Connect the Dots Workshops

Connects the dots between the relationship w/self, stereotypical ideas promoted in media, lack of self-awareness, and cultural pride, Domestic Violence, Hip Hop and Prison Culture, and Reentry Workshops

WHEW’s primary “products” are dissecting and building relationship workshops on the local-global for the purpose of connecting multiple components at the root of prison and hip-hop culture. The workshops showcase not only the negative aspects of the two cultures’ relationships, but also the negative impacts that symbiosis has on Indigenous/Melanin Dominant/Indigenous/Indigenous/Indigenous women, men, and families resulting in domestic violence problems that persist before, during, and after becoming part of the criminal justice system. Workshops consist of dialog about the way prison culture glorifies:

domestic violence

thug/gangster mentality
physical & verbal abuse to people in their society via Hip Hop Artist persona and videos.
Relationship of self and others

These workshops creatively and distinctly connect the dots to the cause and effect of the destructive behaviors that result in large numbers of domestic violence cases and other abusive attitudes. Since 2001 these workshops have been conducted in state prisons and jails in Wakill, New York, Los Angeles, California, Chicago, Illinois, Dallas, Texas, and Houston, Texas.

The purpose of these unique, interactive media and cultural literacy seminars and workshops are to:

Prevent self-hatred and domestic violence;
Build self-esteem and self-respect;
Help the participant develop tools to shape a more positive self-identity, financial empowerment (self-sufficiency principle), and using spiritual practices grounded in empathy, compassion, and ideas rooted in historical cultural mores for the growth of individual participants, their communities, and families