A national network and resource for those creating art in and around the criminal legal system.
by Annabel Manning As part of the Jail Arts Initiative, I give a series of art workshops based on the “Nana” using Nikki de Saint Phalle’s “Nana” figures as a departure point. This way incarcerated adult participants can explore the themes of identity and agency through the female form. Their “Nana’s” become portraits based on …
by Peggy Rambach Address for the HOC Mural Project Unveiling Celebration with MIT at the Suffolk County House of Correction Feb. 15, 2019 Lately, we’ve all been hearing a lot about walls – whether we like it or not. And as a result, we can’t help thinking about what a wall represents: division, protection, confinement …
by Philip Hall In 2018, the creation and discussion of art is widely acknowledged as a vehicle for social justice. Years ago, such a concept would have been largely ignored. Current tightened state budgets, plummeting crime rates, as well as an examination of mass incarceration, is prompting the investigation and support of art as a …
Continue reading The 2018 New York Art for Justice Forum at Columbia University
by Chelsea Garner-Ferris I first met Charlie on a humid, London summer's day in June 2016. A true mountain of a man he was tall, broad, and covered from shaven head-to-toe in elaborate tattoos. We were meeting for the very first time to begin our Mentor/Mentee relationship at a crowded museum café, amidst crowds of …
About the guest contributor:
JOHNATHAN KANA is a freelance writer, musician, and Christian cultural critic who enjoys probing the intersection of faith, justice, and pop culture. As a restored citizen who once spent 25 months in prison, he believes in the transformative power of a meaningful second chance. He is a volunteer Justice Ambassador for Prison Fellowship and a contributing writer for their quarterly newspaper for prisoners, Inside Journal.
He is also co-author (with Dr. Mary L. Cohen and Iowa prisoner Richard Winemiller) of a forthcoming book chapter about the Oakdale Community Choir and the healing power of community music-making in correctional contexts (to be published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press in a volume provisionally titled Walking the Boundaries, Bridging the Gaps: How Community Music Engages Those in the Margins of Society).
Johnathan works in manufacturing and lives with his wife and two children in central Texas. He is an avid filmgoer, a passionate armchair theologian, and an aspiring kayaker.