Oral History Archive

Interviews

as part of Free the Land! Free the People!

a study of the abolitionist pod

Creative Acts

Interview with Major Bunton

June 2023 | Inglewood, CA

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Makayla Howard (MH): What year was Creative Acts Founded? 

Major Bunton (MB): Creative started five years ago and it was about 2018. Began in 2018 by Sabra Williams. 

ali reza (ar): What inspired Sabra Williams to start this organization?

MB: For me, just understanding her passion for the work…her ideas of what she wanted to bring to the community in those spaces that she was in previously. They [weren’t] reaching out in those areas, so she wanted to broaden those areas, those ideas that she had. She decided to take a leap of faith and step out on a limb and start the process of Creative Acts and that's how the movement started. She then started bringing in those element pieces to bring it to the forefront of where we are today.

Makayla Howard (MH): What is Creative Acts Mission?

MB: We have three projects. We're a bipoc organization here in Inglewood, California. We've been here for two years now. We target those who were formerly incarcerated or who've been impacted by the streets, the gangs, whatever you name it, just those who have been marginalized. And so our main project that we really focus on is our VR program, which is our virtual reality program. We use VR to help people reimagine the reality that they may someday come home to. We take VR into the prison system and we teach them about daily experiences that we all take for granted, like going to a shopping center and using your credit card, self-checkout… like all these things that some of the guys inside are not familiar with. So what we do is we record [these experiences] on VR then we load it onto the headsets and get approval to go inside the prison system and share that work with the guys inside to bring hope. Our second program is called the Art Attack Program. Art attack is targeted towards our youth and we teach them about civic engagement, importance of mass incarceration, the importance of voting, why their voice matters, and how we can teach them that is through improv, drawing, rhythm and rhyme… all these things that we use in that space to get them to understand the importance of voting. Our third program is the DEI program. We try to teach other organizations about some of the stuff that still goes on in these hierarchy organizations that need to be torn down based on racism and things of that nature. We try to point those things out and we use art to point it out. We just don't directly go in and say, “Hey, this is what [DEI] looks like”... We try to figure out how to get them to see themselves in a different light.

ar: Describe the community in which this organization was founded? 

MB: Inglewood. For me, growing up here, there were no outlets. There were very little after school programs; sports, things of that nature. There was no way for one to express themselves, to share what they were really kind of feeling inside. I really feel like that was something that Inglewood really needed. We decided to start here (in inglewood) and create something that gives people a different understanding of self discovery, to look at themselves in a way that helps them think differently or artistic expression in another form. We decided to come here to Inglewood, California and we have gotten a lot of contracts with other organizations. So-Fi Stadium has really assisted us in tickets and things of that nature. There's other organizations here too as well,  Dreaming of Hope, I spoke about earlier, Inglewood Wrapping Arms Around The Community (I.W.A.T.C) is doing the work here in Inglewood, California. I think it just takes a collective effort with all kinds of organizations doing the work, including the work you guys do at Crenshaw Dairy [Mart].

MH: Can you share more about the coalition that you are building? 

MB: We decided to come up with this coalition.  So we got Creative Acts, they do the work inside.  We know that a lot of times when people come home they are so afraid to challenge themselves out here because they have no clue how to function in society. With I.W.A.T.C and Dreaming of Hope doing the work out here, that's why we decided to come up with wrapping creative dreams. We want this coalition to come together based on this warm handoff that we're giving each organization to help someone make that transition into an area that we bring down to recidivism for those who are going back to prison. That's the reason why we feel like - also, Dreaming of Hope and I.W.A.T.C, we all have lived experience. Everybody that's on our board, there's no one that doesn’t have [any] lived experience. We want the best of the best. We want people that really understand - the people that we're training, we're teaching, we're showing this new way of life. We want those individuals to be really relatable to those that've [been] there before. Our whole team is related around those with lived experience. We have over 260 years [of lived experience] with Creative Acts, 250 years with Dreaming of Hope, and then we have about 210 I.W.A.T.C [years] of lived experience. That's why we felt it was important to bring this coalition to a full circle.

ar: Can you share what each organization does? Specifically I.W.A.T.C and Dreaming of Hope.

MB: Our main focus is housing, so…very difficult. Some people are in prison for ten-fifteen-twenty years. They lose family members- they have nowhere to go. I felt it was important that we create some kind of housing component that, again, speaks of their transition, their needs, their wants, everything that they need at that moment.  We decided to open up two transition homes. Inglewood Wrapping Arms Around the Community. We have a total of 50 beds. We have a domestic violence housing component, and then we also have returned citizens, which those who are formerly incarcerated come to our program. We have 25 beds there. Dreaming of hope, is another partnership that we have, and they provide about 75 beds. Along with those beds we provide job readiness skills. We provide just anything that we really believe that they need in order to make that transition. Because for me, I didn't have those outlets when I came home. I came home - six months - they put me in a transition [home]. There are some things I didn't like. I really felt like I was still locked up. I couldn't go nowhere. We made some adjustments. We don't want no one to feel like they're still incarcerated. You know, they worked so hard to come  home. We don't want them to repeat or relive that. We feel like they served their time and we want to really make them feel comfortable being in our transition [home]. We really took a real good look at how we can make that transition. Those are some of the components that we have. On top of that, we have a youth program with I.W.A.T.C, and Dreaming of Hope in which we target our youth in our community. That's just a little bit about those two organizations.

MH: Are there any organizations that are doing similar work that you are in community and collaboration with here in Inglewood? 

MB: Yeah, we had an opportunity to work with Crenshaw Dairy Mart. That was really great. That was our first time getting a chance to work with that organization [Hilda L. Solis Care First Village] and it was really a great partnership. We was working with the homeless population and we were able to kind of really take what we do and take what Crenshaw Dairy Mart does, and we just merge the two together. It was a great turnaround for our residents. They really appreciate the program overall. We're actually looking forward to doing it again. Hopefully we can [start with] something moving forward. That was one of the organizations that we work with. 

ar: While modeling and creating organizations such as I.W.A.T.C and Dreaming of Hope, what other organizations were you looking for? 

MB: Once I got in this space and I started learning a lot about nonprofits and, you know, funding and going after grants and things of that nature, I started to find myself in spaces with other organizations that were doing this work. I started to learn more about, you know, what they were doing and what we were doing and to be honest with you, there were a lot of organizations I felt like they were saying one thing and they were doing another, you know. To me, that rubbed me the wrong way, you know, because I really feel like our community wants honest people in this space, you know, to do the work.

So I started to be cautious about how I come into space with other organizations, because I want to be clear that we - our intentions I.W.A.T.C and Dreaming of Hope. We're clear that we were there for our community and it wasn't about, you know, the monetary, the money and all that. You know, those things come when you're doing the work right? Because they know that you guys need this funding in order to pursue the work that you do. We started to be more cautious when we found ourselves in these spaces with other organizations. That was something clear to me that some people were saying one thing but doing another. That kind of opened up my eyes to say, be cautious how you come into space with other organizations to be sure that they're aligned with your mission, but also doing the work as well. I would say that was something that really stood out the most to me. But also, I met a lot of great organizations since I've been home,  who's really doing the work, the groundwork. A lot of us communities, you know, I think a lot of times we don't get the credit for the groundwork. We all know what the groundwork looks like. Showing up at these spaces, being present, showing the work that we do. And a lot of times it's just, you know, [organizations] across social media and [saying] this is what we are doing, this is what it “looked like”, you know, is that really really taking place? There are organizations that I could say that are really doing that work and there are some, who are out there, just kind of floating around.

MH: Can you describe the impacts the Covid 19 pandemic had on the work your organization was doing? 

MB: There was a flip side to it. There was a good side to it because when the pandemic happened, we put in a grant and we received it during that time. The flip side of that is that when we got the transition home, there were organizations that were funding our people that were staying there and that money ran out. We had to find other places to place them because we could no longer hold them in our transition [home] until we were able to find other contracts moving forward. I would say the pandemic kind of slowed that process down because no one wanted to trust third parties to pay off the rent for someone staying there. That was very difficult for our organization. We found ourselves in a pocket scrambling, trying to figure out how to bring funding for our guys. That was difficult during the pandemic.

ar: Were there any programmatic shifts at Creative Acts during the Covid 19 Pandemic, and how was it managed by Creative Acts’ re-entry program? 

MB: The way the reentry program was working was we would go to the transition [home] and we would just facilitate our youth as well as our guys that were at our transition [home]. Also, we have a program called “Life” and we use that program in prison and we have several modules that we send in to the guys - teach them about anger management, stress management, domestic violence. We have over 25 programs and we correspond back and forth and we send them their certificates. That really helped us out because they shut down all the programs inside. A lot of these guys were eager to still learn and grow. We really felt that was important, to keep that ambition, to want to change.

MH: And they shut down the program because of the pandemic? 

MB: Yeah, you know, [the] programs that were coming inside were no longer able to come back in because of the pandemic. And that took a minute. I was working inside as well.  We stopped going inside- I think it was probably about like March of 2020, and then it shut down for like eight months, nine months. We couldn't go back in. Then finally we were back in and it was different. They treated us differently, but we knew that we had a job to do. We just had to modify that and make some adjustments and that's what we did.

MH: Were you treated differently by the prison system and staff or by the program participants? 

MB: The system…Yeah, the prison system. You know, sometimes, certain institutions are different. Some welcomed us with open arms. Some was like [mmm] we don't really want you here. It's always different, you know. And I know what it looked like because I was there. Sometimes it's just their way out… to say that we don't want programs to come in right now because they feel like these individuals don't deserve it. Then we have some institutions that’ll be like “you guys are more than welcome to come here and share your program”. It varies to every institution and how their politics are but also building relationships with these wardens who are running these institutions, which is so important. That's what we've done. We've built some relationships with some of these wardens that are in a position to understand that we're just passionate about the work that we do and let's just make some modifications and let's just come back in. We follow the rules that you asked [of] us, which is to wear masks and do all of these things. So we did, and that's how we was able to kind of change that process.

ar: Did the Uprisings of 2020 affect any programmatic shifts in the organization?

MB: I believe that a lot of us wasn’t prepared for it. I think we were all just trying to figure that process out. We still wanted to do the work, a lot of organizations wanted to do the work. And it was just everyday, just going back to the drawing board, figuring out how to make those adjustments, things that will allow us to meet the criteria to go into these institutions. For us, even here, we couldn’t do no programs here because [of] the policies of the pandemic. We just had to make a lot of adjustments sitting down with our team, having board meetings, figuring out what other organizations were doing in order to change the narrative of going in and teaching programs as well as opening up our doors.

MH: Can you describe how the pandemic and Uprisings of 2020 created changes in workshops and programming? 

MB: They were in their own community dealing with the pandemic. It was totally different in our community because they were receiving their information from the news, families and friends, and we don't know what they were receiving. We had our information. We were out here, we were closer to it, but they were in this small community. When we would come in, they would ask us questions.  It was just so separated and so far apart from what we were going through and then they were going through this community that had to deal with the pandemic incarcerated. And so it was just so different. I couldn't even relate to them. Even though I had served 29 years in prison, it wasn't relatable to me because I was no longer part of that community. Even though I served 29 years, I wasn't part of that community anymore. And I didnt that experience that part of the pandemic for them, and I can tell it was very heavy. 

They were more concerned about their families, what they were going through, because the news was saying this and that - people are dying, things of that nature. I think they were really just like in this unknown space of the pandemic and not really being able to really grab it the way we were, out here in the free world. So that was something, but also they hadn't saw the outside world for like nine months. So when they saw faces that they were familiar with, they were excited. The only difference was that we had masks on. So they were excited to see us. But at the end of the day, they were still struggling with just the whole process of being in prison, worrying about their family and understanding the pandemic from what they were receiving from the news and their families [so on and] so forth. 

ar: Can you describe your experience working with the Crenshaw Dairy Mart on the abolitionist pod programming workshops at the Hilda L. Solis Care First Village?

MB: So we had to, well we had to learn how to merge in the work that we do but also continue to uplift the work that Crenshaw Dairy Mart was doing. keep up with the work that Crenshaw Dairy [Mart] was doing . And so we came in [to] that space and we talked and sat down to figure out how we can collaborate the two ideas. We decided to create a flow that brings Crenshaw Dairy [Mart] in and brings Creative Acts in and then we just made it work, right? It was difficult too, because it was still during the pandemic in some aspects, because we had to  have masks on and [in] a lot of our exercises and games. We deal with facial expressions, and so it's so hard to show those things when we really can't do that in those spaces. But again, we made it work, we figured it out. And again, it was four weeks and it was a really great turnaround. We had certificates for them, food, and we took group pictures. They were recited. I mean, just some of the inspirational affirmations that they spoke on afterwards was just touching. It was a connection that we all made in that space. And you can really see the sincerity of the people that were to be a part of the program, as well as our teaching artists that came and taught.

MH: How did Creative Acts’ programming workshops accommodate the abolitionist pod? 

MB: Yeah, there was a few areas that we had to adjust. I mean, one thing about creative acts, we come in a lot of spaces and we know that this is where you have to adjust. Like is part of what we do. Like we don't have, we have a template, but that doesn't mean that that's what we're going to go off of.

So we're always willing to make those adjustments and we've done it so many times in the past. It was just one of our areas that we were so familiar with. What stood out to me the most was the affirmations that were around the abolitionist pod. That to me was… it really touched me. The reason why it really touched me [was] because how we talk about the work that we do in that space, affirmation is very important to all of us. We need it, you know, as human beings. We got this thing called “Red Hot Share”. In Red Hot Share we open up and we use this space to get anything off our chest good or bad. What we decide to do is we decide to go in there and do it in that space. We use the affirmations on the wall to open up that dialog, into that space of what we were going through. 

We also spoke about- they don't have to use the affirmation that's on the wall, but it's just a starting point. But most of them use the affirmations that we have hanging around. That was something very good that we connected in. The beginning is always important to open up the space for people to be vulnerable and fight through the resistance of sharing and things of that [nature]. And so we always are always key about how we come into this space and open up. We practice here [at Creative Acts’], we teach about how it's important to open up and ask questions because there is trauma in a lot of people and we have to be careful how we come in [to the] space and talk to people because we have to be mindful that there could be something there. We are always being mindful of those things. 

ar: What does Creative Acts use in addition to Red Hot Share to open up the space for programming workshops?

MB: All our workshops start with Red Hot Share. Then, after, we close out with Red Hot Share. We all take one unified breath and then we have this thing called unified clap. Then we just kind of raise our hands up and we just all take one unified breath. No leaders, no followers - we're going to try to clap at the same time. We're just sitting there trying to figure out when we all going to align with this clap. There are some anxiousness going on.  There's some - a lot going on because everyone wants to try to get it right. With Creative Acts, there's no right or wrong - in our space that we work in. So, we closed out with that and then we move into other exercises like Zip Zap Zop. We have a lot of different games we play. We have electric clap -  what else we have - [we have] Kitty Wants a Corner. It's like all these different games that we use to stir up emotions down low to help them identify that on their [own] terms of what they're going through and what they're processing. Most of the time they figure something out within themselves [about] what's going on inside. That's why we use the games, because we want to get people out of their minds and into their bodies to discover what it is that they're feeling. 

Unified Clap. Yeah, it's good, the unified clap is really good, because when you get it, people are just shocked. They just like you got 50 people in a space and we all clap at the same time. They're like, How did that work? It's this group impulse- it can happen. That really makes them say, all right, I'm willing to do whatever you guys ask us to do- lets go. 

MH: Can you share any personal memories with some of the workshop participants and community members at the abolitionist pod?

MB: There were four [community members] that maintained throughout the whole process. I've done this work for so long. You know, the transformation takes place probably about the second week- second or third week. You can see it as clear as day. You can see it throughout the games and exercises. You can see how much more they're willing to be a part of what we're asking of them, and just letting go of what's going on inside and just being present based on what is being asked of them in that space.

ar: What vision do you hold for Creative Acts and the larger coalition of organizations addressing mass incarceration? 

MB: I would want more coalitions. I think there's plenty of money out there that people really want to see some of these CBO (Community Based Organization) communities come together. I think it's just really learning about how we merge in those organizations that are doing great work and into another organization that's doing great work, and how do we submit that to funders that really understand that this money is needed? I just really feel like- especially for Creative Acts, just having an opportunity to travel to different states with our VR program, our Art Attack program, because there's prisons all across state lines. That is really our goal- to create more teams because we have a total of six teams. We don't have enough headsets, we have 20 headsets and we take 20 headsets every time we go into the institutions. If we can get more funding to buy more headsets, and we can have a team of five and we create these contracts with other states and then we just go out to these other states, do the work that we do, come back, elaborate on what we do, but also even at other organizations that are similar to the work that we do, dealing with the art component of the power of the arts. How do we merge that in, and make this full merging to other states that want to see this work being done.

MH: Has Creative Acts partnered with companies like Meta (Facebook) in developing Creative Acts’ distinct VR (Virtual Reality) program?

MB: Yeah, they gave us 20 headsets, so we got a contract- well they gave us 20 headsets probably about three years ago. Now we just got a contract from Holly Mitchell. We're trying to bring more headsets into our transition home. We feel like the work still needs to be done with the VR, and we just want to try to create more content pertaining to that environment and what they're going through in that space. That's what we're looking forward to. But yeah, again, it just comes down to funding and opportunities. But, my dream is to really- I really believe in the Coalition aspect because every organization to me has their pocket, or where they're strong at, and how do we take that pocket into another pocket that is strong to amplify the work even on a level that we're all still shocked by the work, and the outcome that happens.

ar: Can you share more on your philosophy around coalition-building? 

MB: And just on that note, with these coalitions that we build, I think it's important that each organization have their moments where they go out and celebrate, their five year anniversary like Creative Acts. We're about to have our five year anniversary on September 21st, we're doing this big- we're giving out raffles and different things of that nature. I really feel like as a coalition, I think that we need to do something together, like we do outings, right? Creative arts, we do outings, we do hikes. We build these relationships with each other because we know more about each other now, because we're doing something outside of the work. Even with the coalition, same way, how do I get a chance to know you? How do I get a chance to know you? How do I get a chance to know you? I think that when we're out of our space of work now, I get a chance to know you on a personal level, because now when we come to the space, now I understand you from a different perspective. Opposed to just you're here at work today, you've got a job to do. I think those coalitions need to have that aspect too at the top because it keeps the glue of the coalition together. 

Gallery Open

Thursdays - Sundays

11:30 AM - 3:30 PM

On view September 21, 2024 through February 15, 2025

Free the Land! Free the People! a study of the abolitionist pod is organized as a survey and studio of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart artist collective’s ongoing research for the abolitionist pod, autonomously irrigated, solar-powered gardens within modular geodesic domes built with communities impacted by food insecurity, housing insecurity, and the prison industrial complex. The exhibition falls in conjunction with the artist collective’s year of programmed study and research, entitled Imagination Year, collating ongoing illustrations, archival documentation, architectural renderings, sketches, and drawings of the collective’s many configurations of the geodesic structure during its prototype phases as the year-long curriculum engages with a history of collectives and cooperatives at the interstices of food justice, land sovereignty, and the Black Liberation Movement.

The exhibition coincides with a concurrent resource and larger oral history archive indexing the networked Black farmers, gardeners, and Black-led organizations across Los Angeles county with whom Crenshaw Dairy Mart has collaborated with on the abolitionist pod, traversing contemporary movements towards alternative permacultures, which include localized, small-scale farming and micro-farming as models for community care, community safety, and economic autonomy within the larger contemporary abolitionist movement.

Free the Land! Free the People! a study of the abolitionist pod is among more than 60 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. Returning in September 2024 with its latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit pst.art