Amistad Research Center and the Newcomb Museum of Art of Tulane University presents:
Becoming Danielle Metz: Life after Incarceration
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, there are over 200,000 women and girls imprisoned for nonviolent crimes as a result of the criminal system’s war on drugs. In addition to those serving sentences, an additional one million are trapped in a system of probation and parole with very little support services available to assist them with transitioning back into society. On Tuesday April 3rd, we will hear from Danielle Metz about her experience in the criminal system, being granted clemency by President Barack Obama, and the reentry process. Carmen James Randolph, vice president of programs for the Greater New Orleans Foundation, will join Metz in conversation about her incredible journey.
About our presenters
Danielle Metz is one of the 1,715 inmates President Barack Obama granted clemency before leaving the White House in 2017. On that particular day, a Tuesday in August, Obama commuted the sentences of a then-record 111 inmates. The early releases were the former president’s response to drug laws he deemed unusually harsh to nonviolent offenders like Metz. In 1994, this wife and mother of two was sentenced to three life sentences – plus 20 years – on four counts of drug dealing and conspiracy. Category 3 federal sentencing guidelines demanded the stiff punishment, although Metz had never been in trouble with the law before. Her husband, the alleged ringleader, is still in prison.
Carmen James Randolph joined the Greater New Orleans Foundation in February of 2014 as Vice President for Programs. Carmen previously worked at the Washington-based Eugene & Agnes E. Meyer Foundation where she was for the past 15 years including three years as senior program officer in education. While at the Meyer Foundation, Carmen led various award-winning initiatives to support a wide range of work including education organizing, charter school improvement, and post-secondary education reform.
Registration is free, please RSVP on Eventbrite.
About the Amistad Research Center:
The Amistad Research Center (ARC) is committed to collecting, preserving, and providing open access to original materials that reference the social and cultural importance of America’s ethnic and racial history, the African Diaspora, human relations, and civil rights.
ARC houses more than 800 collections, including:15 million original manuscripts and rare documents ranging from the 1780s to present;2,000+ periodicals dating from the early 19th century; 250,000 photographs dating from 1859; 400+ oral histories by musicians, civil rights activists, writers, military figures and community members;400 works of African and African American art, including works by several internationally renowned 19th and 20th century African American masters; and 25,000+ monographs, books, articles and dissertations on the history of African-American and ethnic groups.
About our partner:
The Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University builds on the Newcomb College legacy of education, social enterprise, and artistic experience. Presenting inspiring exhibitions and programs that engage communities both on and off campus, the Museum fosters the creative exchange of ideas and cross-disciplinary collaborations around innovative art and design. The Museum preserves and advances scholarship on the Newcomb and Tulane art collections.
