The Prison Story Project is:
Kathy McGregor, Storyteller and Project Director
Matt Henriksen – Creative Writing Director, Death Row
Jane Blunschi – Creative Writing Director, Women’s Prison
Jonny Schremmer – Theatre Director, Women’s Prison
Troy Schremmer – Theatre Director, Men’s Prison/Death Row
Geffrey Davis – Writer in Residence and Educational Advocacy Director
David Jolliffe – University Tour Coordinator
Shannon Wurst – Singer Songwriter, Women’s Prison
Rich Moore – “On The Row” musician
Andrew Kilgore – Project Photographer
We are a storytelling project that benefits incarcerated women and men. Our participants explore their truths through poetry, creative writing, literature, song-writing, and visual art.
Participants’ work is then curated into a staged reading performed by actors. The goal of our prison arts organization is to enable those whose voices have been locked away to tell their stories, allowing communities to witness the humanity of women and men in prison through their own words.
The very first Prison Story Project staged reading was presented on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012. An INSIDE performance was presented to our first class of writers incarcerated in a women’s correction center in Northwest Arkansas and later that evening an OUTSIDE performance was presented for the public. This was a first for the prison and for our community.
Men and women incarcerated in Arkansas prisons meet with the Prison Story Project team to explore the art of storytelling. They listen to each other, to guest artists, and to their own hearts. They tell their stories through writing, reading, poetry, and song writing. Their writing is collected, edited, and collated into a staged reading performed first for participants and prison staff at an INSIDE prison performance and then OUTSIDE for public performances.
Since then, we have provided the project to women and men incarcerated in Fayetteville and Pine Bluff, Arkansas and finally, to men incarcerated on Arkansas’ death row at Varner Prison.
If you would like to participate with either your time, talent or financial contribution, please contact us!