This curriculum was created through a collaboration between Project PAINT, the American Prison Writing Archive, and Johns Hopkins Wavelengths, with one shared belief—that justice-impacted artists are uniquely able to visualize these stories for the public.
How to Use These Lessons
Teaching Artists have full flexibility with their approach to this project. These lessons below are meant as a support, not a prescription. We understand that every facility, teaching schedule, and group of students is different, and we not only anticipate but welcome a variety of approaches to the prompt.
DEADLINE TO SUBMIT:
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2026
ABout the Collaborators
American Prison Writing Archive
The mission of the American Prison Writing Archive (APWA) is to replace misrepresentation of prisons and imprisoned people with first-person witness by those living in legalized confinement. No single essay can tell us all that we need to know, but a mass-scale national Archive can begin to strip away widely circulated myths and replace them with a sense of the true human costs of the current legal order. By soliciting, preserving, digitizing, and disseminating the work of imprisoned people and volunteers, we hope to ground national debate on mass incarceration in the lived experience of those who know prisons best.
The APWA aims to triple its current holdings, with particular efforts to expand witness from people in the Archive who are women, gender non-conforming, Spanish-speaking, and representative residents from all states and territories. We invite all APWA visitors who are formerly incarcerated, work with, or know incarcerated people to help us in increasing contributions that document the prison experience.
Johns Hopkins Wavelengths
Research fuels the engine of progress; the Johns Hopkins Wavelengths public engagement program brings the benefits of university discoveries to the world through the development and promotion of strategic content for diverse audiences, inspired by its research community.
In classrooms, field stations, and laboratories in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and around the world, Hopkins experts are expanding understanding of complex challenges and opportunities. Wavelengths brings listeners, readers, viewers, and visitors inside their stories, presenting discoveries, innovations, and viewpoints that benefit people locally and globally. Through nonfiction books—and the media coverage, events, exhibits, and partnership projects they inspire—researchers’ insights spark curiosity and conversation across the web, radio, television, and public life.
Wavelengths is a partnership between the Johns Hopkins University Press and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. We encourage a diversity of authors, topics and perspectives and ensures content that is approachable, accurate, and engaging. The program supports the University's "Knowledge for the World" vision by bridging the academic and public spheres.
