The Mission
Building Bridges
Connecting Writers & Other Artists to the Arts Community
Our mission is to provide a platform to connect arts and other community-focused organizations with a diverse pool of talented, resourceful, and motivated people impacted by the criminal legal system, and vice versa, in order to provide returning citizens with broader access to job opportunities, a variety of resources for smooth reentry, and routes to engage deeply with arts, social-justice, and community-focused organizations.
Why the ReEntry Lab?
There are many organizations centered around reentry (and doing great work). Other groups focus on the arts, and on social justice, and on building a more equitable, inclusive, and just society.
The ReEntry Lab is working to bring those pieces together, building bridges between writers and other artists leaving incarceration and the larger community to which they return, in the process giving socially conscious organizations a way to fulfill their obligations to people who count on them to make a difference.
Better Things
Please join us on Tuesday, December 3rd, at 7:00pm, at Moon Palace Books, for our next gathering, at which we will talk about some podcast episodes featuring reentry-related topics, including experiences and obstacles that writers leaving incarceration encounter. We will list the episodes, with links, on the Better Things page.
We may also spend some time rolling poems for the MPWW poetry gumball machines. Conversation and activities will be followed by an open mic period, when anyone can share their work. This gathering, and the open mic afterward, will be hosted by Erin Sharkey and Louise Waakaa’igan.
For more details, see Better Things.
Stay tuned for further details! – follow our Facebook page, our Instagram account (@reentrylab), and/or sign up for our newsletter.
Winter Writing Workshop
ReEntry Lab Residency at the Liberal Arts Engagement Hub
Have a poetic expression? A desire to reveal your inner poet? Join Louise Waakaa’igan for a four-part poetry workshop.
In this workshop, you will learn the importance of free writing, the value of imagery, the necessity for bravery, and the humility of sharing your work with others. Limited seats available, so sign up now!
MONDAYS
Dec 2nd, 9th, 16th & 23rd, 2024, 6:00 – 8:00 PM