By Mary Walle About the guest blogger: Mary Walle is a Senior at the University of Michigan studying History. She’s been involved with the Prison Creative Arts Project since January 2012. Through PCAP Mary has participated in three theater workshops and performed in four original plays, one with the young men at Wolverine Human Services and three …

Continue reading In My (Our) Shoes

By Madeleine Twyman About the guest blogger: Madeleine Twyman is a Singer/Songwriter/Dancer from Toronto, Canada. Madeleine trained at The Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York City and was a member of the Martha Graham Ensemble. Ms. Twyman’s original music and choreography earned her an Underground Music Award nomination for her live show ‘Madeleine’s …

Continue reading “Mr. Jailer” – A Freedom Song

By Benjamin Wills About the guest blogger: Benjamin Wills works with photographs, sculptures, and performance that investigate the edges of what the human body is capable, both mentally and physically.  He received his BFA from the University of Georgia’s Art X program, studying and participating in interdisciplinary works.  In the past few years he has …

Continue reading Community Vanity

by Nina Levin About the guest blogger: Nina is a senior at The University of Michigan studying Comparative Literature and Environmental Sustainability. Last fall, she became involved with Professor Buzz Alexander’s Engish 310 course which subsequently lead into The Prison Creative Arts Project. Through the class and the organization, she has participated in a creative writing workshop …

Continue reading Blood of Life

About the guest writer: Nathan Havey is based in Anchorage, Alaska and works to support Arts on the Edge. On December 8th, 2012 nearly 600 people crowded the gym at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River, Alaska.  For many of them, it was their first time in a prison.  For others, the annual holiday concert has become a much-anticipated tradition. …

Continue reading Alaska’s Prison Orchestra

About this post: This essay first appeared in the magazine, The Sun, and will appear in the forthcoming book of essays, Half of What I Say is Meaningless, from Mercer University Press in Macon, GA. It is the winner of the 2012 Will D. Campbell Award for Creative Nonfiction. The author, Joseph Bathanti, is North Carolina’s …

Continue reading A gift from NC Poet Laureate, Joseph Bathanti

by Enrico Miguel Thomas My name is Enrico Miguel Thomas and I am a famous artist in New York City. In the writing of this article, I would like to spread the message that art has such an immense power to get you through anything!  Life didn’t start out too well for me. At the …

Continue reading The Immense Power of Art Can Get You Through Anything!

About the guest blogger: Lisa Guenther is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University.  She facilitates a weekly discussion group with prisoners on death row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.  She is the author of Solitary Confinement: Social Death and its Afterlives (forthcoming from Minnesota University Press). It all began with a word scrawled on paper: ART. …

Continue reading Prison Galleries: Imagining Justice from the Inside Out