Admission is free OR pay what you can! Additional donations to support Mud Theatre are appreciated and can be made below.

Admission is free OR pay what you can! Additional donations to support Mud Theatre are appreciated and can be made below.

• 7pm - Winning essays from the Conditions of Your Existence Writing Contest, a statewide personal essay contest for people incarcerated in Illinois, will be brought to the stage on opening night of the Resilience Arts Festival. The essays will be performed by artists, writers, and educators whose lives and work reflect a range of relationships to incarceration.
  Musical interludes will feature original music created by incarcerated artists alongside selections from playlists curated by the writers and other incarcerated contributors. The winning writers will be announced in October with the lineup of performers to follow.

A reception will follow the performances.

Thursday's programs are produced and sponsored by Beyond Prisons & Build Communities Not Prisons

Admission is free OR pay what you can! Additional donations to support Mud Theatre are appreciated and can be made below.

5:30pm - “Can’t Get Back Yesterday” is a theatrical, poetic, and musical exploration into the mental health effects that prison has on someone who has been on the inside. Written and performed by Prince Saleem Alexis.

6:30pm - “Prayers Of A Lost Dog: The Story of DMX". Writer and performer Anthony Spaulding prays, raps, tells stories, and discusses issues prevalent to those incarcerated and the journey of finding their way home. The opening line says it all. “We have all wandered around like lost dogs scavenging for light, I pray you find your way home before it gets dark.”

7:30pm - "Benevolent Blues" by JES Gems encompasses the complexities of experiencing sexual assault, dealing with a pregnancy/abortion as a result of the assault, and being a criminalized survivor. JES Gems is a multi-hyphenate trio that creates mixed media performances from inside Logan Correction Center. The groups members are Jeanine Elam, Erika Ray, and Stephanie Bonds.

Admission is free OR pay what you can! Additional donations to support Mud Theatre are appreciated and can be made below.

4:00pm - "Spring is Coming: Melt ICE" is the animation project of the 2026 Liberation Lab at Walls Turned Sideways. Formerly incarcerated artist created stop-motion animations depicting ICE tactics as a means to bring further awareness to the growing problem of kidnapped people in ICE detention centers. Artists made these short animations to illustrate this problem and its connection to the overall carceral apparatus.

6:00pm - Join members of MAMAS’ Mothers of the Kidnapped collective and friends for a conversation about mothering, caregiving and resistance across prison walls. Sharing excerpts from their recently released book, Radical Mothering, they’ll discuss what mothers and caregivers who are living the violence of the PIC daily can teach us about efforts both to dismantle these systems and to collectively build the alternatives we need, so that all people can thrive with safety and dignity.

8:00pm - This performance created by Mud Theatre founding member Darrion Benson explores the emotional and systemic impact of incarceration on families. The piece is structured as a three-part show combining spoken word, rap, and piano performances to trace a community's journey from arrest to imprisonment and eventual return, featuring custom song lyrics highlighting a mother's prayers amid systemic corruption, and drives toward a concrete call to action focused on ending mandatory minimum sentencing.