Thursday, February 18 at 5:00 pm Alaska Time
This is the Kenneth Reams story. Kenneth has spent his entire adult life in solitary confinement on death row in an Arkansas prison.
This screening is a fundraiser to benefit the Alaska Peace Center, the NAACP Greater Fairbanks Branch, and the “Who Decides, Inc.” nonprofit (which uses art to educate society about the practice and history of capital punishment in America). The screening will take place over Zoom, with access via tickets coordinated by Eventbrite. Tickets are by donation: $20 suggested, $1 minimum.
Kenneth was 18 when he and a friend decided to rob a random person at an ATM machine to get enough money for his friend to buy a cap and gown for his high school graduation. Something went wrong; his friend who was holding the only gun, panicked and pulled the trigger. The friend accepted a plea deal for life without parole. Kenneth refused to accept the plea deal, thinking that a jury would give him a lighter sentence because of his lesser involvement. There were many irregularities in the trial and the end result was a death sentence (eventually vacated to life without parole). Find out more about Kenneth here.
This documentary of his life by Swiss investigative reporter Anne-Frédérique Widmann has won many international awards. More information about the film, including the trailer, can be found here.
Kenneth began to create art as a means of freeing his mind, at least, from captivity and self destruction. This ultimately led to establishing a nonprofit, “Who Decides, Inc.;” a network of artists, activists and volunteers whose primary focus is to use art to educate society about the practice and history of capital punishment in America. Kenneth is a charismatic speaker as attested by the Fairbanks audience that viewed his art and conversed by telephone with him two years ago at the J.P. Jones Center. Kenneth will again call in to the audience at the end of the film screening to answer questions and perhaps to provide an opportunity to buy art from the “Who Decides, Inc.” non-profit. The Zoom meeting opens at 4:45. The program starts at 5:00 and the film itself will start at 5:15 and runs for 90 minutes. Also see the flyer.
Alaska Peace Center 