About the cancelation
Unfortunately, we have had to cancel this event because of the current power outages in the East Bay. As part of the UC Berkeley system, BAMPFA has been asked to curtail activities until PG&E restores power to campus, which won't be until Monday afternoon at the earliest.

Given the uncertainty of this timing, and the possibility that we still won't have power tomorrow evening, we have decided to cancel this event preemptively to avoid confusion and inconvenience.

Artist Nigel Poor presents collaborative projects she has worked on inside San Quentin Prison, including the work currently on view at BAMPFA and the award-winning podcast Ear Hustle. Poor is joined by Michael Nelson, a former San Quentin State Prison resident whose essay about photography is included in The San Quentin Project.

In 2011, Poor’s interest in investigating the marks of existence that people leave behind led her to San Quentin, where she taught history of photography classes for the Prison University Project, an experience that changed the focus of her practice. Her award-winning work at San Quentin has been recognized by the Society for Professional Journalism and with the A Blade of Grass Fellowship. Her work has been widely exhibited nationally, and is held in collections such as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art. She is a professor of photography at California State University, Sacramento.

Michael Nelson, who was incarcerated as an adult at age fifteen, works as a case manager for a housing program serving HIV-positive homeless people and is active in restorative justice in Alameda County departments of law enforcement; he also trains service dogs.

This program is presented as part of Arts + Design Mondays @ BAMPFA.