Courtney Bowles & Mark Strandquist
ABOG Fellow for Socially Engaged Art
In the United States, there are more than 70 million people with criminal records (more than the entire population of France). In Philadelphia, 1 of every 5 residents has a criminal record. These records create obstacles to employment, housing, education, healthcare, and social mobility, while stigmatizing and shackling people to their past.
The struggle to end mass incarceration cannot be separated from the efforts to support those in reentry, and to truly support those in reentry, our communities need innovative programing, services, and advocacy movements that are co-designed and led by former prisoners.
Building on the ongoing project, the People’s Paper Co-op, Courtney Bowles and Mark Strandquist will develop the People’s Reentry Think Tank. The project will connect former prisoners, artists, civil rights lawyers, and other community experts in Philadelphia, PA to: clear/clean the criminal records of participants across Philadelphia; use legal clinics as an art-organizing space to transform criminal records into powerful art and advocacy projects; partner with reentry orgs across Philadelphia to organize a community think tank to create a Bill of Rights for those in reentry; organize a culminating “People’s Assembly” at the Pennsylvania State Capitol’s Rotunda, to support the legislative dreams and demands of our think tank.
The project is innovative in its ability to offer real, and urgently needed legal/social services, while working with those most impacted by the criminal justice system to create powerful media campaigns, legislative proposals, and mobile art installations that will connect their voices with thousands across the region and those in power.
Courtney Bowles and Mark Strandquist have spent years collaborating with incarcerated men, women, teens, and those in reentry, to create public art and advocacy projects. At the core of their practice is the belief that those most impacted by the criminal justice system are the experts society needs to listen to, and that by connecting those directly affected with a multitude of community experts and political stakeholders, we can utilize art to create change on personal and systemic levels. Their projects have received multiple awards, fellowships, national residencies, and reached wide audiences through media outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, The Washington Post, PBS NewsHour, and VICE.
Visit the People’s Paper Co-op website
Artist portrait by Ryan Dennis.
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- Detail of pieces of paper made from pulped criminal records, Polaroid portraits, and written reflections. During free legal clinics co-organized with Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity, participants begin the process of clearing or reducing their criminal records. Participants then tear up print-outs of their records, put them in blenders, and create a new, blank sheet of handmade paper that they fill with writing and a new, reverse mugshot portrait in response to the question, When people look at your criminal record, what about you as a human being don’t they see? Photo: The People’s Paper Co-op
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- Detail of pieces of paper made from pulped criminal records, Polaroid portraits, and written reflections. During free legal clinics co-organized with Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity, participants begin the process of clearing or reducing their criminal records. Participants then tear up print-outs of their records, put them in blenders, and create a new, blank sheet of handmade paper that they fill with writing and a new, reverse mugshot portrait in response to the question, When people look at your criminal record, what about you as a human being don’t they see? Photo: The People’s Paper Co-op
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- Silkscreening campaign materials created by lawyers, artists, and former prisoners in the People’s Paper Co-op. Photo: The People’s Paper Co-op
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- Leigh Wicclair and Michael Lee from Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity lead a criminal record expungement clinic. Photo: The People’s Paper Co-op
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- An installation created from participants’ shredded criminal records and responses to the question, Without these records, I am… Part of the People’s Paper Co-op installation for the exhibit Shattering the Concrete: Artists, Activists, and Instigators at Project Row Houses, Houston, TX, March 2016. Photo: The People’s Paper Co-op
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- Exhibition of pieces of paper made from pulped criminal records, polaroid portraits, and written reflections. During free legal clinics co-organized with Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity, participants begin the process of clearing or reducing their criminal records. Participants then tear up print-outs of their records, put them in blenders, and create a new, blank sheet of handmade paper that they fill with writing and a new, reverse mugshot portrait in response to the question, When people look at your criminal record, what about you as a human being don’t they see? Photo: The People’s Paper Co-op
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- Participants shred their criminal records then transform their record into a new piece of paper and embed a new Polaroid portrait, and written reflections in response to the question Without my record I am free to be…. Photo: The People’s Paper Co-op
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- Participants shred their criminal records then transform their record into a new piece of paper and embed a new Polaroid portrait, and written reflections in response to the question Without my record I am free to be…. Photo: The People’s Paper Co-op
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- Silkscreened campaign materials created by lawyers, artists, and former prisoners in the People’s Paper Co-op. Photo: The People’s Paper Co-op
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- The People’s Paper Co-op is a women-led, women powered art and advocacy group. Run by Faith Bartley, a former prisoner, the PPC works with women from Philadelphia Half-way Houses to co-produce advocacy events and publications, while co-running a paper-making business. Photo: The People’s Paper Co-op