FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 18, 2018
Contact: Katie Hunter-Lowrey 504-345-4076
Sarah Holtz, 510-333-2762
Julie Connelly 310-977-5390
info@nolatoangola.org
Prison Justice Activists Bike 170 Miles To Keep Incarcerated Families Connected
Bike Ride Organized by Nola to Angola to fundraise for Cornerstone Builders’ Bus Project
WHAT: On Friday, October 19th, over 60 cyclists will gather outside the New Orleans Municipal Court in the shadow of Orleans Parish Prison to begin a bike ride of 170 miles from New Orleans through Gonzales and Baton Rouge to the Louisiana State Penitentiary. The ride, organized by Nola to Angola, raises funds for the Cornerstone Builders Bus Project, which provides free buses every month to carry family and friends to visit their loved ones in prisons around the state. This is Nola to Angola’s eighth year funding the bus project.The 2018 ride has already raised over $40,000 and donations will continue to roll in through October. With the proceeds from the fundraiser, Cornerstone will continue to expand and provide bus rides for families in other cities, as they have expanded in recent years to Shreveport, LA. Community members, advocates and elected officials are invited to attend the send off.
WHERE: Outside of the New Orleans Municipal Court at 727 S. Broad Street
WHEN: Friday October 19th, at 8 a.m.
VISUALS/AUDIO: In the shadow of Orleans Parish Prison, over 100 people, 60 cyclists along with their friends and family, come together to support incarcerated people and their families. Leaders from a variety of organizations including, Sade Dumas, Executive Director of Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition (OPPRC), Aaron Clark-Rizzio, Executive Director of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights (LCCR), Cornerstone Builders’ Bus Project’s founder, Minister Leo Jackson, and representatives from Nola to Angola, speak on the importance of connecting incarcerated people with their families and their own experiences in Louisiana’s criminal justice system. Bikers then begin their 170-mile journey from New Orleans to Angola Prison, raising funds to connect incarcerated people with their families, and raising awareness around the distance these families must travel to visit their loved ones.
WHY: The Nola to Angola Bike Ride will raise the necessary funds for the Cornerstone Builders Bus Project to carry families from across Louisiana to visit their loved ones in prison. “The Cornerstone Builders’ Bus Project provides a desperately needed service that keeps families connected across great distances and despite the barriers of incarceration.” explains Minister Leo Jackson of Cornerstone Builders Bus Project, “The more we can keep the family intact, the more we can affect positive change. We want to keep lines of communication open between prisoners and their families.” To ensure this service continues and expands, Nola to Angola collectively organizes alongside communities of people dedicated to improving the lives of incarcerated people, from allies to formerly incarcerated people and their families, to fundraise and raise awareness around the oppressive isolation and separation from their families that incarcerated people endure. Nola to Angola also educates people about the ways in which mass incarceration works in tandem with other systems of oppression, such as poverty and white supremacy, to disproportionately harm members of our communities.
###
To donate to the Cornerstone Builders Bus Project or to learn more about the ride, please
visit www.nolatoangola.org.
NOLA to Angola is a long-distance, solidarity bike ride established in 2011 to raise funds for the Cornerstone Builders‘ Bus Project. We envision a world in which families and communities are not divided by systems of incarceration and in which we all work collectively to fight mass incarceration, and other interconnected systems of oppression, to create a just world for everyone.
Cornerstone Builders’ Bus Project provides a free monthly bus service for New Orleanians who have loved ones in five Louisiana detention facilities.