Northwest Arkansas Prison Story Project
The Prison Story Project Is:
Kathy McGregor, Storyteller and Project Director
Katie Nichol – Creative Writing Director, with Jane Blunschi
Jonny Schremmer, Theatre Director, with Kholoud Sawaf
Suzanne Stoner, Cheryl Sharman, and Pamela Bramsfield, Circle Keepers
Shannon Wurst – Singer Songwriter
Addison Staples, University of Arkansas Intern
Andrew Kilgore – Project Photographer
The very first NWA Prison Story Project was presented on Thursday, October 4, 2012. An INSIDE performance was presented to the inmates at a women’s correction center in Northwest Arkansas and later that evening an OUTSIDE performance was presented at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. This was a first for the prison and for the community.
For four months 12 incarcerated women met twice a week to explore the art of storytelling. They listened to each other, to guest artists, and to their own hearts. They told their stories through writing, reading, poetry, mask making, song writing, and life mapping. Their stories were collected, edited, and put together in a staged reading performed for them, their sister inmates, and prison staff at an INSIDE the prison performance and then on the OUTSIDE for the Northwest Arkansas community. Later, in December of 2012, The NWA Prison Story Project found blessed sanctuary in ongoing support from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The second Prison Story Project, began on January 14, 2013 and ended mid-April, 2013. Eleven women inmates met twice a week with storyteller Kathy McGregor, actress Erika Wilhite, and poet Katie Nichol, and once again began exploring the art of personal storytelling.
Their stories were performed in a staged reading INSIDE the prison on April 18, 2013, and OUTSIDE the prison on April 19, 2013, titled “Stories From the Inside Out”
The NWA Prison Story Project held it’s next classes as follows:
Prison Stories III July – November, 2013
Prison Stories IV January – April, 2014
Prison Stories V completed Spring of 2015
These classes and performances were funded, in part, by the Mid-America Arts Alliance, with matching support from the Artist’s Laboratory Theatre and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
As we have grown, so have our audiences. Prison Stories III, IV, and V were performed to standing room only audiences (the Parish Hall at St. Paul’s has about 220 seats) and that tells us that the community the women will be returning to want to know more about them. Understand them. Learn how to welcome them. In a new and healing way for everyone.
Everyone who participates as a guest artist with Prison Stories volunteers their time to this important work. It costs approximately $2,500 for each 4 month session. When we are extra special blessed we receive enough donations at the staged reading, or in grant funding, or in-kind donations (printing, notepads, pens, books, etc) to pay stipends to the artists and actresses who bring the sacred stories of the incarcerated women we serve to life.
If you would like to participate in upcoming sessions with either your time, talent or financial contribution, please contact us!
Location: Fayetteville, AR, USA
