by Hannah Teich, JAC Web Team Intern I first came across JAC last fall, on an aimless Google search for something like “prison + art.” At the time, I, like all of us, was home, feeling mostly restless and isolated, untethered from the everyday rhythms of normal non-pandemic life. For the past few months, I …

Continue reading On Radical Acceptance, Chosen Family, + Collective Care: Reflections from JAC’s Summer Interns

These days, statistics and numbers about mass incarceration proliferate. We know abuses happen inside prisons and jails across the United States on an inconceivably large scale. We read that the United States incarcerates a fourth of the world’s prison population. These numbers are mind-numbing and shocking, but their magnitude is difficult to comprehend; how well …

Continue reading Hasbrook Galleries: Action and Reaction – Anatomy of the Carceral State

Saturday, June 26. 9:00 PM EST. A round of Zoom applause lit up the screen as we celebrated Jail Guitar Doors’ Go Getta Chris and Blaccson’s encore performance for their session: Songs and Beats, an original performance piece created by system-impacted youth. Despite being virtual, there was an electric feeling in the air that zipped …

Continue reading Reflections on Art for a New Future: JAC National Convening 2021

On Thursday, June 24th, Justice Arts Coalition’s 2021 National Convening, Art for a New Future, is set to begin. Our team has worked incredibly hard to bring together an amazing group of speakers and panelists, and this blog series spotlights just a few of them to give you a taste of what you can expect …

Continue reading Art for a New Future: Spotlight on Free Lands Free Peoples

One week from today, on Thursday, June 24th, Justice Arts Coalition’s 2021 National Convening: Art for a New Future is set to begin. Our team has worked incredibly hard to invite an amazing group of speakers and panelists; in the next week, we plan to share a selection of conversations with presenters to give you …

Continue reading Art for a New Future: Spotlight on Walking the Beat

Last fall, the Justice Arts Coalition team sat down and began to plan a convening. Months later, our dream is now a reality: from June 24 to June 26, JAC is offering a virtual convening called Art for a New Future. Convene: to come together. We invite you to join our table, to come together with our …

Continue reading Register for Art for a New Future: Justice Arts Coalition’s 2021 National Convening

by Dorothy Maraglino A Day in My Box About 4 AM, the lights slam on obliterating the dark from my box. I curse the inventor of the mega watt lightbulb. Breakfast is placed on the food flap ledge for me to debate to eat or not. What’s left is picked up 30 minutes later. About …

Continue reading Guest Blog: Dorothy Maraglino – A Day in My Box

By Melissa Wang, JAC Intern Lex started to paint when someone in the art room at the federal prison handed him some watercolor paper, paints, and a brush. From that moment on, art became a small piece of freedom to him, a way to build community with other incarcerated folks, earn some money, and escape …

Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Lex