by Treacy Ziegler About the guest blogger: Treacy Ziegler is a regular contributor to the PAC blog, and has been an exhibiting artist for the past 23 years. She studied painting and printmaking for four years at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. As a student she was awarded a J. Henry Scheidt Traveling Scholarship. …

Continue reading Drawing for Life

The ROAR (Re-entry Organizations and Resources) Alliance is a collaboration of over 40 non-profit, faith-based and government agencies working to promote successful reentry from incarceration to the community. This is achieved by coordinating existing resources in the community, catalyzing collaboration and mutual learning among reentry organizations, and promoting greater awareness of reentry issues in the …

Continue reading Call for Submissions – Re-entry Organizations and Resources Alliance Newsletter

by Elana Pritchard About the guest blogger: Elana Pritchard is a cartoonist in Los Angeles.  Before she landed in jail she worked as an animator on Ralph Bakshi’s film, Last Days of Coney Island.  She is currently doing a Kickstarter to finish her animated cartoon, The Circus: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/341471863/the-circus It’s been about a week since the …

Continue reading I Wanted To Remind Us We Were People

by Marcela Castro About the guest blogger: Marcela Castro is originally from Costa Rica. She is an artist, a mother, and a member of Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC), a national nonprofit working to end the isolation and abuse of people in U.S. immigration detention. Marcela has been drawing and painting for …

Continue reading Mi Vida Arte, My Life Art

by Treacy Ziegler About the guest blogger: Treacy Ziegler has been an exhibiting artist for the past 23 years. She studied painting and printmaking for four years at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. As a student she was awarded a J. Henry Scheidt Traveling Scholarship. Before studying art at PAFA, Ziegler received a Master …

Continue reading Memory of Space

by Leah Thorn About the guest blogger: Leah Thorn is an artist/activist, using spoken word poetry for the autobiographical exploration of identity and liberation. She frequently performs in collaboration with dancers and musicians and her work is published through performance, film, anthologies and magazines in England and the United States. Leah also leads poetry-as-empowerment workshops, primarily in …

Continue reading Incarcerated Women and the Transformational Power of Poetry

By Hakim Bellamy About the guest blogger: Hakim Bellamy became the inaugural poet laureate of Albuquerque on April 14th, 2012, at age 33. He was the son of a preacher man (and a praying woman). His mother gave him his first book of poetry as a teen, a volume by Khalil Gibran. Many poems later, …

Continue reading The City Inside

Below is a message from Vidahlia Press and Publishing House. Vidahlia Press & Publishing House announces its first literary contest for those incarcerated in federal, state, or county prison. Approximately 2,000 federal and state correctional facilities in the country are participating in the Contest. The Prison Writing Contest will offer prizes including one year tuition payment …

Continue reading Vidahlia Press and Publishing House Announces the Largest Writing Contest for Prisoners