LIFE ON THE SWERVE: Once Upon a Time Called Now! is a show based on the performance methods of RHODESSA JONES & THE MEDEA PROJECT: Theater for Incarcerated Women/HIV Circle, which are rooted in autobiographical theater and Greek myth. Ms. Jones will be accompanied by renown musician/composer, Idris Ackamoor, and long - time Medea actress, Felicia Scaggs as they present a musically informed theatrical production. There will be a Q & A/Discussion with Rhodessa Jones and accompanying performers after the show. The Medea Project serves incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and HIV + women and community members, empowering them to heal their lives by connecting to the larger mythical fabric of the world's great stories linking their own stories to them. Some of the themes in the presentation relate to issues of HIV, addiction, prison, loss, and recovery. Myth involves the invocation of deities as well as primordial entities: these stories connect our individual lives to patterns of change, transformation, growth, and power.

THE MEDEA PROJECT is a production of Cultural Odyssey, which continues to develop original productions that demonstrate their vision of “ARTS AS SOCIAL ACTIVISM”. In 1989, on the basis of material developed while conducting classes at the San Francisco County Jail, Rhodessa Jones created “Big Butt Girls, Hard Headed Women”, a performance piece based on the lives of the incarcerated women she encountered. During the work’s creation, Jones and jail officials were made aware of issues that were specific to female inmates, such as guilt, depression, and self-loathing, which arose in response to feelings of failure in the face of community. These issues directly contribute to recidivism among female offenders. Based on this observation, Jones founded THE MEDEA PROJECT: THEATER FOR INCARCERATED WOMEN to explore whether an arts-based approach could help reduce the numbers of women returning to jail.

In 2008, THE MEDEA PROJECT joined forces with University of California San Francisco’s Women’s HIV Clinic to create theater that explores what it means to be living with the virus in the twenty-first century. For the past seven years, The Medea Project: HIV Circle has performed shows all around the United States, sharing the Truth and the stories of what it means to be female and infected or affected.