Thousand Kites

In 1998, as co-hosts of the rural, Appalachian region's only hip-hop radio program, Thousand Kites media artists Nick Szuberla and Amelia Kirby received hundreds of letters from inmates recently transferred from distant cities into two new, local SuperMax prisons. The prisoners’ letters described racism and human rights violations, and Szuberla and Kirby responded with artistic projects, including bringing hip-hop artists together with mountain musicians and organizing radio broadcasts for prisoners’ families. In prison slang to "shoot a kite" is to send a message.

Thousand Kites is a national project that works directly with stakeholders using communication strategies and campaigns to engage citizens and build grassroots power. It uses performance, web, video, and radio to open a public space for incarcerated people, corrections officials, the formerly incarcerated, grassroots activists, and ordinary citizens to dialogue and organize around United State’s criminal justice system. Thousand Kites believes:

• The criminal justice system is the most pressing civil rights issue in the United States;
• Breaking down the silence surrounding the U.S. criminal justice system through storytelling and listening helps people find effective solutions to over-incarceration in their communities;
• Because policy follows public perception, insuring that there is ample opportunity for free and open dialogue demands that all communities work together for media justice.