TIMELINE
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January 2006
Woodbourne
On a frigid January night in 2006, Kevin Bott, a master’s student at New York University’s Steinhardt School, observes an applied theater class inside the Woodbourne Correctional Facility in the Catskill Mountains. Unbeknownst to him, the direction of his life changes.
Fishkill
Volunteering now for the prison arts non-profit, Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), Kevin meets Ronald Day, who is serving time at Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon, NY. Ronald leads the facility’s PACE program, a peer-led initiative that educates inmates and staff on immune systems and disease transmission.
RTA is given permission by then-NY DOCCS commissioner Brian Fisher to film Ronald’s theatrical script about the transmission of Hepatitis C, inside the facility.
The film is called, “A Lasting Impression,” and as of 2026 is still used as an educational tool throughout New York State correctional facilities.
October 2006
November 2007
Green Haven
Kevin has become the director of education for the prison arts non-profit, Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), and a doctoral student at NYU. One night at the Green Haven Correctional Facility, one of the actors tells Kevin that he’s “made the board,” meaning the parole board has granted his release. Explaining how theater changed his life, he asks Kevin what opportunities might exist for someone like him, coming back to New York City. Discovering there’s virtually no theater for, with, or by people coming home, Kevin sets out to figure out what such a theater could look like.
December 2008
An Underground Meeting Beneath Times Square
Having immersed himself in the issue of prisoner reentry, Kevin embraces a body of criminological literature proposing the power of ritual and rites of passage as tools for supporting people’s return to the community after prison. He’s decided his doctoral research will focus on a theatrical devising project through which a group of returning citizens will work together over the course of a semester to create their own homecoming rite of passage.
One night, transferring MTA trains at 42nd St., he bumps into none other than Ronald Day, who’s come home after 15 years. Ronald, working as a case manager for the Brooklyn-based reentry services org., Osborne Association, arranges for Kevin to convene his doctoral workshops at Osborne’s Remsen St. location. Ronald films each workshop and acts as Kevin’s unofficial consigliere—guiding him through his first experience working with men coming home from prison.
“A Ritual for Return”
After 12 weeks (and thanks to President Jeremy Travis, whose book, “But They All Come Back…” informs much of Bott’s early work), the first iteration of the project takes place in a theatrically transformed classroom at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Four men enact the ritual they worked together to create, in front of an audience of about 100 family members, loved ones, and other members of the community. Bott calls the event “a ritual for return.” It’s a powerful night for all and gives everyone the idea that we might be on to something!
June 6, 2009
June 2009 — November 2018
Years in the Wilderness
Despite the success of the project, momentum is halted by… life!
With a young family to support, and finally finished with his studies, Kevin accepts a staff position at Syracuse University and moves 250 miles north of NYC…
He loses touch with everyone from the pilot initiative. He thinks about the ritual often, but there’s little to do. Kevin applies unsuccessfully for a few grants and fellowships, trying to jump start the project. But nothing comes through. With no funding on the horizon, he works on other projects, hoping to one day return to his passion project.
R4R Revival!
The itinerant life of an academic brings Kevin back to New York City. Staten Island to be exact, where he’s hired at Wagner College to be dean for civic engagement. (A role, it turns out, he’s wholly unsuited for!)
Restless and uninspired at work, Kevin starts applying for funding again. And finally, something clicks! He applies for and receives a $5,000 matching grant from Humanities New York. The name of the new project: the more stylized, Ritual4Return.
Stella Adler Studio of Acting in Manhattan has been sending theater teachers and actors onto Riker’s Island for a number of years and feels R4R resonates with the studio’s justice goals. The Studio becomes a partner and donates space and resources to the new iteration of the project.
December 2018
Winter 2019
A Fellowship and Resources
Kevin is named A Blade of Grass-David Rockefeller Fund Joint Fellow in Criminal Justice, which provides a little more money for the 2019 R4R project… A successful Kickstarter campaign brings in $20,000 more, and Columbia Humanities Lab matches the Humanities New York grant with $5,000…
Importantly, Kevin reconnects with Ronald, who is now at Fortune Society, one of the oldest—and certainly the largest—wrap-around reentry service organizations in the country. Fortune publicizes R4R to its clients. And Fortune’s director of Creative Arts, Jamie Maleszka, partners to lead a creative writing workshop for the participants.
Overall, things are looking good for 2019!
Ritual4Return… returns!
Almost 10 years to the day since it first launched, R4R rises from the ashes. Five more men go through the 12-week process and enact their rite of passage at a black box theater at Stella Adler Studio of Acting.
And wow! Does this ever feel like a traditional rite of passage! We’ll skip the ugly details and let it suffice to say that it lasts almost 5 hours—with no intermission! Yikes!
The hardest thing about R4R is that it’s an attempt to create a new cultural ritual. Like a wedding, you only get one shot to get it right. But unlike a wedding, it’s never been done before. There’s no roadmap! We’re learning more each time we go through it. And yes! We learn A LOT on this one!
June 8, 2019
December 13, 2019
First Women’s Cohort
For the first time, R4R stages a rite of passage for women, this time at the National Black Theatre in Harlem. Also for the first time, R4R has a full cohort of 12 participants!
The women bring a wholly different, and wonderful, energy to the project.
We’re looking with excitement to 2020!
What could stop us now?
A Global Pandemic
We’re about 4 weeks into our next men’s cohort when the world shuts down for Covid.
It all just… stops.
Um…. 2020?
After Covid: Newark, New Jersey
Coming out of the pandemic, Kevin is hired by Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and—settled once again—begins dreaming of bringing R4R back to life, now in his home state!
As director of online learning at Rutgers, he wonders if there might be an online learning component to the project. Could participants receive college credit??
Through connections at Rutgers-Newark, Kevin is introduced to Edwin “Chino” Ortiz; Chino’s brother, Carmelo; and their lifelong friend, Al-Tariq Witcher, co-founders of Returning Citizens Support Group (RCSG), an organization they founded together to be a support network for people coming home after incarceration.
Chino, the executive director, is committed to “changing the narrative” about people who have been incarcerated, so when he hears Kevin’s ideas, it’s a perfect match. Kevin begins attending RCSG’s weekly support group meetings, and telling people about R4R. In the meantime, he’s looking for funding opportunities.
2022
Spring/Summer 2023
Jersey Strong!
Under the umbrella of RCSG’s 501(c)3 status, Kevin gets a $15,000 matching grant from New Jersey Council for the Humanities to pilot two R4R projects in Newark—one for men in fall 2023, and one for women in spring 2024.
New Jersey Performing Arts Center gives a significant in-kind donation, which allows us to use their space in downtown Newark. Our December 2023 event will be in the NJPAC black box.
Ahavas Sholom synagogue, the last active synagogue in Newark, donates rehearsal space as well.
Chino, Carmelo, and Al-Tariq all participate in Newark’s first R4R, and recruit 5 other men to join them.
Kevin has fallen in love with the city of Newark!
Winter 2023-24
Archômen! We Begin (again)
Eight men cross the threshold in Newark on December 10, 2023. It’s the most realized version of R4R to date, complete with a pre-event community workshop and a post-ritual community dinner and celebration. (And guess who shows up? Michelle Alexander!—author, “The New Jim Crow”—who says that she’s “blown away” by what she experienced!)
Six weeks later, on January 28, 2024, we begin a new cohort—our second group of women to begin the R4R process, and the first in Newark.
In March 2024, Ritual4Return, Inc. is finally established as a 501(c)3.
R4R Becomes a College Course
For the first time, college students who were previously incarcerated can earn college credit for participating in Ritual4Return. The course, “Reentry as a Rite of Passage” is offered through Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, and Kevin “V1” McCray is the first official student!