CBH Talk | From the Inside Out: How Writing and Art Support Justice-Affected Lives

For people impacted by policing and incarceration, reclaiming one’s humanity is often bound up with the ability to tell one’s own story. Arts and literacy programs inside prisons and during reentry, offer powerful tools for recovery from the harms of state punishment and the stigma of incarceration.

Brooklyn Public Library’s Justice Initiatives program works in this space, supporting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and their families through education, creative expression, and connection. One result has been an ongoing series of zines titled Bridges, that feature writings and drawings by people on the inside, and are distributed to those inside jails and prisons across the state.

The ninth edition of the Bridges, titled Letters from Home, marks a special milestone. Its material was developed during  a seven-week writing workshop for formerly incarcerated writers and those with familial ties to the system, which was led by the Re/Creation Collective. It is the first issue of the zine to be released not only inside, but also to the public.

Join us for a celebration of the launch of Letters from Home, an evening exploring the nexus of art and the New York punishment apparatus. The program will include a set of brief readings from contributors to Letters from Home including Smoovebabii (Alphie Kenny), Kim Seabrook, Nichole Chan, Courtnaye Charley, and Henry Robinson. 

This will be followed by a panel including educator and organizer Mariame Kaba, Fortune Society Director of Creative Arts Jamie Maleszka-Tate, writer, director, podcaster Rahsaan Thomas, and Re/Creation Facilitator Khadira Savage, who will discuss how storytelling and art can lead impacted people and larger society to rethink the systems within our criminal legal system.

Attendees will leave with a copy of Letters from Home, a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of justice-impacted people, and a renewed appreciation for the power of self-expression to challenge stigma and imagine more humane futures.

About Brooklyn Public Library's Justice Initiatives

BPL’s Justice Initiatives works to support incarcerated and formerly incarcerated patrons and their families and connect them in meaningful ways to the library.

About Re/Creation

The Re/Creation Collective has elevated the voices of currently and formerly incarcerated writers through workshops and a publishing platform for almost a decade.
 

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Participants

Mariame Kaba is an organizer, educator, librarian/archivist, curator, zinemaker and prison industrial complex (PIC) abolitionist who is active in movements for racial, gender, and transformative justice. Kaba co-leads Interrupting Criminalization, an organization she co-founded with Andrea Ritchie in 2018. She is the author of the New York Times Bestseller We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice(Haymarket Books, 2021) & the National Bestseller Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care with Kelly Hayes (Haymarket, 2023) among several other books that offer support and tools for repair, transformation, and moving toward a future without incarceration and policing.

 

Rahsaan “New York” Thomas (he/him) is writer, director, podcaster, producer, consultant, social justice advocate, curator, and the Executive Director of Empowerment Avenue, a program he created while incarcerated to meet the pre-entry needs of incarcerated writers, artist, and filmmakers, helping them to get their voices in mainstream spaces for prevailing wages. As a freelance writer, he has bylines in Business Insider, The Appeal, The Boston Globe and The Marshall Project. He is best known for co-hosting and co-producing the Pulitzer Prize finalist and 2020 Dupont Award winning podcast, Ear Hustle, as well as appearances in the documentaries United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell, Q-Ball, and 26.2 to Life. Appearing in other people’s documentaries on system impacted people inspired Rahsaan to begin to direct and produce several shorts including More than Basketball and Friendly Signs. He also co-produced What These Walls Won’t Hold, which won the San Francisco International Film Festival. He debuted as a curator in 2020 with the Museum of African Diaspora and FlyAway Production for Painting for Justice. Rahsaan was paroled February 2023 and now produces films with incarcerated people, and he co-founded the San Quentin Film Festival.

 

Jamie Maleszka-Tate is the Director of Creative Arts at The Fortune Society, a NYC-based nonprofit that believes in building people, not prisons. Jamie is a writer, editor, teacher, and advocate invested in the transformative and restorative capacities of creativity and community. A believer in radical love, she has facilitated writing and storytelling workshops and art builds on Rikers Island and in alternative to incarceration and reentry settings since 2016. She is the recipient of The Public Theater’s Community Leadership Award in recognition of her commitment to opening sustainable pathways for all New Yorkers to express creative power. Jamie is deepening her practice by pursuing her MSW at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College-CUNY, building towards a future where support systems are as creative and resilient as the communities they serve.

 

Khadira Savage is a Project Management M.A. with a background in operations and social services. Her work has focused on supporting individuals experiencing homelessness/mental illness in securing permanent housing and essential resources. She now curates workshops centered on stress management and emotional health, blending structure, compassion, and practical tools to support personal and community well-being. She currently curates workshops focused on stress management and emotional health, creating accessible tools for healing and resilience.