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Final Words

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Final Words International: World Supporters 

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A Look Inside.

Your funding will allow us to …

Send a book & educational curriculum to every public high school in the 32 states where the death penalty is legal. It’s time for a new conversation.  Tomorrow’s voter is the place to start.

“The Final Words Curriculum Component enables students to become agents of change as they step into their roles as young leaders participating in the civic discussion on the death penalty.  The curriculum itself guides students through critical thinking exercises, in-depth research and the arts through the many layers of the death penalty, from the laws to the people and families affected by them, and most importantly to their voices as young people to have a new role in the future of the death penalty in the US.

The Final Words curriculum component guides educators and students in understanding human rights as it applies to the death penalty within the United States and from a global perspective.

The component includes forty classroom lessons; 20 for Social Studies, English or humanities classrooms, and 20 for arts classrooms including visual arts, photography, and drama.  The program can take place in classrooms twice a week for a ten-week period or everyday for one-month at the teachers’ discretion.  All lesson plans are aligned with core standards on the national level.”

Generation Human Rights, Inc. www.generationhumanrights.org

Why are we doing this?

Quite simply… because no one else will.  No commercial publishing house would come near a topic such as this, giving a voice to condemned men and women.  It’s too controversial and the risks of backlash are too great.  

But we think this side of the story is vital to an honest debate.  We think it’s of paramount importance, no matter where one falls in the death penalty debate, to understand the human costs at the center of this dehumanizing and systematic process of state-sanctioned executions.  Giving these individuals a voice, regardless of their guilt or innocence, is essential in bringing about a more realistic and nuanced debate about the death penalty.  As is so often the case, the person being executed has become an entirely different person from who they were when their crime was committed.  We want the world to hear from THAT person as well. 

But don't take my word for it:

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/06/selfies-against-the-death-penalty/

http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/tag/marc-asnin

http://prisonphotography.org/tag/marc-asnin/

http://standdown.typepad.com/weblog/2014/07/fin...

About the Rewards

The rewards for supporters of Final Words are deigned by award-winning Art Director Giorgio Baravalle of de.MO Design and Branding, and combine the historical importance of this project with a unique design. From bracelets to T-Shirts, posters to screensavers, the rewards for Final Words reflect the gravity of this cause. We want our supporters to take away something beautiful that hopefully serves as a conversation starter about this crucial issue.

Taking their words to the people!

If we reach our goal of sending a book and education curriculum to EVERY PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL in the 32 states w/ the death penalty, we have plenty of motivation and great ideas for FINAL WORDS.  We won’t stop finding ways to get Final Words into the hands of the public until this abominable practice has been abolished. 

Traveling Exhibition:

The Final Words Traveling Exhibition is a powerful multimedia installation that allows the public to engage with Final Words in a variety of ways. Designed to be exhibited in various space scenarios such as universities, galleries, religious institutions, and community centers, the Final Words Traveling Exhibition is political art at its most compelling, utilizing video, sound recordings of final statements, and a simulated experience of life in solitary confinement, offering an unforgettable experience and first-hand look at the dehumanizing system of state-sanctioned death.    

With the Final Words Traveling Exhibition we want to jumpstart new conversations around the country about capital punishment and we have several ideas as to how to make this happen.  First, at each exhibition across the country, local artists will be invited to have their own creative responses to capital punishment included in the traveling exhibition, enriching the dialogue from state to state with each installation and allowing for creative expression against the death penalty to be exhibited alongside the raw reality of death row.  We will also invite national artists dealing with issues of the prison industrial complex and capital punishment within their own political art to contribute to the traveling exhibition, allowing their creative activism to travel the country and make a resounding statement alongside these final words.  

Second, we want the public to have a voice as well.  So, attendees of the exhibition, the general public itself, will have the opportunity to share their reactions and thoughts via a collective chalkboard and/or tablet that will continually travel with the exhibition, serving as an ongoing conversation among citizens.  This combined with our ongoing Final Words conversation curated on our social media platforms will allow the public to engage with one another about the exhibition and capital punishment in general.  As this exhibition travels, viewers’ responses from all over the world will be on display at each location, with increasing diversity as the exhibition continues to travel.  Not only will viewers be able to engage with Final Words, but they’ll also be able to participate in a global conversation about the death penalty. 

We want to keep this traveling exhibition going for as long as possible and crisscross the entire globe.  That’s why we need your help!  We’ve already have organizations lined up to host the exhibition in 15 states, and a handful other countries, including Pakistan, Morocco, and Malaysia.  We want this exhibition to travel to every state in the U.S. w/ the death penalty and every country in the world that currently uses capital punishment.  We want to bring their final words to the places where they most need to be heard. 

The Final Words Traveling Exhibition is where art meets activism; where politics becomes personal, and the hope is that each person walks away feeling more compelled than before to put an end to state-sanctioned death, to take this up as “their cause” because it is a human rights cause.  With this traveling exhibition, we hope to foster an opportunity for people all over the world to uncover their shared humanity, especially with those whom have been condemned. 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do we take Paypal? Emphatically yes.
   
2. Do you take international purchases? Most definitely! We want this book to be read on every continent in the world.  Including Antarctica!  
   
3. Do you ship International? Absolutely. All shipping costs are not included in the price of rewards, but will be assessed upon shipping. We’ll ship wherever you are.
   
4. Are you a non-profit? Yes. Final Words is a non-for-profit project sponsored by VII Association. 
   
5. Why high schools? Because we believe it’s never too early for an open, honest, and human-centric debate about the values of our society. Tomorrow’s generation is forming their ideas today.
   

The people who are truly making this happen

It’s not just Neverland Publications behind Final Words. We couldn't do this without the unwavering support of …

Susan Sarandon,
Academy Award-Winning Actress; Human Rights Activist
Sister Helen Prejean,
Renowned Activists
Kerry Kennedy,
President of RFK Foundation
Judy Collins,
Singer/Song-Writer, Activist
Anthony Graves,
Exonerated Texas Death Row Inmate
Ray Krone,
Exonerated Arizona Death Row Inmate, Witness to Innocence Membership Director

ACLU - University of Idaho College of Law

ACLU of Louisiana
ACLU of Wyoming
Alex Bunin
Alicia Patterson Foundation
American Baptist Home Mission Societies
American Constitution Society
Amicus - Assisting Lawyers for Justice on Death Row
Amnesty International
Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand
Amnesty International Australia
Andrea Meislin Gallery
Anthony Lowenstein
Atlantic Center for Capital Representation
Baratunde Thurston
Bronx Documentary Center
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Campaign to End the Death Penalty - Austin
Campaign to End the Death Penalty - Chicago
Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls
Cause Effect Agency
Comisión De Derechos Civiles
Community Justice Network for Youth
Contrasto
De Nationale Assemblée
Death Penalty Information Center
Death Penalty Worldwide
Dripbook
Editions-Bessard
Embry Human Rights Program
Ensemble Contre le Peine de Mort
Equal Justice Initiative
Equal Justice USA
FIDH
Florence Bellivier
FotoEvidence
Gillian Caldwell
Henry Chalfant
Howard Greenberg Gallery
Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University
International Federation for Human Rights
International Union of Lawyers
Jen Marlowe
Journey of Hope
Kathleen Chalfant
Le Monde
Lee Camp
LiveBooks
Magnum Photos
NAACP
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
National Lawyers Guild
North California Innocence Project
North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Ohioans to Stop Executions
Pace e Bene
Pax Christi USA
Penal Reform International
Prison Fellowship Pakistan
Production Paradise
Professors Against the Death Penalty
Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky
Race Forward
Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan
Redux Pictures
Reprieve Australia
Reprieve UK
Resource Magazine
Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights
Sandrine Ageorges
Sherman Teichman
Smoking Gun
Social Documentary.net
Southern Coalition for Social Justice
Students Against the Death Penalty
Sunny and Peter Jacobs
Texas Civil Rights Project
The Death Penalty Focus
The Death Penalty Project
The Innocence Project
The StandDown Texas Project
Union Internationale des Avocats
VII Association
VII Association Photographers
Visa pour l’Image
Witness to Innocence
World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Yale Law School
ACLU of Ohio
Advocates for Human Rights

Challenges Ahead

• The opposition
  

The death penalty is a divisive issue. Many people feel passionately about it and we expect that with a successful campaign and distribution of the book, we’re going to meet plenty of opposition.  We’re going to hear “Where’s the victims’ ‘final words’?”  We’re sensitive to this and aware that it will be brought forward as an attack on the importance of this book. They’ll try to keep these words silent. They’ll say their animals. They deserve what they get.  But we’ve done our homework and we’re prepared to stand up for these individuals’ rights to be heard. Silencing the executed is both cowardly and all too convenient for those that want to continue with this barbaric practice. We intend to show just exactly what is going on behind closed doors. We want their final expressions as human beings to echo around the world until the death penalty is abolished.

• What if we don’t reach our funding goal?

Well, that’s why we need you and everyone you know to help us take on this cause.  Our funding plan is as ambitious as it is flexible.  If we only raise enough to distribute books to high schools in Texas, then that’s what we’ll do.  If we raise enough for the top 10 states w/ the most executions, then we’ll make sure every high school in those states get a book and educational curriculum.  The greater the funding, the greater the reach.  We’re ready.  Let’s make sure every state has these final words circulating in their public schools for an open and honest debate.

Neverland Publications takes a fresh approach to publishing. We create compelling stories with creative and engaging design.  Our goal is enliven social issues by shining a light in the shadows of society. We create and publish books the typical commercial publishing house wouldn’t dare touch. We are a new voice in an age-old business.

We are a small and diverse team of passionate individuals intent on creating powerful and thought provoking work with which the public can meaningfully engage.  We pull from the margins of society, making windows where there were once walls. 

Our Team:

Marc Asnin, Creative Director, is a renowned documentary photographer who previously spent 30 years capturing social injustice through his award-winning imagery, having been published in such publications as Life, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, French Geo, La Repubblica, Le Monde, and Stern.  His works has been featured in museums and galleries such as MOMA, Baltimore Museum of Art, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Steven Kasher Gallery, National Museum of American Art, International Center for Photography, and the Museum of the City of New York.  His work has received numerous accolades, most notably the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography, Mother Jones Fund for Documentary Photography, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Alicia Patterson Fellowship.

Joshua Herman, Editorial Director, has worked as a freelance writer, editor and producer since 2009.  After completing his academic studies in Philosophy, Herman began working as a freelance writer and reporter for independent documentary projects in New York City.  In 2010, he and Asnin began a long-term international photo-documentary book called A Light Among the Nations focused on the global outreach of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hassidic community based in Brooklyn, NY.  Having served in the capacity of both writer and producer, Herman spent the better part of two years traveling the world working on this project.  In 2014, he cofounded Neverland Publications with Asnin.  Final Words is their first publication

Mary Bisbee-Beek, Communications Director, began a publishing career in 1979 in San Francisco, California. She has been the owner and Director of Beeksbee Books, an independent publicity and marketing consulting office, 1992-2003 in St. Paul, MN. In 2003 she joined the University of Michigan Press, where she was the Director of Publicity and the Trade Marketing and Foreign Rights Manager. In 2008, she joined Literary Ventures Fund, where she worked as a marketing, publicity and foreign rights consultant with various authors, agents, and publishers. During the summer of 2010, Mary relocated to Portland, OR and once again took on independent publicity projects. Currently her company is called READ A Unique Perspective as she approaches publicity, marketing and foreign rights management with a unique outlook depending on the title and genre. Currently, she works primarily on literary fiction, creative non-fiction, cerebral yet readable academic books, poetry, and photography that leans toward social documentary commentary. 

Elana Haviv,  Director of CURRICULM Development  is an education and human rights specialist with over sixteen years experience designing and delivering innovative, multi-disciplinary educational training and training of trainer (ToT) curricula. Through her flagship organization, Generation Human Rights, Inc. Ms. Haviv has created academic and artistic programs to guide children and youth to understand and overcome the effects of violent world events on themselves and their communities, and to become global citizens. She designed The Telling History Project; Understanding the Past to Create the Future: a curriculum to teach students about universal human rights through the lens of recent and current world events and the genocides in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, and Darfur. She also established and managed the Bosnia branch of CMCE, where she directed and implemented a comprehensive reconciliation curriculum initially in ethnically segregated classrooms and then forming CMCE ethnically mixed classrooms outside of the existing schools. In addition to her international work, Ms. Haviv has consulted and developed curriculum domestically for the New York Department of Education public schools, several private schools, and the 9/11 Trauma Relief Program. She has received fellowships in oral history at Columbia University and textbook development at the Georg Eckert Institute of International Textbook Research in Germany.

Mack McFarland- curator of Final Words: Traveling Exhibition, is an artist and curator who makes a home in Portland, Oregon. McFarland has served as curator for the Feldman Gallery and Project Space at the Pacific Northwest College of Art since 2006.  While there he has organized or curated over 30 exhibitions, with a focus on artists whose practices involve social or politically engaged themes, including Joe Sacco, Sue Coe, Sandow Birk, and Regina Silveira. His future exhibitions include, Happy Birthday: Celebration of Chance and Silence, commemorating the legacy of John Cage in September 2012 on Cage’s 100th birthday, and a new commissioned work from Critical Art Ensemble.

About VII Association

Final Words is proud to work under the auspices of VII Association, a registered 501c3.  The VII Association's mission is to engage in activities that create a dialogue about human rights issues that are of urgent concern.  Their ambition is to effect civic dialogue and seek solutions to pressing problems.  Final Words has the opportunity to address an issue of growing concern that needs reexamining.    

To judge the death penalty on the basis of its full consequences is to honor our own democratic tradition.  Let us face our beliefs with open minds, so we can listen to these voices - let us hear their final words.