The Prison Song Project (TPSP) is a prison arts initiative bringing arts into New Mexico prisons. Engagement with the arts, writing and sharing one’s story in a supportive community, have proven to dramatically increase one’s well-being, resilience, and successful re-entry into civilian society after prison.
Program Summary:
The Prison Song Project (TPSP) is a prison arts initiative bringing arts into New Mexico prisons. It features a pilot project between the University of New Mexico (UNM) and Albuquerque’s Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC). Over the course of a semester, the program pairs incarcerated persons at the county jail, MDC, with students from UNM Songwriting III, Songs for Social Justice class. The mission is to grow skills in intercultural communication, for college students and inmates, and assist in reducing recidivism in New Mexico through teaching a) collaboration b) deep listening c) sharing one’s story in a public space and d) a deeper sense of connectedness to the “outside” world.
Through sixteen weeks of writing a song together, the students and inmates will share their stories, collaboratively write songs, sharpen skill sets, and build relationships across the prison wall. The songwriters will perform their songs in two final concerts featuring all participants. The songwriting experience and recorded songs will also be shared in a podcast, “Sing Me Back Home,” available to a national listening audience through anchor.fm.
Funded by the McCune Foundation.
You can learn more about how to support this initiative, here.
Program Summary:
The Prison Song Project (TPSP) is a prison arts initiative bringing arts into New Mexico prisons. It features a pilot project between the University of New Mexico (UNM) and Albuquerque’s Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC). Over the course of a semester, the program pairs incarcerated persons at the county jail, MDC, with students from UNM Songwriting III, Songs for Social Justice class. The mission is to grow skills in intercultural communication, for college students and inmates, and assist in reducing recidivism in New Mexico through teaching a) collaboration b) deep listening c) sharing one’s story in a public space and d) a deeper sense of connectedness to the “outside” world.
Through sixteen weeks of writing a song together, the students and inmates will share their stories, collaboratively write songs, sharpen skill sets, and build relationships across the prison wall. The songwriters will perform their songs in two final concerts featuring all participants. The songwriting experience and recorded songs will also be shared in a podcast, “Sing Me Back Home,” available to a national listening audience through anchor.fm.
Funded by the McCune Foundation.
You can learn more about how to support this initiative, here.
