On Wednesday, May 20, 2026, from 7-8:30 PM we will host Book Club Session 03, an exploration of Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Private I: A Memoir (ZE Books, 2025), at The Judith Center (with options to participate via Zoom).

Building on our last session, we will expand our exploration of how gender has informed critical responses to technological development from the 1970s through today with Leeson’s retrospective text, which underscores technology’s corrosive applications in systems of repression, surveillance, and censorship. In her trailblazing practice, she imaginatively disarms technology by using it as a creative medium to platform progressive ideas—fabricating distorted, surreal, and alternate realities that probe technology’s encroaching influence on identity and society. This builds upon our prior session focused on Shulamith Firestone’s more utopian vision for technology’s liberatory potential. Attendees are encouraged to read "In Conversation: Lynn Hershman Leeson with Michelle Handelman" (Brooklyn Rail, November 2025). Tom Teicholz—an award-winning journalist, author of the Substack The Enthusiast by Tom Teicholz, and Editor of Private I: A Memoir—will join for the conversation.

Our bimonthly reading group spotlights a curated selection of texts that examine gender and sexism. Each session features conversations guided by guest artists, writers, and cultural thinkers whose work engages with the reading’s subject matter. With each session, the book club aspires to deepen our understanding of contemporary gender theory by tracing its historical foundations, social contexts, and evolving intersections with ecological and technological posthumanist thought. This event is free and open to the public, and will be hosted in a wheelchair-accessible building. To confirm your place, share specific questions or requests related to the event, source a copy of the book, or learn more about The Judith Center and our programs, please contact us at info@thejudithcenter.org.

On May 31, 2026, The Judith Center presents the keynote panel for the Now Be Here Anniversary & Now Let’s Talk Events, hosted by Occidental College/OXY ARTS. Serving as the kickoff event of the daylong program, the panel will bring together a dynamic group of speakers with experience in journalism, arts activism, museum leadership, cultural theory, and curatorial practice. Panelists will consider effective instances of resisting sexism across different sectors of the art world over the last several decades, while also addressing the work that remains to be done to create more equitable and inclusive conditions within the field.

On June 13, The Judith Center partners with the nonprofit organization Just Detention International (JDI) to present an exhibition featuring nearly one hundred works by individuals who have experienced trauma behind bars, including those who have been subjected to sexual abuse while incarcerated. The exhibition foregrounds personal testimony and creative expression, bringing visibility to voices that are too often excluded from public and cultural discourse. Founded in 1980, Just Detention International is a health and human rights organization dedicated to ending sexual abuse in all forms of detention. JDI is the only organization in the United States—and globally—focused exclusively on addressing sexual abuse behind bars. Its work includes holding government officials accountable for prisoner rape, challenging the cultural and institutional conditions that allow sexual violence to persist, and ensuring that survivors have access to the support and resources they need.

Presented on the occasion of the opening of From the Inside—an exhibition organized by The Judith Center in collaboration with Just Detention International (JDI)—Trauma by Design: The Culture of Abuse Inside Prisons is a panel discussion that will feature three formerly incarcerated advocates, including a survivor of sexual abuse in detention and a former warden who has pioneered healing services for incarcerated people. Panelists will offer their insights into life in prison, the conditions that lead to gender-based violence, and the powerful ways that art can support healing behind bars.

The second installment of POETRY X___, will be an in-person writing workshop centering a prompt inspired by From the Inside, a collaborative exhibition organized by The Judith Center and Just Detention International featuring nearly one hundred works by individuals who have experienced trauma behind bars, including those who have been subjected to sexual abuse while incarcerated. Inviting participants to draft poetry in dialogue with the artwork on view, the workshop will be followed by readings of poetry developed during the event.

Founded in 1980, Just Detention International is a health and human rights organization dedicated to ending sexual abuse in all forms of detention. JDI is the only organization in the United States—and globally—focused exclusively on addressing sexual abuse behind bars. Its work includes holding government officials accountable for prisoner rape, challenging the cultural and institutional conditions that allow sexual violence to persist, and ensuring that survivors have access to the support and resources they need.