PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College will screen the documentary “Since I Been Down” today and Thursday during Studium Generale’s Social Justice Week.
The week honors the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “and seeks to highlight the current challenges, issues and actions toward change that reaffirm King’s wisdom and remind us of the multi-dimensional legacy of his teachings and actions,” said Kari Desser, college spokesperson, in a press release.
Monday’s screening will begin at 5 p.m. while Thursday’s will be part of the college’s Studium Generale programming and start at 12:30 p.m.
Both virtual screenings will be followed by panel discussions. Both are free and open to the public.
To join today, go to https://pencol-edu.zoom.us/j/82707853221. The meeting ID is 827 0785 3221.
To join the event on Thursday, go to https://pencol-edu.zoom.us/j/82278252780. The meeting ID is 822 7825 2780.
The screenings are in partnership with Magic of Cinema.
“Since I Been Down” is a documentary that spotlights Kimonti Carter, sentenced at 18 to 777 years in prison without parole for a fatal drive-by shooting in Tacoma.
Carter, at 34, founded TEACH (Taking Education and Creating History), a prisoner education program.
Carter is housed at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen. The shooting that killed college student Corey Pittman, 19, was on Tacoma’s Hilltop in 1997.
His case has been mentioned in connection with a bill now in the House Public Safety Committee filed pre-session that would remove drive-by shootings from the list of aggravating factors that result in automatic life sentences for first-degree murder.
State Rep. Tarra Simmons, D-Bremerton, is listed as the primary sponsor.
The screenings will be followed by panel discussions followed by question-and-answer discussions. On Monday, Carlos Osorio, Lesley Hoare and Kate Reavey will join in conversation. On Thursday, Osorio and Hoare will be joined by Deborah Espinosa.
Osorio is the former baking and pastry instructor at Clallam Bay Corrections Center.
While employed at the prison, he volunteered with inmate cultural groups and re-entry services. He has worked on such projects as Food Not Bombs, Sequim’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion conversations, Forks Human Rights Group, Reparations Law Democratic Inmate-led Cooperative, Shut Down the Northwest Detention Center and building the Party for Socialism and Liberation — Olympic Peninsula.
Hoare, who has lived in Forks for 13 years, works at the Forks branch of Peninsula College in the Learning Center and as an ESL teacher. She also works part-time as a medical interpreter.
Hoare organizes with el Comite de Derechos Humanos de Forks and volunteers at Clallam Bay Corrections Center. Her efforts have been focused on the immigrant community.
Reavey is the director of Studium Generale, a member of the college’s Longhouse Team, and the faculty equity coordinator for Peninsula College. She has a master’s degree in poetry from the University of California-Davis and a doctorate degree in interdisciplinary studies with a focus on humanities and culture from Union Institute and University.
In her doctorate studies, Reavey focused on the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Espinosa is the founder of Living with Conviction (https://livingwithconviction.org).
She is an attorney and a photographer who combines her legal training and visual storytelling skills to advocate for the rights of the poor and marginalized, both at home and in Africa.
She also provides legal technical assistance to state and national governments, primarily in the global south. To see her photography, see www.sameskyphoto.com.
