Join the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) at the University of Michigan.on Friday, Friday, March 29 from 7-8 pm at Booksweet (1729 Plymouth Rd., Ann Arbor) for a special author reading to raise funds for the Prison Creative Arts Project(PCAP) at the University of Michigan.

Presented in partnership with the PCAP Student Executive Board, this event features readings by 2024 Michigan Notable author Janie Paul and Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Best Fiction Book author Patrick Flores-Scott.

Additionally, members of the Student Executive Board will read a selection of works by authors who are currently incarcerated.

This event is ticketed via Eventbrite, with a pay-what-you-can sliding scale donation ($1-$50+), with 100% of the net ticketing proceeds supporting PCAP’s Student Executive Board.

You can purchase tickets at this LINK.

Additionally, from March 1 to March 30, Booksweet will donate 20% of all sales from our Understanding Incarceration reading list to PCAP’s Student Executive Board (in-store or online, with shipping worldwide). The list features books to help readers deepen their understanding of prison reform, abolition, and co-liberatory practices.

This author reading in support of PCAP is held in conjunction with the 28th Annual Exhibition of Artists in Michigan Prisons, on view March 19 to April 2 2024 at the James and Anne Duderstadt Center Gallery (2281 Bonisteel Blvd, Ann Arbor, MI 48109). The exhibition showcases the work of artists incarcerated in 24 Michigan prisons. This year there are 750 works of art by 490 artists in two and three dimensions, including portraits, tattoo imagery, landscapes, fantasy, and wildlife as well as images about incarceration and visions that are entirely new. We invite you to enjoy the work, write to the artists, and if you like, make a purchase. All proceeds, minus necessary taxes and fees, go directly to the artists.

About the authors

Janie Paul is a painter, curator, and writer. She is the senior curator and co-founder, with her husband Buzz Alexander, of the Exhibitions of Artists in Michigan Prisons (founded in 1996), a project of the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP), which Buzz founded in 1990 at the University of Michigan. She is an Arthur F. Thurnau professor emerita of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan. Her book, Making Art in Prison: Survival and Resistance (Hat & Beard, 2023), named a 2024 Michigan Notable book, introduces readers to the culture and aesthetics of prison art communities, and shares heart wrenching, poignant, and often surprisingly humorous artists’ narratives.

Patrick Flores-Scott is the author of the award-winning novels Jumped In and American Road Trip, which was named a Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Best Fiction Book, a TAYSHAS Reading List Selection, an SLJ National Hispanic Heritage Month pick, and a Teen Vogue Best Gift Book, and was licensed to WEBTOON for graphic digital serialization, and optioned for film. His forthcoming book, No Going Back (releasing April 2, 2024 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) is a coming of age story about seventeen-year-old Antonio Sullivan’s quest for redemption and making amends to the people he hurt most—even if it means breaking the terms of his early release from juvenile detention. Patrick taught public school in Seattle, Washington, for many years and has written for theater and the slam poetry stage. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his family.

About the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP)

PCAP facilitates creative arts workshops in Michigan state prisons during the fall and winter terms, run through Membership and University of Michigan courses (a September or January training session is required).

The Annual Exhibition of Artists in Michigan Prisons takes place in March, with opportunities to assist in collection trips, curation, sales, and programming. PCAP also supports additional smaller art exhibitions throughout the year.

The Linkage Community welcomes those who are formerly incarcerated, offering arts programming, professional development, and a social support network.

The Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing is published annually featuring the work of incarcerated writers.

Learn more and get involved.