From Rikers Public Memory Project (RPMP)

February 2025 — Our upcoming exhibition Torture Island: Past, Present, Future in partnership with the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn brings together creative works, historical information, and real stories about Rikers Island, the active New York City jail complex in the East River. This selection of work by the Rikers Public Memory Project collects and makes the stories of Rikers Island visible to mobilize action toward repairing its generational harms and interrupting dehumanizing narratives about people harmed by Rikers. The exhibition also features works from the 2024 Narrative Change Community Fellowship, an RPMP program that directly funds and supports creative projects by people directly impacted by Rikers Island.

The exhibition runs from February 1st to March 1st, with opportunities to attend public events programs such as panels, screenings, oral history recordings, and a community healing day. See dates and details below:

• Opening Reception and Narrative Change Fellowship Presentations (Saturday, February 1st from 3-5pm)
• Screening and panel: Closing the Last Penal Colony with Edwin Santana and Freedom Agenda (Tuesday, February 4th from 6-7:30pm)
• Youth Walkthrough (Wednesday, Feb. 12th) – guided tour of the exhibit for youth and students
• Panel: Growing Up Rikers, Then and Now (Wednesday, Feb. 19th from 6-8pm)
• Oral History Day (Friday, February 28th) – opportunity for people to share their Rikers story
• Closing Healing Day for Women and Gender Expansive People (Saturday, March 1st from 2-5pm)

Register for Saturday, March 1st Event

Closing Healing Day for Women and Gender Expansive People

The Rikers Public Memory Project (RPMP) is a community-based initiative focused on documenting and addressing the historical and ongoing impacts of Rikers Island through storytelling, art-making, and oral histories.