Prison Arts Project? Art in prison? That’s not something you hear much about. But believe it or not, there was just an Arts in Corrections: Opportunities for Justice and Rehabilitation through the Arts conference held in San Francisco with attendees from many countries, all of whom run or are affiliated with art programs in prisons. Don’t get me wrong; I am no Polyanna. I know our justice (and most especially prison) system is deeply broken and all too often corrupt, racist, and cruel. But I thought you might like to know about something positive going on in places we usually think of as reproductions of TV shows like “Oz” or “Lockup.” Follow me over the fold for more.
I went to college with an amazing artist, Rene Garcia Jr. over 20 years ago. A few weeks ago we were texting because he was starting a project with inmates at San Quentin in which they were going to create their own graphic novel (bound comic book), and he wanted me to come in to give a talk about this medium. I am a public librarian who buys the comics for my library as well as teaching a class about them to library school students. I also have dreams of being a prison librarian as I’ve heard stats that proclaim 60 – 80% of inmates are functionally illiterate. Jeebus! But that’s an aside…
Rene told me he’d get back to me over the weekend with more details, but I didn’t hear from him and wondered why. I found out a few days later that he’d unexpectedly passed away. At 41. But he was so excited about this project that I was mentioned at his memorial as a partner in this endeavor. Because of that, the people from Prison Arts Project contacted me not long after the memorial to see if I’d like to take up the mantle of this project. Of course I said yes without hesitation, but there was a piece missing.
I am no artist. I could help guide the project with writing help and vision, but I couldn’t take Rene’s place. It just so happened that I had just worked with another amazing artist, Andy Gouveia, who had presented a three-part workshop at my library called Art & Story, which covered the basics of story-telling through visual art. He’d worked on graphic novels as well. I asked Andy if he was interested in joining me on this project and came to learn that not only was he getting his Masters in Art Therapy, but was also working with at-risk youth. He was on board immediately. There’s a reason this diary is partially called serendipity…all the pieces fit in unexpectedly perfect ways.
Fast forward to this past Saturday. I had my first meeting with Rene’s students at San Quentin. I thought I’d be giving them a kind of presentation on graphic novels, but in many ways, it turned out that if these guys were on the outside, they’d be considered nerds in the reading-comics sense. So instead, we talked about various characters and storylines. I’d brought a bunch of my personal collection to represent different styles of art, but in reality, they were just overjoyed to see the latest Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan!), Ultimate Spider-Man (Miles Morales!), Batwoman: Hydrology, as well as other non-superhero graphic novels.
The meeting went amazingly well. We discussed an overarching theme that would tie a diverse bunch of stories together, so the inmates can ruminate, write, and sketch in between meetings. It was unanimously decided that the book would be dedicated to Rene, and we played around with names for the project, all of which included Rene’s name in some way or another. It was a truly beautiful thing to see how he had influenced these men’s lives in such a positive way.
Still with me? I saved the best for last. This struck me so viscerally because you never hear this story. The guys told me that when you hang out in the yard, it is totally segregated, by choice – black people hang out with black people, white with white, etc. Except for their area, where all races play D & D together. Best mental picture ever, and totally unexpected.
So anywho, the Prison Arts Project exists. Check it out, throw a few bucks their way (um hi, we totally need specialized art supplies for this project), or if you believe, as I do, in rehabilitation over punishment, just be happy that there are some programs in place and individuals out there dedicated to trying to care for our least cared for.