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 5×5 Reading (July 2025)
Please join us on Tuesday, July 1st, at 7:00pm, at Moon Palace Books, for our next 5×5 Reading, featuring five fantastic writers: Anthony Ceballos, Kyle “Guante” Tran Myhre, Taiwana Shambley, Barbara Currin, and Jeannine Ouellette. An open mic afterward is open to all (list is first come, first serve).
This reading, and the open mic afterward, will be hosted by Davi Gray, Erin Sharkey, and Louise Waakaa’igan. Light refreshments will be served; masks are required at Moon Palace Books and are available on-site. This is a free event, and for the first time, we’ve added ASL interpretation! (This will be an ongoing feature of our 5×5 readings.)
There is a Facebook event, or you can add it to your Google Calendar or download an ICS file to add it to other calendars, but you can also just show up! We’d love to have you there — all are welcome at this free event.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
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.