Michigan prison art program helps inmates find voice — and hope

At first glance, the small colored drawing by Kushawn Miles El reads like a comic strip. But it is actually a record of survival — one man’s attempt to reclaim his story after decades behind bars.

The piece — “ Inside the Journal of a Juvenile Life to Redemption ” — is part of the University of Michigan’s latest Prison Creative Arts Project exhibit, which showcases hundreds of works by incarcerated artists across the state.

For Miles El, who spent 32 years in prison before his release last summer, the program offered more than a creative outlet. It was a way to process trauma, rebuild identity and connect with the outside world on his own terms.

“I was able to (illustrate) where I started and where I ended up,” he told Bridge Michigan. “That right there inspired people who’re trying to come home … or people who gave up.”

The Detroit native was convicted of first-degree murder in 1994, when he was 18 years old. He was initially sentenced to mandatory life in prison, which the Michigan Supreme Court later deemed unconstitutionally harsh for people under the age of 21.

“Being in prison with life without parole, you think you’re never coming home,” Miles El said. “You have to have something that keeps you going.”

After hiring an artist to create a portrait of him and his siblings for his mother and feeling dissatisfied with the result, Miles El began shadowing other artists in prison in the early 2000s so he could learn to create the portrait himself.

“Every day I used to bug them to show me how to do artwork and show me techniques,” Miles El said. “I started practicing, learning on my own and watching (others).”

In 2002, Miles El reluctantly submitted his artwork to the Prison Creative Arts Project’s annual exhibition and was surprised when it sold.

“My artwork became my voice of reason,” he said. “It became a platform to speak to people outside of prison and show people a different side of people who are incarcerated.”

A testament to resilience

The Prison Creative Arts Project launched its 30th annual exhibit on Tuesday in Ann Arbor. Organizers say it is the largest and longest-running art show of its kind in the country.

This year’s exhibit features more than 800 pieces from inmates across the state and runs through March 31. The art mediums vary, from oil paintings to sculptures and colored drawings.

“The exhibition … is really a testament to the resilience of artists inside prison who continue to create and find new ways to express themselves, even in the most challenging circumstances,” said Nora Krinitsky, director of the project.

U-M founded the project in 1990 in collaboration with the Michigan Department of Corrections as a theater workshop where undergraduate students in the residential college would provide academic training and workshops for people incarcerated.

“One of the most profound changes that I see in people who participate in our programs is a new sense of identity and ability to narrate (their) story in a new way and in a different way than how the criminal and legal system has narrated it,” Krinitsky said.

The project is funded by grants and gifts from donors — not the state — but proceeds from art sales at the exhibit are given to the MDOC for its Prisoner Benefits Fund for programming, along with the artists.

Students and volunteers meet weekly with inmates in state prisons in southeast Michigan for workshops on theater, creative writing and visual arts.

Prison staff help “chaperone visits when we go to select art or when we do creative art workshops,” Krinitsky said. “They help to recruit people inside to our programs and advertise the opportunity to create visual art.”

The MDOC did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

It ‘saved my life’

The project also publishes digital exhibitions in collaboration with local and global organizations that feature poetry, videos and photography.

It’s where Detroit native Charles Brooks’ poems about religion, spirituality, fatherhood, injustice and poverty can be found. The 43-year-old author began writing at five years old.

“I wanted to be a rapper but my dad did not let us listen to rap music,“ he told Bridge. “I found out that rap was poetry set to music and all of a sudden I was a poet.”

Brooks was convicted of armed robbery and weapons-related charges and spent 20 years in prison.

“It’s a very crushing feeling to wake up every day in prison and realize, ‘I’m still here,’” Brooks said.

“To be able to get those emotions off of my chest, out of my pen, onto a piece of paper, allowed me to have a clear (mind) and take the time to figure out what my path is.”

Brooks was released last June. In January, he launched Free Thoughtz, a literary workshop for youth impacted by the criminal justice system.

The Prison Creative Arts Project saved my life and has enabled me with tools to hopefully help other people save theirs, he said.

While the project is exclusive to Michigan, artwork made by prisoners can be found on display in other states.

The Clark Gallery’s “Cell Solace: Born Confinement” exhibit in Lincoln, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, is showcasing art made by inmates from the 1920s through the 1980s.

Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project recently hosted its fifth annual Changing the Course Art Show, which featured art from incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people in Alabama.

---

This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.