life has been shaped by deep personal loss and hardship. After his mother was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, Lukee began skipping school and running away, a pattern that led to him being labeled a person in need of supervision. As his behavior continued, he was placed on probation, and eventually, a warrant was issued for his arrest. At just 15, he was incarcerated for his part in an assault and spent 7 years behind bars.
Coming home to the loss of both parents and experiencing homelessness, Lukee’s early struggles fueled his determination to change the system that once failed him and his community. He’s worked with organizations like VOCAL-NY and the Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition, and he co-founded We Are Revolutionary with Qubilah Sale, where he now serves as Executive Director, devoting himself to addressing the school-to-prison pipeline, ending adverse childhood experiences, and supporting those most impacted by systemic injustices.
Lukee’s journey is one of raw resilience and commitment, driving him to ensure that no young person or community member ever feels as abandoned as he once did.
The Spark of Hudson is a community hub dedicated to fostering learning, community development, and positive change. Through innovative programs, collaborative partnerships, and a commitment to developing replicable models, we strive to create sustainable solutions that address local needs while inspiring change on a broader scale. Located at 502 Union Street in Hudson, our building offers collaborative work and event spaces, a library and kitchen hub, a rooftop Sky Deck.
Our Core Initiatives
- HudsonUP – A guaranteed income pilot supporting Hudson residents with direct financial assistance.
- HudsonNEST – A communal housing program offering affordable and supportive living opportunities for students in nursing and education.
- HudsonSTEP – In partnership with the Eutopia Foundation, Columbia-Greene Community College, and Build Hudson, this transformative program provides one year of workforce training in building construction technology.
- Hudson Dots – An innovative housing initiative in Hudson that preserves, generates, and sustains high quality, affordable housing, and aims to stabilize rents, improve living conditions and create additional affordable housing units.
- Youth Apprenticeship Program– Training and support for Hudson High School students to prepare them for career pathways and long-term employment.
These initiatives are complemented by cultural events, workshops, and exhibitions that showcase local talent and bring the community together.
Shandaken Projects supports cultural advancement through public programs and artist services. These opportunities are focused on process, experimentation, and dialogue, and are aimed particularly at important but under-served individuals. Through free residency and education programs, and commissions and exhibitions, we create possibilities for cultural practitioners to forge new pathways in their work and in the world.
Background image: Still from Ain’t I a Woman by Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, 2022.