10 AUGUST 7-13, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | zie, herself a noted artist. “Initially, they were doing these one-night exhibitions, but at a certain point they asked DU PAI to take on the responsibility, as it was growing beyond the capability of the original founders to feasibly accomplish.” McKenzie started working with DU PAI in 2021, and was there when what had begun as Chained Voices was changed to Unchained Voices the next year, because it sounded more optimistic. And the show went on despite the separation between DU and the DOC. “We already had committed to hosting that show last summer,” recalls McKenzie, who worked with fellow artist and DU PAI educator Lilly Stannard to produce the 2024 exhibition at the Boulder Public Library. “So this year, for the fi rst time, Unchained Voices is its own thing, its own non-profi t organiza- tion. It’s in a really good place in terms of its capacity to continue.” But McKenzie and Stannard also felt a pull to push arts education programs inside Colorado prisons, so they founded Impact Arts, a separate nonprofi t designed to pro- vide arts classes, programs and exhibitions in and around the state’s criminal-legal system. Although the CDOC has not renewed its contract with DU PAI, the department is working with some of these newer projects. Gonzales notes that “the Prison Programs Unit delivers diverse, evidence-based ser- vices designed to support personal growth, develop employable skills, and prepare individuals for successful reentry. These programs include academic education, social sciences, career and technical training, post- secondary opportunities, peer advocacy, library services, and volunteer-led activities.” Meanwhile, DU PAI has gotten an update, too, with Emmy Award-winning journalist and DU associate professor Kareem Raouf El Damanhoury as its new director. He says he anticipates being able to keep doing the sort of work for which DU PAI became known, perhaps by rebuilding relationships but also by working through the systems still available. “The way things used to play out and the way they’re playing out now are very different,” he explains. “It’s now very collaborative. We’re all working together to achieve some of those same goals, whether that’s theater or whether that’s radio, or writ- ing or visual arts classes or mural workshops. We’re all working in concert, supporting each other. And that in turn allows us all to reach for some new goals, too.” El Damanhoury is working with Un- bound Authors to help amplify prison jour- nalism, as well as Colorado Radio for Justice and other programs that have emerged. He’s also expanding DU projects like Arts Saves Lives, a speaker series that most recently hosted poet, prison re-entry specialist and activist Taj Ashaheed, who spoke on the impacts of poetry in and outside of prison. There are new challenges now, though. “With budget cuts and the fact that CDOC isn’t directly funding projects, that becomes an ordeal,” admits El Damanhoury. “So the way DU PAI is working now is that we’re totally dependent on donations; we have a budget based on that, and then we put out a call for projects for us to help support. But we very much rely on the public to help us do that. We believe in this work, and believe that others will see its immense value as we keep growing.” Fueling this belief is a new project that will go public this month. “One of the things we’re really excited to be doing right now is a hands-on mural workshop with jus- tice-impacted youth in Colorado,” says El Damanhoury. The workshop stems from a partnership between DU PAI and Vicki Myhren Gallery Director Geoffrey Shamos, as well as internationally renowned artist Emanuel Martinez and RedLine Contem- porary Art Center; the workshop is part of a new prison-related project debuting at RedLine this month. While the circumstances have changed, the work continues. High Walls: Artists Navigate Structures of Confi nement, an exhibit of work by incarcer- ated artists, will open Friday, August 15, at RedLine; the High Walls Summit, a national conversation focusing on mass incarcera- tion and the U.S. criminal-legal system, will run there August 16-17. The two projects, organized by Unchained Voices, will bring together many of the now-disparate artistic forces inspired by the work of DU PAI, in- cluding Unbound Authors, Impact Arts, ACT Ensemble, Mirror Image Arts, Remerg, the Emanuel Project, PhotoVoice and Colorado Radio for Justice (see story below). “Most of us have formed our opinions about people who are incarcerated through fi lm and society,” says Sarah McBride, who’s helped organize both the art show and the summit. “We think we know more about who is convicted of crimes and who is serving time than most of us actually know. Hon- estly, the system was designed to be on the periphery so most Americans don’t have to think about it.” The object of the summit, she adds, is to put the issue of incarceration front and center, “to spark curiosity and open up the conversation.” So after a few years in solitary, Colorado’s prison arts programs have broken out again, making good on the original promise of DU PAI: to give those affected by the legal and justice systems in the state a method of ex- pression. A voice, whether on canvas or over the air. Creativity can’t be caged. Breaking Free continued from page 8 UP AGAINST THE WALLS The upcoming High Walls: Artists Navi- gate Structures of Confi nement event at Red- Line Contemporary Art Center is billed as an exploration of “how physical and imagined space shapes the carceral system in Colorado and beyond.” But it’s so much more. High Walls, which will run two months, showcases work by artists engaging with or responding to the many aspects of the prison experience. It emerges from a national con- versation around mass incarceration and the U.S. criminal-legal system, and highlights the work of several artists who are currently or were formerly incarcerated in the Colorado Department of Corrections, including Cedar Annenkovna, Sean Marshall (the cover art- ist) and Dustin Ware. Their artwork will be presented alongside and in conversation with projects by notable contem- porary artists from outside Colorado, includ- ing a fi ve-channel sound and video installation by Maria Gaspar and photography by Sara Bennett. Other projects and engagements will speak directly to our region, in- cluding a mural workshop with system-impacted youth, led by Chi- cano-activist and artist Emanuel Martinez, who has worked with young people to create murals throughout the country. High Walls is curated by Katja Rivera, Sarah McKen- zie, Geoffrey Shamos and Tya Alisa Anthony, in col- laboration with Unchained Voices, and includes a who’s who of active participants in the multi-faceted prison arts programs that were originated or inspired by DU PAI’s work. The exhibit grew out of a conversation that McKenzie was having with Shamos back in 2023, when they determined that they needed a higher-profi le ex- hibition on mass incarcera- tion. “There had been smaller-scale things, but they weren’t getting the attention of the dominant art scene,” McKenzie recalls. They met with Louise Martorano at RedLine, who quickly signed on, and “the whole thing has really just grown in time,” McKenzie says. “From the beginning, we didn’t want it to be just an art show, but a series of events and pro- grams giving deeper insight into the ring of issues around the space of incarceration.” The result was an event- within-the-event: the High Walls Summit, which runs August 16-17 at RedLine and is taking the place of the tra- ditional 48 Hours program that the gallery hosts every August. It’s designed as a “deeper exploration of the themes” in the exhibition, delving into the complexities and “impact of incarceration and our criminal-legal sys- tem on individuals, families, communities, and society as a whole.” “RedLine is honored to be a collaborator in bringing this critical conversation to the forefront of our community’s consciousness: exploring and understanding the impact of incarceration on individu- als, families, and society as a whole,” says Patricia Mc- Crystal, RedLine marketing & communications manager. “The High Walls exhibition and summit will be an en- riching, eye-opening and inspiring forum for participants to listen, learn, share and connect with justice-impacted community members and supporting organizations.” And it’s all free; get more information at redlineart.org. — Teague Bohlen “Prison Rebirth,” by Sonny Lee, 2025. “Liminal Presents and Futures Self-Portrait,” Douglas DC Lehman, 2023. SONNY LEE DOUGL AS DC LEHMAN
