Linkage Community

Linkage Community We are Michigan’s leading peer-led network of creative people living beyond incarceration.

The Linkage Community forms a creative network with and for people directly impacted by incarceration. Together, we dismantle isolation, build bridges of opportunity, and connect through creativity. Boarn within the University of Michigan's Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP), the Linkage Community has grown into a vibrant, statewide collective of artists with lived experience of incarceration. We envision a future where creatives thrive beyond incarceration, linked into dynamic arts networks to connect, collaborate, and grow.

Mark your calendar: the People Opportunity Farm's Harvest Festival is September 26th, 12-3pm in Ypsilanti.This farm has...
09/22/2026

Mark your calendar: the People Opportunity Farm's Harvest Festival is September 26th, 12-3pm in Ypsilanti.

This farm has meant a lot to our community. Several Linkage members have deep roots there, including their current Executive Director, LaWanda Hollister. This year, we're especially proud to celebrate our friend, talented songwriter, and Linkage member Terry, one of the interns being honored at the festival.

Food, family, and fun, all free. Come celebrate with us at 1301 S. Harris Rd.

Think of a dish that turned out exactly right, a recipe you were scared to try... That "HEY, I didn't know I could do th...
09/22/2026

Think of a dish that turned out exactly right, a recipe you were scared to try... That "HEY, I didn't know I could do that" feeling wasn't an accident.

Research links hands-on cooking to real gains in confidence and identity, not just a nice moment in the kitchen.

Our members feel it too, in the kitchen, at the easel, on stage, on the page, and it's a real part of how they're building their lives forward.

What's something you made that gave you that feeling? Tell us below. 🥰

📸 Photos courtesy of Linkage Community member Kimiko Uyeda, Chef’s Kiss Charcuterie & More Harbor Springs

Huge thanks to the entire MACBITCHES cast and crew! 💛Between a handcrafted friendship bracelet auction, a portion of eve...
09/15/2026

Huge thanks to the entire MACBITCHES cast and crew! 💛

Between a handcrafted friendship bracelet auction, a portion of every ticket sold, and some generous rounding up along the way, this production family showed up BIG for Linkage, raising real support and getting our name in front of a whole new audience.

A special shout-out to Iyla Stebbins for organizing the entire effort from start to finish. 🙌

This is exactly what community support looks like.

BIG thanks to The Container Globe for inviting Linkage along for MACBITCHES! 🩸The cast and creative team are supporting ...
09/03/2026

BIG thanks to The Container Globe for inviting Linkage along for MACBITCHES! 🩸

The cast and creative team are supporting us too: a portion of ticket sales and donations from the run go straight to Linkage, as part of their "Bi***es Give Back" campaign.

Come find our table any night Sept 3-6, our own Frannie Shepherd-Bates will be there with members, artwork, and maybe some epic juggling. 👀

🎟️ Tickets: https://macbitches-tickets.eventbrite.com/
💛 Donate & grab a bookmark: secure.qgiv.com/for/linkarmswithlinkage

Last Thursday, we went to Newberry Correctional Facility for the Reentry United Conference. Left with 27 new Linkage mem...
08/12/2026

Last Thursday, we went to Newberry Correctional Facility for the Reentry United Conference. Left with 27 new Linkage members in the making! Better yet, several more are getting out too soon for JPay — we will be there when they come home. 🖤

Days like this remind us why this work matters. Shoutout to every person who showed up and led with lived expertise: Nate Johnson (Next Chapter Solutions), Rick Speck and Tenee Gildea ( Outside), Adam Kouraimi (The Hidden Nation), and our own Marjani representing Linkage with so much grace and power. Not pictured but holding it down with us: Adam Grant (A Brighter Way) and Mark Hartman (Humanity for Prisoners).

We were also thrilled to be table neighbors with MICHEP and to share space with Anna from SADO Project Reentry

This is the work. This is the community. This is Linkage.
📸 Adam Kouraimi / The Hidden Nation

Happy Birthday to us! 🎂One year ago, we became our own. What started as a dream is now 250+ members STRONG — with NEW ex...
08/05/2026

Happy Birthday to us! 🎂

One year ago, we became our own. What started as a dream is now 250+ members STRONG — with NEW exhibitions, NEW performances, NEW programs/trainings... and creativity that REFUSES to be contained.🔥🙌

Year Two is already in motion. Stay tuned for a Year One recap.

And if you want to help us make even MORE impact, your support keeps this community growing.

🌱Donate here: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/linkarmswithlinkage

April 2025 was the beginning of a BOLD move: untangling 25 years of history with the University of Michigan's Prison Cre...
07/31/2026

April 2025 was the beginning of a BOLD move: untangling 25 years of history with the University of Michigan's Prison Creative Arts Project to become independent, with our friends at Innovation Partnerships and our brave fiscal sponsor, Social Good Fund, helping us navigate the way.

Since then, the members' ideas and ambition have driven us further than anyone imagined.🔥

Last May, University of Michigan Innovation Partnerships celebrated that journey with a Bell Ringing Ceremony, their tradition for celebrating a new startup's official launch. Ours was the fastest spin-off they've ever recorded.

Innovation Partnerships usually works with businesses, so bringing a values-driven organization like ours through that process took real creative problem-solving and genuine partnership on all sides. 🙏 We're grateful they saw the vision and made it happen.

None of it happens without the 250+ Linkage artists, who kept creating, kept connecting, kept dreaming, kept building. 💛 This milestone is theirs.

NO MORE HEROES. Announced in Forbes .🙌Artist, Linkage member, and strategic advisor Cozine Welch Jr. has been named the ...
07/19/2026

NO MORE HEROES. Announced in Forbes .🙌

Artist, Linkage member, and strategic advisor Cozine Welch Jr. has been named the Detroit Justice Center's first Formerly Incarcerated Artist in Residence, and his new performance piece is already making national headlines.

Built from spoken word, guitar, piano, and layered vocals, "No More Heroes" explores how we carry memory and survival in our bodies. Cozine's writing has already appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Plough Quarterly, and other publications.

🔥 This recognition is well deserved and rooted in artistic excellence.
We've watched Cozine light up rooms, most recently at our Pop-Up Art Stop this summer. Seeing that talent reach a national stage feels HUGE!

Stay tuned: The piece debuts in March.💛

Full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chaddscott/2026/07/16/a-summer-of-black-excellence-on-stage-and-screen/

BIG moment for our community: Postmarked From The Inside, an exhibition of greeting cards created by artists inside Mich...
07/15/2026

BIG moment for our community: Postmarked From The Inside, an exhibition of greeting cards created by artists inside Michigan prisons, was featured on Michigan Public's Stateside with April Baer.

The exhibit is curated by Dr. Vitalis Im — assistant professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and a member of Linkage's Strategic Advisory Committee — alongside co-curator Martín Vargas , an incredibly gifted artist and long-time Linkage members.

We are huge NPR fans around here, and hearing Vitalis and Martín talk about this project on Stateside was a proud moment for our whole community. Give it a listen and see the way artists are reshaping the story — one card at a time.

🎙️Listen to the full episode: https://www.michiganpublic.org/stateside/2026-07-10/stateside-friday-july-2026

Thank you, Michigan Public, for giving this project and the artists the mic.

A HUGE thank you to the Linkage artists who made our first Pop-Up Art Stop come alive! 🎨✨You traveled from across Michig...
07/10/2026

A HUGE thank you to the Linkage artists who made our first Pop-Up Art Stop come alive! 🎨✨

You traveled from across Michigan, set up your work, shared your stories, and gave everyone in that room something to carry home — and we couldn't be more proud of you. Linkage Community is what it is because of the artists who pour their hearts into it. (MORE photos coming your way soon!)

📬Want to be the first to know about our next event? Sign up and get updates delivered straight to your inbox: https://forms.gle/G5d3RtqBX3bkfveV9

📸 Photo credit: uptown24 studios
Jeremiah Mckinney, Johnetta Sullivan, Kimiko Uyeda, Cozine Welch Jr.

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2431 Ferry Park Street
Detroit, MI
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