
All are invited to attend and participate in the Men’s Rite of Passage for members of the Ritual4Return 2026 Spring Cohort.
Ritual4Return, supported by multiple NJCH grants, is a 14-week course through which returning citizens engage with and explore the many aspects of their own experiences getting into, through, and out of prison.
Reading from a wide variety of source materials and then trying to understand them through dialogue, writing, movement exercises, and theatrical devising techniques, participants explore — individually and collectively — themes like Home, Sin, Judgement, Punishment, Exile, Bondage, Trauma, Grief, Freedom, Repair, Forgiveness, Justice, and Homecoming.
The process culminates with a one-time-only public ritual marking and celebrating the end of incarceration and the beginning of an individual’s new identity within the community. This rite of passage is the centerpiece of a one-day gathering that aims to extend the conversation to family members, loved ones, and other community stakeholders who care about the impacts of incarceration.
Ritual Schedule
1:30 pm Doors Open
2:00pm Ritual4Return
4:00 Community Reception
Tickets are free, and audience members play an active role in welcoming returning citizens back to the community: https://canvas.perkinsarts.org/events/374.
Ritual4Return was awarded the 2024 Stanley N. Katz Prize for Excellence in Public Humanities. Read more about the program and award at https://njhumanities.org/katz-prize-2024/.