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 …

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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

  A message from Sarah Durbin: I’m working for a new documentary that will bring a series of International Shakespeare videos from The Globe in London to a class of attentive prisoners in NY State and highlight the important work of Rehabilitation Through The Arts (RTA) – a non-profit with a great track record of low recidivism …

Continue reading The Globe in London meets the Woodbourne Correctional Facility in New York

By Felipa Solis, Solis Media Group Cellist Zuill Bailey is one of the most multi-faceted, popular and innovative classical musicians today.  He will be the special guest on December 8 for two special concerts with the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center Women’s Orchestra in Alaska. Here he will continue to work to inspire the women who have …

Continue reading Cellist Zuill Bailey joins Acclaimed Prison Orchestra

About the Guest Blogger: Jacqui Norton is a PhD candidate at De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom. Writing from the UK, I am currently studying for a PhD which is researching socially excluded young people and adults who participate in song-writing workshops. Although the research is not limited to the prison environment, I am very …

Continue reading A Request from the UK: Song-writing and Copyright in Prison

About the Guest Blogger: Amanda Grazioli is a theatre artist and arts administrator who has collaborated on artistic endeavors with prisoners, unemployed adults, homeless and foster youth, and students of all ages. Holding a BA in Theater Arts from Boston College and master’s degrees in Arts Administration and Applied Drama and Theatre for the Young …

Continue reading Transforming the Prison Experience through Playback

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has banned The Shakespeare Prison Project (TSP) from all of its facilities, despite the program’s proven track record of success.  Please urge Gary Hamblin, Secretary of The Wisconsin Department of Corrections, to allow this worthwhile educational activity to resume. “As a long time prosecutor in Kenosha County, I think any …

Continue reading Help Save the Shakespeare Prison Project!