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The mother and daughter discuss their Art for Justice Fund and how they will continue to fight oppression through their work.

Ray was released from prison in March 2018, after a more than three-and-a-half-year sentence for a felony conviction. On Sunday, a little more than five years later, she earned her second degree: a master’s in social work, after finishing her bachelor’s in 2022.

Twelve “returned,” or formerly incarcerated, artists, including rap performers and visual artists from several area prisons, will join the World House Choir to present “Solidarity Dividend: Art in Action,” Saturday, May 14, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, May 15, at 3 p.m., in the Foundry Theater on the camp

Kamisha Thomas is a filmmaker, writer, director, co-founder of the Returning Artists Guild in Columbus and a returned citizen. Kamisha was a filmmaker before she went to prison, but finished her short film while she was inside. There were a lot of projects in prison, she says, that helped her continue her filmmaking.

A poster project creates an opportunity for artists leaving incarceration. Amanda Page When Aimee Wissman was released from prison, she wanted to build a life as a visual artist but didn’t know where to start. “I had no jumping-off point,” she says.  She began volunteering with the Ohio Prison Arts Connection, which exists “at the intersection of the arts and the justice system,” says Jessie Glover, lead facilitator for OPAC, a coalition that pushes for arts access for people in prison and after their release.  Reentry from prison poses a host of problems, and resources can be ...