Build an iconic Women's Building on the former Holloway Prison site - Sign the Petition! chng.it/WS7TdvMC via
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Erika
@ErikaPostcards
Artist into storytelling. Erika kept a daily postcard diary of her experience during her 3 year incarceration at HMP Holloway.
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Holloway Women's Building Game available from recordedinart.com/store as A1 canvas game only £100 or Limited Edition of 20 Box sets for £300 This game explores the history of HMP Holloway and the quest to get an iconic Women's Building built on the site as a proper legacy.
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Read this great article published in Arts Professional today, co-authored by NCJAA and Erika Flowers: artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/artic
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We laminate the Gym passes for the new inductees and I get a new dark green blanket for my bed. I love this as it is Not the awful prison orange like all the others, it just feels a bit more homely and personalises my bed! #postcards #prison #drawing
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I attempt to make an extra special all thrown in pudding to shre with my dorm. Not sure it improved our strained relationship at all, but it wasn't all that bad. Not something you would ever consider eating on the outside though!! #postcards #prison #drawing
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3 months in and after writing an application letter I have be authorised to be enhanced! This means an extra visit a month, £25.50 of my own money to spend a week and I can get additional items such as a guitar! or a keyboard! or some art materials!! #postcards #prison #drawing
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I have to hand wash my gym kit in the bowl every time I wear it, this can be very tedious!! I also take to my bed to write a personal letter. #postcards #prison #drawing
I help out in the Kids Visits which happen once a month in the gym on a Saturday, the kids are dropped off to be with their mothers for 5 hours where they get to play sports and make things at the art table. #postcards #prison #drawing
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It's always very fustrating whe the items that you order on canteen don't arrive. I have bad roots and really need to dye my hair, even if I don't even like the colours available! #postcards #prison #drawing
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I have to mentally take myself out of this plsce to feel sane, there is always commotion and drama of one sort or another coming from all over, especially the segrigation unit next door!! #postcards #prison #drawing
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When I moved landings some of m washing was left in C4 landing washroom. The gym staff kindly rescued my knickers - they were nice knickers! but they vanished, we looked everywhere to no avail! #postcards #prison #drawing
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I am offered a job in the Library and I do one morning. This was OK, but when I asked if Icould work my shifts around spending enough time in the gym I am told 'No', so I quit! #postcards #prison #drawing
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It seems anyone can make a mistake and end up in prison! However it does seem that there is a level of special treatment for the high proflie cases, however this can also be for the inmates own protection! #postcards #prison #drawing
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I can work out in the gym and loose myself in cleaning all day, it is sometimes just a form of meditation and keeping ones sanity.
#postcards #prison #drawing
I can work out in the gym and loose myself in cleaning all day, it is sometimes just a form of meditation and keeping ones sanity.
#postcards #prison #drawing
We are entertained by someone dropping items in a washbag tied to some sheets down to an inmate who has just come in. It takes some time before they actually manages to grab the items and pull them in through the narrow windows. Grrr no tobacco tho! #postcards #prison #drawing
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The gym is closed for a day and I am lost!! I fill my day doing writing letters and cleaning my room! #postcards #prison #drawing
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I am told off for using my home made bag! I have to use a see-through bag, either my wash bag or a polythene bag. I am also sick of listening to people talk about nothing as if it is really important, so many words that mean nothing! #postcards #prison #drawing
Another prisoner tells me her story of how she feels the establishment has stolen her property. #postcards #prison #drawing
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I do my first First Aid course in the Gym, this is a really useful qualification to have and is valid for 3 years. I think it is really good that the prison provide such courses. #postcards #prison #drawing
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I have a visit from my solicitor as I have to apply for legal Aid. Later I am chastised for not being in my own room exactly on time for lock-up. I nearly get my first negative IEP (Incentive earned privilages). #postcards #prison #drawing
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The pool is only 18 meters long and I plough up and down the whole session while the other women tend to just play around, I try and do at least 90 lengths to complete a mile. Pottery is so theraputic! #postcards #prison #drawing
We can borrow DVD's frm the Library to watch in our rooms, some of the women even have their own DVD players. No more films for us until we can aquire a new DVD Player, back to soaps I guess!! #postcards #prison #drawing
I share my feelings about not feeling comfortable in my dorm with another inmate, big mistake, she then spreads rumours that I am being bullied. I get my swimming goggles delivered from amazon, at least now I will be able to see after swimming now!!#postcards #prison #drawing
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I finally get some of my own washing powder, this is in an effort to preserve my clothes for as long as possible as the prison wash tablets not only leave bleach marks on your clothes, but generally disintigrate them at a steadily increasing rate! #postcards #prison #drawing
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I find it so depressing having to watch a continious stream of soaps every night! How about a documentary or something interesting, this is brain numbing!! #postcards #prison #drawing
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To encourage the women to read all those that attended the gym during International book day today all received a book - aboutsomeone elses experience in prison, just in case you hadn't had enough of being in prison yourself! #postcards #prison #drawing
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The days are already becoming repetative and a routine of Gym, more gym and cleaning is well established. I am not complaining, I can think of may a worse way to spend my day - like being locked up!! #postcards #prison #drawing
More Bingo and this time I win something! The gym also gives us some mini eggs and my faith is restored as I actually do now have an egg for easter, even if it is just a mini egg!! #postcards #prison #drawing
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Yet another birthday party! The women have donated more plates of sweet treets and made a cake somewhere (Either in the kitchen or on D4 where they have a kitchen). It is nice that the women make an effort to celebrate birthdays! #postcards #prison #drawing
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I spend so much time hand writing stuff on my bed that I am getting a callus on my finger! I am also tried to be persuaded that I should become a peer Supporter, helping women who have just come to the prison adjust to the reigeme. I prefer the gym! #postcards #prison #drawing
One of the women celebrates her 21st birthday, she celebrates with a party in the association room with loud dance music and a sugar rush of plates of sweets and biscuits from the canteen. Feels weird to have a party in the middle of the day! #postcards #prison #drawing
I actually won a prize at Bingo! The prison supplied the prizes which included make-up, sweets, coffee pouches and Andrex loo roll! Funny how a random game can often result in one person winning repeatedly and others never winning at all! #postcards #prison #drawing
We are invited to the Gym to see a play by Glass House Theatre that deals with some of the typical problems and choices that are often faced by women that might end up with them facing incarceration. #postcards #prison #drawing
A visit from a friend is always a welcome break and chance to catch up on what is going on in the life that you have left behind. An hout is seldom long enough! #postcards #prison #drawing
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I have listened in great depth to another prisoners case and their ongoing struggles for justice. #postcards #prison #drawing
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I do my exercises every morning to try and fix my arm, I still cannot lay on that arm, sleeping and watching TV lying down are not comfortable! I can however do light cleaning and am glad to be back at work. #postcards #prison #drawing
More check-ups. I want to order some chocolate for Easter, but there is nothing new on the canteen sheet. Chocolate is only available on the 'specials' flyers in our canteen issued quaterly and I don't have one! No Easter Egg for me this year!! #postcards #prison #drawing
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D0 Exercise yard is not open all the time, it is closed to us sometimes as it is also used by the segrigation unit. It is unlocked most of the day, there is cctv, but no officer standing around. #postcards #prison #drawing
I had given my arm a really good whack and now it is very painful. I have been banned for working out in the Gym for a week and have my blood pressure taken to see if I am back to normal! #postcards #prison #drawing
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