Ritual4Return, the recipient of NJCH’s 2024 Stanley N. Katz Prize for Excellence in Public Humanities, was featured in the New Jersey Star-Ledger after the performance of its most recent cohort’s culminating ritual.
“I always say to the guys, they have so much to teach free people,” R4R Executive Director Kevin Bott told the paper. “These men don’t take freedom, community, or any day for granted. It means something to them to be in fellowship and to do this work. When they tell their stories, I tell them it’s an invitation to non-justice-impacted people to open their hearts and put down their masks. We’re all wearing masks and imprisoned in some way.”
The December 8 event culminated the 12-week journey in which returning citizens used the tools of storytelling, theater, and ritual to share their life stories, heal from trauma, and shed the stigma and negative identity associated with incarceration.
