From Team Retreat to BIG Screen + Galaxy Gives
Emeryville Film Festival, 11 new stories, 2 Upcoming Events + 2 Major announcements
Welcome to Empowerment Ave! Learn more about our history, partnerships, and past published work here. Subscribe to the newsletter here.
We missed last month, so we’ve got some catching up to do. Let’s jump in.
We’ve been busy. As a national organization working with incarcerated creatives across the country, we decided it was time to step away from our screens and gather in person for our inaugural team retreat in Santa Cruz. A big thank you to The Ahimsa Collective for providing the perfect space to slow down, reflect, spill a little tea, and, intentionally, avoid talking politics too much.
Our focus was the mission: the people inside, those who have come home, and those who will. Thank you to Ashley, our Operations Lead, and Corinne Enni, co-founder of Coral Collective, for organizing and facilitating the strategic planning sessions while also making room for team building.
From hikes and pop quizzes to late-night dinners and movie nights, we appreciated the chance to step away from the constant pursuit of delivering real impact. This retreat’s only deliverable was to be present with each other and bring our full selves to the retreat space. In doing so, we learned more about one another and connected. We discovered a shared love of pop culture, so see below for our recommended readings, films, TV shows, and artists to stream. Amid all the organizing and planning, that downtime was essential. Now we’re back, re-energized and ready to support pur community.
As soon as the retreat ended, our Executive Director Rahsaan Thomas was already on the move. He co-curated the final block, “Resilience: Inside & Out,” at the second annual Emeryville Film Festival in Emeryville, CA, alongside Tanisha Cannon of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.
We screened Painting Ourselves Into Society, produced through our Film for Liberation program, and it was powerful to see it on the big screen before a sold-out crowd where we saw both familiar and new faces. There’s something special about witnessing work created by our community, all contributing to a shared narrative shift.
Congratulations to all the filmmakers featured in our block. We can’t do this work alone, and we don’t pretend to.EA Community,
Stay tuned for more information about our upcoming events.
Big Announcements
Empowerment Avenue Launches inStudio + Inaugural Exhibition “The Distance Between: Traveling Beyond Count Time”
We will be hosting our grand opening in our new exhibition space, inStudio with Empowerment Avenue. Come out and support our artists, experience new work, and spend time with the team. Join us for Oakland’s First Friday with music, art, and food.
When: Opening Reception, May 1, 2026 | 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Free and open to the public during First Fridays
Where: inStudio | 473 25th St., Suite A, Oakland, CA 94612
RSVP here or just stop by.
Bridging the Gap: Amplifying Incarcerated Voices
We’re teaming up with Empowerment Avenue writer alum Christopher Blackwell, now Executive Director of Look2Justice, along with Haymarket Books and other sponsors, to bring you a two-day convening.
Where: Chicago Teachers Union, Chicago, IL
When: Friday, May 29, 2026 (9:30 AM) – Saturday, May 30, 2026 (4:00 PM)
Our Executive Director Rahsaan Thomas and Writing for Liberation Co-Lead Joshua Strange will be attending and participating in panels alongside others in the field. Together, they’ll be sharing and learning concrete tools for supporting incarcerated writers and journalists, while working collectively to address the barriers that continue to shape this work.
If you’re engaged in publishing with currently incarcerated writers or working in journalism, this is a convening you don’t want to miss.
For more information and to register, check it out here.
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Upcoming Events
Painting Ourselves Into Society — Documentary Screening
Where: Central Library, Community Meeting Room (3rd Floor)
2090 Kittredge St, Berkeley, CA 94704
When: Wednesday, April 8 | 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Join us for a screening of Painting Ourselves Into Society, a short documentary produced by Rahsaan Thomas, Executive Director of Empowerment Avenue.
The film looks at the exhibition at Berkeley Art Center and centers the artists and people behind the work. It explores how incarcerated artists use their creative practice to place themselves into society, illustrating and painting themselves into the world while inside. It asks what inclusion can look like when artists are not just included, but shaping the space itself.
Come through, watch with us, and be in conversation.
Night of Ideas
Arts + Impact on Prison Systems
This panel brings together organizations using the arts—across writing, visual art, film, and performance—to build awareness around systems-impacted communities and push toward carceral reform and abolition. Each organization is developing models that not only support artistic practice, but also create pathways for artists who have historically been excluded from mainstream spaces.
Join us for an evening of dialogue, reflection, and connection.
Learn more, here.
RSVP here.
Writer Spotlight: Timothy Peoples
The Writing for Liberation program supports more than 30 incarcerated journalists, essayists, and poets. We share their published work in each newsletter edition, but we have not often highlighted individual writers—until now.
Each month, we’ll be using this section of the newsletter to spotlight one of the writers we support. This month, we’re highlighting Timothy Peoples:
Timothy is a writer who has been incarcerated for 29 years. He is currently pursuing a law degree with expectations of becoming a human rights attorney. Peoples is an outspoken advocate for prison closures and international humanitarian civil rights, and he intends to bring public awareness to the many pitfalls that prisons have on society through his writing. Examples of his work include coauthoring an amicus curiae brief that led to the closure of California Correctional Center, an article in Truthout, and more.
Here is more about what inspires Timothy to write:
Writing for me is pleasurable in itself. I enjoy writing unpublishable rants that will never see mainstream publication (laughs). And comeback stories, I enjoy writing those, pulling readers along a narrative arc from the gutter to the glorious.
Writing for me gives back my rights to expect responsibility, accountability, and government reforms by elected officials who stripped away the rights of the incarcerated to actively participate in government affairs. The impact I want my writing to have is on members of the public and incarcerated persons who are willing to create bridges in order to stand together against factionalism that view our government as a right of privilege extended to them by virtues of inheritable political role playing of nobility. It is why I enjoy writing about a governmental system fixed on separating people by class and laws that deprive them of the right to enjoy being recognized as a human being and not just a product that leads to the success of upper class society members and their offspring.
We hope you will read Timothy’s work and share it with your networks. Thank you for being part of EA, Timothy!
Our Latest Work
1. EA artist Jennifer Rhodes’ illustration, Breakaway, was published by Zócalo Public Square1 alongside an essay by incarcerated writer David Media about how prison self-help classes help us all.
2. Timothy Peoples writes for Knock LA2 about how California’s updated Racial Justice Act, known as AB 1071, is restoring hope for the state’s incarcerated population.
3. Xandan Gulley has been receiving gender-affirming care for nearly six years, but after the Texas Department of Criminal Justice cut healthcare costs and decided to switch testosterone brands, he began experiencing a health decline. In this heartwrenching essay for Grassroots Thinking3, he explores why he’s chosen to stop receiving gender-affirming care and why this decision is like “being killed slowly.”
4. Why does prison food tend to make incarcerated people ill over time? Jeremy Busby thoroughly answers this complex question in a piece for Prison Writers4 about how the food processing operations inside of jails and prisons violate public health standards.
5. In a powerful essay for The Flytrap5, Kwaneta Harris details how women who are incarcerated routinely experience gender-based violence. “For women in prison, one abuser is replaced with another,” she writes. “The U.S. calls this “justice.”
6. “Correctional industries” jobs exist in every state prison system. These jobs skirt legal loopholes to put incarcerated people to work creating license plates, textiles, breakfastcereals, and other goods and services needed by the outside world. In this investigative feature for Filter6, Tony Vick examines how agencies such as TRICOR are using incarcerated employees to save millions in labor costs for private companies while the employees receive few, if any, benefits.
7. Jeremy Busby goes two for two this month with an op-ed in The Intercept7 about how the current presidential administration is using the tactics the government has long used in prisons to suppress free speech on the outside.
8. We also have another one from Xandan Gulley! For Inquest8, he writes about how Texas continues to incarcerate people who have been freed on parole until they have an “approved” home to be released to.
9. Kwaneta Harris really had an amazing month! Ms. Magazine9 published her essay about how complicated menopause is for incarcerated women.
10. Kwaneta also published an op-ed in Truthout10 about how incarcerated women who are featured in the spectacle of true crime are stripped of their humanity.
11. There may be no bigger story in 2026 than the aggressive federal crackdown on immigration and the mass incarceration and deportation of immigrants. Our own Jeremy Busby, who also had an amazing month, interviewed journalists who have been jailed by ICE for Truthout. Their experiences are harrowing, eye-opening, and worth reading.
Inside/Outside Insights
1. CONGRATULATIONS: EA writer Kwaneta Harris received a fellowship from Galaxy Gives, an organization that “support[s] leaders and organizations building power, narratives, and solutions to advance justice, heal our communities, and transform our future.” Congratulations, Kwaneta! Kwaneta has produced journalism at a historic level, sounding the alarm and advancing women’s rights, and the honor of being named a Galaxy Gives winner confirms that work. Her stories, vulnerability, and continued pursuit of narrative justice cannot be overstated. We could not be happier for her as she continues to blaze a trail.
2. LISTEN: Xandan Gulley, a writer that EA supports, appeared on the Prison Pen Pal podcast, to discuss his experience of living as a Black trans man in a woman’s prison in Texas. His moving story shows how “a single candle has the power to defy darkness.”
Team Reflections
I will never forget when I got notice that my first article from the inside had been published in an outside media outlet. It represented much more than just an important milestone for me as an incarcerated journalist. It represented validation of my craft. It represented respect for my humanity despite my missteps. It represented the value of my voice in public discourse. And the resources it afforded were certainly a game changer when I returned home at a time when $200 in gate money was more of a cruel joke than meaningful reentry support.
Without the support of editors from Empowerment Avenue, my article would have been left languishing in the plastic bin under my rack, another neatly typed and well-researched manuscript gathering dust and crying out to be read.
I am truly grateful to have come full circle to where I am now—helping Empowerment Avenue’s writers get their voices heard in public discourse. At a time when journalism is under pressure from forces that seek to silence the truth as a tool of oppression, those voices need to be heard more than ever. And nowhere is this truer than behind the walls. After all, as written by Fyodor Dostoevsky and paraphrased by many, “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” For those who have been inside America’s prisons, whether they came in chains or wearing a badge, I think we can all agree we have work to do to make our society more civilized—and journalism and creative expression from the inside is essential to that endeavor.
I am reminded of a famous quote by a young Benjamin Franklin: “Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom—and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.” Those words are as true today as they were in 1722. But one thing that many people don’t know about that quote is that Benjamin Franklin’s older brother was in jail at the time, locked up in retaliation for speaking truth to power.
As I reflect on the hardships and abuses faced by those still inside, I recognize my place of privilege on the outside. I also recognize the special honor I have been given to be in a position to help those inside have an avenue to be heard beyond the walls. From the countless everyday administrative tasks to onboarding new volunteers to finding new publication partners or collaborating with like-minded organizations to support incarcerated creatives, all our efforts are aimed at our central goal of empowering people on the inside to get their voices heard—and in the process, help them build better futures for everyone. That hope and promise is what fuels my efforts, and I hope it will help to fuel yours.
In solidarity,
Joshua Strange
Writing for Liberation Co-Lead
Team Retreat Learnings
Let us set the scene before you scroll down and get into the list of movies, books, TV shows, and artists we recommend. Sitting around the dinner table in the middle of the Santa Cruz mountains, sharing food, we were prompted with a simple but impossible question: if you had to choose two books, two artists to see live, two TV shows, and two movies, what would they be? The difficulty was immediate. You could hear it in the long sighs, the pauses, the debates. What do you leave out? What makes the cut? Who picks something we all know and hope gets named?
In the process, we got a chance to really bond, share stories, and sit in our love for culture, storytelling, and the things that shape us. We learned more about each other through what we chose and what we struggled to leave behind. The list below is meant to be engaged with. Laugh at it, critique it, question it, and hopefully find some common ground with us.
Have fun, and let us know what we missed.
→ TV Series / Shows
Baywatch, Better Call Saul, Designated Survivor, Family Matters, Freaks and Geeks,Game of Thrones, Good Times, Hey Arnold, Martin, Peaky Blinders, Seinfeld, Snowfall, Star Trek, The Expanse, The Jetsons, The Sopranos
Honorable Mentions
A Different World, Breaking Bad, Flavor of Love, Living Single, Queen of the South, The Real World, The Wire
→ Artists (You Have to See)
Alabama Shakes, Anderson .Paak, Beyoncé, Bob Marley, Britney Spears, James Brown, Life Jennings, Nina Simone, Prince, Raheem DeVaughn, Sade, Spice Girls, Stevie Wonder, Ty Tribbett, Whitney Houston
Honorable Mentions
Aretha Franklin, George Clinton & Parliament, Jimi Hendrix, Jill Scott, Macy Gray, Raphael Saadiq, Rihanna
→ Movies
Apocalypse Now, Beetlejuice, Carmen Jones, Crooklyn, Kill Bill, Malcolm X, Man on Fire, Minions, Sing Sing, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, The Usual Suspects, Women Under the Influence, Zootopia
Honorable Mentions
Amistad, E.T., In the Heat of the Night, Lean on Me, Stomp the Yard, The Departed, Trading Places
→ Books
100 Years of Solitude, 1619 Project, All About Love – bell hooks, Autobiography of a Yogi, Beloved, Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates, Easy Rawlins (Devil in a Blue Dress) – Walter Mosley, The Alchemist, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Color Purple, The Corrections, The Hobbit, Their Eyes Were Watching God
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Zócalo Public Square publishes original essays, columns, poems, and artwork that grapples with a broad range of subjects. It is unclear how much they pay.
Knock LA is a California-based journalism and commentary project that is “dedicated to giving a voice to the left and uplifting marginalized communities.” They pay on a sliding scale ranging from $200 to $500 depending on article length, research effort, costs involved, and need.
Grassroots Thinking is an independent publication focused on “the stories that matter to the Black working class.” They pay $.10/word with a minimum of $75 for each story.
Prison Writers publishes uncensored, personal stories and thoughtful essays from incarcerated writers. They pay between $15 and $20 for published stories.
The Flytrap is a worker-owned, intersectional, and expansive feminist media group that is bringing cultural criticism back to the internet. They pay $.50/word.
Filter’s mission is to advocate through journalism for rational and compassionate approaches to drug use, drug policy, and human rights. They pay $300 per essay.
The Intercept investigates powerful individuals and institutions to expose corruption and injustice. It is unclear how much they pay for stories.
Inquest is a forum for advancing bold ideas to end mass incarceration in the United States. They pay $250 per essay.
Ms. Magazine is a multi-issue and globally-focused media outlet interested in a plethora of topics—from policy and politics to popular culture and the arts, from education to the environment, from violence to abortion. It is unclear how much they pay.\