Prison Project

Inside/Outside Prison Outreach History

ISOS XIII - Fall 2010

Mask created by participants of a previous ISOS session.

Inside/Outside: The Prison Project is in the middle of its 13th session with incarcerated 'residents' of River City Correctional Center. the following information gives you a little insight into its history and its form - for more information contact Contemporary Dance Theater or Jefferson James at Jefferson@cdt-dance.org

You can also find more information on the Inside/Outside website by clicking here.

Inside/Outside began in February 2001 with the participation of individual artists and organizations in an intensive training conducted in Cincinnati by the Pat Graney Dance Company of Seattle. The training involved Cincinnati participants in the creation of an integrated arts program for women at River City.

The residency of the combined Seattle and Cincinnati artists’ teams culminated in two performances at River City. Interweaving poetry, movement, and visual arts created by incarcerated women, the performances were attended by audiences composed of incarcerated women and men, River City staff, and members of the general public including city officials, corrections professionals, local artists, and friends of the arts.
The success of our original work with the Pat Graney Dance Company, and the intensive team-building sessions engaged in by the Cincinnati artist team, resulted in an ongoing commitment to collaborate together. In June 2001, INSIDE/OUTSIDE received a Strategic Collaboration Grant from the Fine Arts Fund to launch its own pilot program at River City. The 10-week program, which ran from August to December 2001, was a tremendous success. The collaboration has continued to conduct programming at River City and is currently planning our tenth session. The creation of the Apprenticeship Program was implemented during the third series of workshops and is ongoing. Artistic apprenticeships ensure the future of our program and spread awareness about our work within the community. We also hope to expand our work with an aftercare program to help released inmates continue their engagement with the arts.

Over the years individual sessions of ISOS have been supported by the Fine Arts Fund, the Ohio Arts Council, Purdy Foundation, Emery Foundation, Tomcinoh Foundation, The Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation, Duke Energy, Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation, the City of Cincinnati, and individual donors. A special thank you to all those supporters. ISOS was the runner-up for the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation in 2004.

Inside/Outside is a model easily replicated by, or adapted to, the uses of other organizations. The collaborators have been extremely intentional about not only what we have created, but how we have created it. All the elements of Inside/Outside:

a. The integration of writing, visual art, movement, and performance (layering each around a theme).
b. The creation of a public performance out of the various artistic projects conceived during our residency at the prison.
c. The artists’ planning sessions.
d. The simple rituals used to gather and ground the participants.
e. The leadership structure has been documented in both written and visual form.

More importantly, the collaborators meet before, during, and after the residency to create, and to reflect upon our methods. As a result, the group as a whole, or any individual within the group, could teach the model to another organization. We have already begun to brainstorm the various applications our process could have to civic, business, arts, and nonprofit entities.

In the spirit of exploration, the artist team hopes to share the joy of writing, movement, drama, and visual art with the women of Inside/Outside. Our vision is that each woman embark on a journey of self-discovery, finding her own voice and mapping her own course. Using the past and future to shape the present, we each tap into our inner wisdom and are empowered by the warmth and community of other women. Expressing ourselves in a new way gives us comfort and insight, so that from this time on, the arts can be a refuge and a beacon for a healthy future.

– Inside/Outside Vision Statement
River City, Fall 2002

Below is the introduction that preceeded the ISOS X presentation
in November, 2007

The Inside/Outside program is designed to build interpersonal skills through the arts. The women learn to view the art forms as a tool to process painful aspects of their lives, and to build hope for the future. My name is Carolyn Brookbank, as the literary artist, I introduced process writing as a tool for power and comfort in our lives. We reinvigorated our creative selves by the challenge of varied writing techniques.
    The circle wrote to and discussed the concepts of shadow and light, what we reveal/what we keep hidden and the idea of symbols. We worked with the elements: earth, air, fire, and water as symbols of our lives.
    For the readaround each woman chooses a piece from her writing portfolio, she the read that work at a group edits. The questions, “what worked, what is confusing,” were asked about her piece in a smaller circle of peers and one purple shirt. She made changes based on these suggestions. Then she did a final individual edit with me, where I suggested final revisions and possible ways to read her piece in performance.
    This extensive literary process translates into the following life skills: trying new things, risking, listening, hearing what is working in your life, hearing what in not working in your life, experimenting with imagination, finishing a task that is non monetary (handmade life), and taking pride as well as pleasure in your hard work.

The following group poem is from our current session.

OF WHAT DO WE MAKE OUR HOMES ISOS XIII, 2010

(After Jean Nordhaus)

Of brick. Of sheet metal. Of hope. Of disappointment.

Of tears. Of truth. Of lies and deceit. A wood burning stove.

A sister. A brother. Of pain. Of fire. Of siblings. Of both parents.

Of cardboard. Of broken dishes.

Of haylofts. Of bunk beds. Of blanket tents.

A forest can be a home.

A beach can be a home.

Laughter can be a home.

A teddy bear. A dog. A cat.

Of addiction. Of stress. Of shame. Of drugs to blame.

Of cats. Of chaos.

A music box. A few crayons. Of silence. Of sickness.

Of the dead. Of night. Of tenderness. Of leaving.

Clouds can be a home.

Nature can be a home.

A good meal can be a home.

I’ll build my house of dreams.

I’ll build my house of roses and grass.

I’ll build my house with bare hands and hard work.

I’ll build my house of love, of leaving, of trust, of silence, of my own kind.

By the Women of ISOS XIII, compiled by Carolyn Brookbank

Inside/Outside Chrysalis Pod
River City Correctional Center