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The first-ever Resilience Festival highlights the human experience of people impacted by the criminal legal system, told by award-winning artists who have lived it. From survivors of torture and Death Row to incarcerated poets and playwrights, Resilience Fest uses art to transform experiences of isolation into sources of community dialogue and connection.

About Mud Theatre
Mud Theatre Project was born within the writing community of the Illinois Department of Corrections, where we harnessed the power of the arts to shed light on the journey through the classroom to prison pipeline. During this transformative process, members of our team evolved into national award-winning playwrights, journalists, and artists.

Now, as we reintegrate into our communities, our primary goal is to breathe life into neglected spaces through our guiding motto: Transformational Therapeutic Rehabilitation Through the Arts. We believe in the inherent ability of artistic expression to spark change, foster healing, and cultivate hope in even the most overlooked corners of society.

About the Chicago Torture Justice Center
Established in 2017, the Chicago Torture Justice Center was born out of the movement for reparations for survivors of police torture.

Survivors and their families fought for decades for access to the trauma-informed resources and politicized healing support that the Center now offers. Today, with hundreds of survivors still incarcerated and the persistence of racialized police violence, that fight continues.

We offer clinical healing services, reentry support, case management to meet survivors where they are, and work in community to organize the new systems.

Through our monthly newsletter sent inside IDOC, we built relationships with incarcerated artists. Some of these artists went on to create the Mud Theatre Project upon coming home.

Become a Sponsor
Resilience Arts Fest will be FREE and accessible to our community.

Artists and performers will be paid.

Help us support our artists and keep the arts accessible for all!

bit.ly/supportRAF