Thursday, December 14
Doors: 6:00 pm (Screening: 6:30 pm)
Indianapolis Liberation Center
1800 N. Meridian St., Suite 305
In the second installment of our December series, “The Path To and Beyond Mass Incarceration,” we’re honored to host a screening of the award-winning documentary about two political prisoners in Indiana, “The Pendleton Two: They Stood Up.” We are even more excited to announce that the the film’s Co-Directors, Producers, and Editors THEKINGTRILL and TOOBLACK will join organizers with the Indianapolis Liberation Center for a panel discussion after the showing.
On the morning of February 1, 1985, Lincoln “Lokmar” Love was doomed to the same fate as George Floyd, Tyre Nichols, and so many other Black men in the U.S. As he lay handcuffed and shackled, Pendleton Correctional Facility guards beat the prisoner beyond recognition as terrified bystanders watched from their cells. But Lokmar’s story ended differently when 2 fellow prisoners sacrificed their freedom to save him from his assailants—a Ku Klux Klan-splinter guard gang known as the Sons of Light.
“The Pendleton 2: They Stood Up” tells the stories of John “Balagoon” Cole and Christopher “Naeem” Trotter, the leaders of the Indiana prison uprising that rescued Lokmar, exposed Pendleton’s dehumanizing conditions, and unleashed the vindictive wrath of the Indiana Department of “Correction.” Presented by the Defense Committee to Free the Pendleton 2, the documentary features exclusive first hand testimony from Cole and Trotter, as well as interviews with family members and witnesses to the uprising who have, for decades, continued to fight for the Pendleton 2. The resilience of Cole and Trotter and the persistence of their supporters and defense campaign are perhaps the main reasons why the political prisoners are still alive, despite the IDOC’s ongoing attempts to try and kill both heroes through medical neglect, solitary confinement, and other means. We must refuse to let white supremacy take any more liberation fighters from us.
On the series
Our December series of events is oriented to gain a better understanding of the contemporary phenomenon of mass incarceration so we can more effectively struggle against and, ultimately, defeat it.
At our first event (which is not required for attending this one), we held a panel and discussion on the evolution of U.S. prisons. Using Eugene Puryear’s book, Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America, as a foundation, we discussed the relationship of prisons to changes in society, white supremacy, and capitalist production, and what role they play in contemporary racist capitalism in the U.S. today.
With our theoretical knowledge of the prison system, we now examine a specific and local example of the political function of prisons, a struggle that needs more support—your support. At the same time, our engagement with the film’s creators and with the leaders in the struggle to too free the Pendleton 2, we’ll continue deepening our understanding.
Our next and final event is a press conference featuring an elderly Black veteran who was brutalized and falsely arrested by Marion Co. Sheriffs and who will, for the first time, tell his story to the press and public. With the brazen violence of local cops’ increasing, growing numbers of people are gaining the courage to speak up and organize. A new movement against police terror is taking shape through a growing coalition of the families and communities of local and state violence, religious leaders, community leaders, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which is a member-organization of the Indianapolis Liberation Center. That event, which will take place on Thursday, December 21 at 12:00 pm at the Indianapolis Liberation Center, is free and open to the public.
We hope to see you for this incredible opportunity to watch “They Stood Up” with the film’s creators, that the brave victim of one of the two most well-funded and armed gangs in this city will see you standing with him, and that you continue to struggle alongside all people in state captivity and their supporters.
Full film credits
Presented by: The Defense Committee to Free the Pendleton 2
Director: THEKINGTRILL & Too Black
Producer: THEKINGTRILL & Too Black
Editor: Too Black
Filmed by: IDOC Watch & Focus Initiative
Narrator – THEKINGTRILL
Musical score by Jorel Jebre, Clint Breeze, and THEKINGTRILL
Transcribed by Ben Wrubal Artwork by THEKINGTRILL, and Allistor King
Learn more about the struggle to free the Pendleton Two here, and follow @thependleton2 on Instagram to stay involved
