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Bonnie Kerness

Celebrating 50 years of working for healing justice with AFSC

Celebrating 50 years of healing justice work with Bonnie Kerness

Bonnie Kerness started her 50-year journey at the American Friends Service Committee as a young tenant organizer in Elizabeth, NJ, where she helped build a citywide coalition to support the right to housing.

Prior to joining AFSC she was an organizer during the civil rights movement in the South, an experience which provided her with a deep anti-racist analysis that drives her work to this day. Bonnie recognized that the carceral system in the United States was in a profound spiritual crisis. Her steady and passionate efforts to dismantle these systems have had local, regional, and national impacts. She helped raised awareness of the human rights violations that occur daily in U.S. prisons, highlighted the humanity of people inside, and ensured that their voices are brought forward as the struggle for change continues.

Read more about Bonnie's 50 years here. 

portrait image of Bonnie

Photo: AFSC Archives

celebrating 50 years

"Bonnie Kerness is an incredible gift to the universe. I am infinitely grateful for her work, her character, her love, her commitment. I met Bonnie about eight years ago early into my research on art and mass incarceration. She has become a trusted friend, interlocutor, and advisor. Bonnie is so generous with her time and expertise. She is the embodiment of a change maker, of someone who is enacting beloved community."

—Nicole Fleetwood


Author of Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration

archival photo of bonnie looking at papers

Photo: AFSC archives

celebrating 50 years

"Bonnie is a force of nature! It is an honor anytime I am in the room with her. She is on my list of heroes, past and present, and a million thanks to her now and always. "

—Johanna Foster


Co-founder, (the former) Clinton College Bound Consortium, and Co-facilitator, Monmouth University Academic Exchange in Prison Project (with Eleanor Novek)

Bonnie smiling and sitting next to a woman

Photo: AFSC Archives

celebrating 50 years

"While I reflect on Bonnie’s work towards healing and justice, I’d like to lift up her commitment to young people. I’ve marveled at her work with the Liberation Summer campers, interns and young volunteers. Bonnie has been and continues to be an amazing teacher, facilitator, colleague, and champion to me"

—LEWIS WEBB


archival photo of Bonnie outside of the Newark justice program in the 70s

Photo: AFSC Archives

celebrating 50 years

"I had the opportunity to work with Bonnie in the area of healing justice when I was in the national AFSC office as well as the Newark, NJ AFSC office. Hard to believe she has been at AFSC for 50 years—yet I can’t imagine AFSC without her. I continue to marvel and appreciate not just Bonnie’s passion for the work but her fierce commitment to each of those most adversely impacted by the “justice” system. Congratulations and thank you Bonnie."

—PAT CLARK


Bonnie celebration, pointing at artwork at liberation summer camp

Photo: AFSC New York

Celebrating 50 years

"I was so impressed that I invited Bonnie and Ojore to speak to my students at Wesleyan and Yale and subsequently organized a public exhibition of Ojore’s collages at Wesleyan’s Zilkha Gallery. Bonnie’s work with Ojore is only the tip of the iceberg. She is an extraordinary activist who raises public awareness and gets concrete results that change lives, laws, and attitudes. Bonnie Kerness is a national treasure who embodies every ideal that makes me proud to be associated with AFSC."

—RON JENKINS


Professor, Wesleyan University Visiting Professor, Yale Divinity School

archival photo of bonnie standing next to man in AFSC office

Photo: AFSC Archives

celebrating 50 years

"As a radical filmmaker, working with and knowing Bonnie has reminded me of the dedication one needs to continue to move forward when organizing in this country. Oftentimes, when the thought of “giving up” creeps in, I think back to Bonnie and I’s work and conversations. Thank you Bonnie for always believing me and trusting with telling your story."

—DARYL BROWN


Bonnie celebration, bonnie speaking at a table

Photo: AFSC Archives

celebrating 50 years

"Bonnie Kerness is a Living Legacy of Results, of Love & of Service to others, to improve & progress issues of humanity in carceral spaces. Her work will live “far” beyond her years & our children’s path has been made better because of her. We can only try to be the light she shines upon us all to truly appreciate her calling."

—CUQUI RIVERA


Latino Action Network, Criminal Justice Reform Chair

Donate to the New Jersey Prison Watch program

Honor Bonnie's life work by supporting the NJ Prison Watch program's ongoing commitment to empowering individuals harmed by criminal justice policies and violence.

Bonnie in front of megaphone reading off of a piece of paper

Photo: Ester Jove Soligue

Related

Q+A: Bonnie Kerness, director, AFSC New Jersey Prison Watch

Q+A: Bonnie Kerness, director, AFSC New Jersey Prison Watch

Q+A: Bonnie Kerness, director, AFSC New Jersey Prison Watch

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Program updates

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