Student-Curated Exhibit "Release: From Stigma to Acceptance" Features the Art of Former Inmates

Every year in this country 700,000 people return home after serving time in prison.

Release: From Stigma to Acceptance is a fascinating student-curated exhibition going on at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art in Winston-Salem. It features the words and visual art of former offenders who have graduated from Project Re-entry. Through documented interviews with Wake Forest University Public History Course students, they've shared the personal challenges they face re-entering society: adjusting to life outside, finding employment, trusting their support systems outside of prison, and learning to believe in themselves again.

Today we sample from an original song titled "These Four Walls" (see below). It was composed and performed in the Forsyth Correctional Center in Winston by Project Re-entry graduates Stephen McBride and Eric Parnell. Release: From Stigma to Acceptance the student-curated exhibition at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art in Winston-Salem will remain on display through February 28^th. 

Wake Forest University Assistant Professor of History Lisa Blee shares the students' impressions while working on the project, and the process behind one artist's drawings.

http://youtu.be/QPv_aKNbLNk