Together We Rise! Together We Heal!

What: Debut of a new art installation and exhibit featuring community-created memorial quilts and sharing the history and narratives of forced sterilization in California state prisons. Survivors and advocates will speak and lunch will be served.

History: In 2013, advocates and journalists brought to light a dark secret in California state prisons: people incarcerated in women’s prisons were being sterilized without their consent. Hundreds of women — we may never know how many — were sterilized, many without their knowledge or any medical necessity. While these sterilizing procedures were ordered by prison doctors, they were performed at community and academic hospitals across the state of California. A coalition of advocates and survivors worked tirelessly to pass new legislation in 2014 aimed at ending this practice. Then, they worked for years to pass a compensation program for survivors of sterilization in both the state prison system and the 20th century eugenics program. The bill finally passed in 2020, and from 2021-2023 over 500 people applied for reparations from the state. As of today, about 120 people have received compensation from the state.

Another feature of this historic and groundbreaking bill was to memorialize the harm done by the state and educate the public on eugenics. The bill mandated the involvement and survivors and advocates, with the intent to center the needs and desires of survivors in the process. However, most felt shut out of the process; their voices left unheard. The California Coalition of Women Prisoners instead came together to create a memorial quilt. Titled, Together We Rise, Together We Heal, this series of quilts was created by survivors and advocates inside and outside of state prisons. It represents the healing that comes through community and the importance of centering survivors and communities as we repair past harms.

This event will be the debut of a brand new exhibition featuring the quilts alongside the history of forced sterilization in California and the narratives of survivors. Survivors and advocates will speak about forced sterilization, the compensation program, and the memorial quilt. Food will be served with time to mingle, ask questions, and engage with the new exhibit.