Published: June 29, 2024
Dear Friends,
I would like to share the latest development of a multi-part project between the Quaker Institute for the Future, New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM), Hanover Friends Meeting in New Hampshire, and a prison in Vermont.
I am Devon Kurtz, and I recently moved from Vermont to Salt Lake City, Utah. Prior to my move, I oversaw a grant from NEYM to publish an amazing collection of art and literature from prisoners incarcerated in Vermont. Last month, QIF finished publishing the book, Sketches from Behind Prison Walls.
This book bears witness to how people in prison grapple with the indignities, losses, and tests of faith of institutional captivity. Incarcerated artist Rein Kolts, a Quaker, visualizes the complex experiences of these men in portraits of their faces.
The book is available at the Quaker Institute for the Future website, Harvard Bookstore, Barnes and Noble, and most major book distributors.
from Devon Kurtz, Salt Lake City (6/22/2024)