Photo by Urszula Wislanka for News & Letters

San Francisco—The San Francisco Mime Troupe invited the Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Support Coalition (PBHSSC) to put up a mock Security Housing Unit (SHU) cell at their performances of “The Poor of New York,” a satire on bankers. The SHU is where prisoners are kept in perpetual solidarity confinement under conditions internationally recognized as torture. The first performance on July 4 drew a huge crowd in Dolores Park in San Francisco. PBHSSC worked for months constructing the cell. Putting up this performance art for the first anniversary of the hunger strike was like an Amish community barn raising. Many visited the mock SHU to learn about the issues in the hunger strike and the views of the prisoners as reflected in our new pamphlet.

—News & Letters Participant

New pamphlet: Pelican Bay prisoners speak