That's the title of a new book and accompanying projects from Neverland Publications. Here's the news release:
ANNOUNCING INAUGURAL PROJECT FROM NEVERLAND PUBLICATIONS
The mission of Neverland Publications is to provide a catalyst for propelling unheard voices, compelling images, and effective design to the forefront of society. Our conscious approach to publishing is to showcase culturally significant narratives that are capable of resonating at the edge of a constantly expanding audience. Currently we operate under the auspices of VII Association, a non-profit 501c3 corporation – www.viiphoto.com
The first publication, Final Words, examines the final statements of the 515 Texas Death Row inmates executed between 1982 and now. Death row inmates within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are allowed to issue a final statement before they are executed. These final statements are archived by the State of Texas and kept as part of their public records.
Documentary photographer and co-founder of Neverland Publications, Marc Asnin has compiled the final words of these executed men and women in order to share these visceral last moments with the public. He looks to both resuscitate a critical voice in the debate on Capital Punishment, and to create an infrastructure for those final words so they may speak to diverse communities across the nation.
The final reflections of these men and women exist as proof of their humanity. Their final statements provoke us to transcend our preconceptions and challenge accepted institutions. The practice of the death penalty in the U.S. is both complicated and contradictory. It is a web of inextricably linked problems—state institutionalized racism, an entrenched marginality, and the overwhelming subjectivity of our sentencing system.
The team at Neverland Publications has joined together to offer the public an expansive menu of participating programs: We have invited proof.org a non-profit media organization for social justice who has an expert group of educators and activists, to design a comprehensive and dynamic engagement campaign utilizing the Final Words as a tool for discussion and action to create a democratic and innovative grassroots engagement with the Death Penalty. To that end, we will disseminate copies of the book at no charge to public high school students in the 32 states that still deem the death penalty legal. In addition there will be a traveling exhibition that will be multidimensional including the written word, photographic material, and audio recordings that pertain to final words. And lastly there will be a symposia held at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts in association with the Institute for Global Leadership, in the autumn of 2014 with participants from the legal community; various religious communities; the media; and otherwise committed and established citizens who can speak eloquently provoking a new way of looking at this subject.
On October 6th we will start a month long crowd funding program through Indigogo to help raise the funds to bring all of the components of this project to fruition. We ask that anyone that has interest in this issue help us spread the word to raise the necessary funds and become part of the complex conversation. This is a call to action, to help raise awareness, and to help those at Neverland Publications to tell these culturally vital stories.
We invite you to go to our website which will give you an early view of the book’s layout with quotes from the book; more detail about the traveling exhibition and the distribution campaign surrounding Final Words. To date we are proud and grateful to the people that are endorsing this project.
We would be happy to take your questions and or to work with you and your colleagues if you’d like to help spread the word from October 6th through November 6th please watch the website for updates.
Related posts are in the books category index.
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