ReEntry Lab Liberal Arts Engagement Hub Residency Concludes with Public Reading

Department of English and Creative Writing Program alums and faculty have long worked with Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop to provide classes and mentorship for writers incarcerated in Minnesota prisons. But what about support after artists are released, when they face a range of obstacles to participation in social and cultural spheres? How can University and English department resources and opportunities be more easily accessed by writers navigating the difficult experience of post-incarceration? 

A Liberal Arts Engagement Hub residency with community group The ReEntry Lab—sponsored by English Professors V. V. Ganeshananthan and Kathryn Nuernberger—responded to these concerns via the creation of a supportive space for justice-impacted writers at the U in 2024-2025. A final public reading and exhibition took place Saturday May 24 at The Hub for writers engaged with the residency to share their work.

Twin Cities poet and writer Davi Gray has been involved with The ReEntry Lab from its start. “The ReEntry Lab began as an exploratory initiative supported by the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW),” Gray says, “and was intended to find ways to provide community and continued writing career development for formerly incarcerated writers once they moved back into the larger community.

“We have branched in several directions,” Gray continues, “making connections to several local arts and other organizations along the way. This includes the Better Things series of monthly reading events hosted in partnership with Moon Palace Books, who provide the space, and MPWW, who help with promotion and making connections.”

A Hub residency offered the opportunity for The ReEntry Lab to provide justice-impacted artists with space to meet with one another and with members of the University community. The mission of The Hub, in the College of Liberal Arts, is to bring humanistic scholars in the arts, humanities, and social sciences together with community members, especially in its Pillsbury Hall space, to co-create and collaborate around important social problems. Residencies are granted funds of up to $15,000 for the project period. 

Over its Hub residency year, The ReEntry Lab created and led several workshops and coordinated some led by others. “These included a practical, hands-on workshop on voting for newly re-enfranchised people, in partnership with T.O.N.E. U.P.,” reports Gray, “as well as zine workshops led by Low.” In the spring semester, the residency presented poetry workshops led by writers Louise Waakaa'igan and Gray and a speculative nonfiction writing workshop led by writer and editor Erin Sharkey. 

“Workshops included a mix of system-impacted people, University staff and students, and community members, providing opportunities to develop craft, practice art, and make connections,” says Gray. 

Beyond assisting with the original proposal, English faculty members Ganeshananthan and Nuernberger helped with publicity and resources for the workshops, including materials, equipment, and outreach to University students and other faculty.

"The ReEntry Lab is being run by some of the most talented writers in the Twin Cities,” says Department of English Chair Nuernberger, “and through this program they are bringing fantastic emerging writers into conversation with our campus community. It's been an inspiration to share this creative space with such talented writers. The way this program breaks down walls between artists from different backgrounds and communities is also the work of visionary imaginations. I appreciate that brilliance ReEntry Lab brings to the table."

The May 24 exhibition included, says Gray, “some of the outputs and contents of the various workshops, including zines we made, pieces of writing, and prompts.” A reading followed, featuring writers from the workshops, as well as Gray, Sharkey, and Waakaa'igan.

The benefits of the residency extended beyond the mutual art-making and workshop exercises for individuals, according to Gray. ReEntry Lab staff gained practical experience in leadership, coordination, and promotion, as well as connections developed during the residency. 

Concludes Gray: “We continue to explore more and better ways to build bridges and supports among formerly incarcerated and otherwise system-impacted writers and other artists and a larger community ready to receive them.”