Linkage Community

06/02/2026

Every piece of art tells a story. Jason Hunt wants you to connect with his.

Jason is a Linkage Community member and one of the featured artists at the Pop-Up Art Stop on June 27. 🎨

Come see the work. Meet the person behind it.

📍 Open Book Theatre Company, Trenton MI · 11AM–8PM · Free
RSVP: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/linkarmswithlinkage/event/popupartstop/

05/29/2026

🎉 Save the Date!

Linkage artists from across Michigan are taking over Open Book Theatre Company

📅 Date: Saturday, June 27
📍 Location: 1621 West Rd, Trenton, MI 48183
🕚 Time: 11am–8pm

Mark your calendars, share this post, and stay tuned for more details as we get closer to the big day!

RSVP if you already know you're in: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/linkarmswithlinkage/event/popupartstop/

05/27/2026

We are SO proud of Jose!! 🎉🎉

Talented creative writer, photographer, friend, and valued Linkage member. Jose turned his own story into fuel for real change. He was just reappointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer to continue serving on Michigan’s Committee on Juvenile Justice.

This is huge. And honestly, so deserved!

We love you, Jose. Keep going. We’re cheering loud over here. 💛🖤

CFSY’s Policy Advocate Jose Burgos was recently reappointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer to continue serving on Michigan’s Committee on Juvenile Justice! Reflecting on his first six-year term and the work ahead, Jose shared, “As someone directly impacted by the juvenile justice system, I know how important it is for us to have a seat at the table where policies and reforms are being shaped. Our lived experiences bring a level of perspective, accountability, and humanity that can’t be taught.

I remain committed to advocating for fairness, rehabilitation, and meaningful opportunities for young people throughout Michigan and across this country. I’m beyond grateful for the trust, the opportunity to serve, and everyone who continues to support this work.”

Congratulations, Jose!

05/22/2026

"Every vibration, echo, and fragment adds to the whole." -James Fuson

The l i s t e n . . . exhibition is up now at MSU College of Law — works by Linkage Community artists, curated by Linkage Community members.

What do you hear when art speaks? Come find out.

📍East Lansing. https://linktr.ee/linkagecommunity_connect

05/18/2026

We asked you to LiNK arms with us. You did.

We're at $1,800 — raised by real people who believe in what this community is building. Can you help us get to $2,000?

If their stories moved you this month — Tore, Johnetta, Cozine, Kirk, Kushawn, Serge, Josh, Shelly — this is your moment.

💛 Give today: secure.qgiv.com/for/2spcam

05/12/2026

Some people faded. Linkage didn't.

Kushawn came home to a world that had moved on. But Linkage was there — and stayed.

"The main one I consider my family is the Linkage Community and PCAP community. They're the ones who helped me get out of that negative way of thinking — helped me to see something better beyond myself."

Kushawn found Linkage through — the U-M Prison Creative Arts Project. Linkage grew from those roots into Michigan's only peer network of creative individuals with lived experience of incarceration.

That's what peer community does that no program can replicate. It doesn't just offer resources. It sees something in you — and holds that vision until you can hold it yourself.

When you give to this campaign, you're part of building that for the next person who comes home.
🎁Give today: secure.qgiv.com/for/2spcam

05/09/2026

He didn't talk about prison.

Josh got up at a The Moth StorySlam in Detroit, in front of a room full of strangers, and chose his own story to tell. Not the one systems assigned him. His.

That might sound simple. It isn't. When you've spent years having your narrative defined by case files, courtrooms, and systems — choosing what you share, on your own terms, to any crowd — that's not a small thing.

That's liberation.

Linkage exists for exactly this. Not to define people by their past. Not to make incarceration the headline of every story. But to build a community where artists are whole people first — with stories worth telling on any stage, about anything at all.

He almost won, too. 🎤🙌

When you give to this campaign, you're part of building nights like this.
🎁 Give today: secure.qgiv.com/for/2spcam



Huge gratitude to The Moth Community Program for making this night possible. They're currently accepting applications from new community partner organizations — if your org works with communities who have stories to tell, they're worth knowing.💛

05/06/2026

Life was life-ing. Cozine almost didn't go.

His Linkage family kept calling anyway. Someone offered a ride. So he showed up — and when he saw his people, he just got back in it. He even did karaoke.

He said: even if he'd stayed quiet the whole night, people would still have been coming up to him. Giving hugs. Asking how he was doing.

"Those spaces matter."

Kirk said it last week: Linkage is family. Linkage is home. Cozine just showed us what that looks like on a Saturday night over bad karaoke.

When you give, you're part of building more nights like that.💛

🎁Give today: secure.qgiv.com/for/2spcam

05/05/2026

Everyone knows what it feels like to need a place like that. Not everyone gets to find one.

Linkage Community is that place for 200+ artists across Michigan coming home from incarceration — and we're working to keep it growing.

Our goal is $5,000 to make sure this space stays possible for every artist who needs it.

Give today.
💛 Donate: secure.qgiv.com/for/2spcam

05/03/2026

Johnny was asked to imagine what a safe community looks like. What a world beyond policing and mass incarceration could be.

So he designed it.

His mural — created for ArtPrize — has sparked conversations he never saw coming, and taken on a life he never planned for.

"It's being used over and over again for many things I never intended it to be."

That's what art does when it tells the truth. And that's what Linkage makes possible — a creative community where artists have the space and the people around them to make work that actually moves something.

Give today and help make that possible.
Give: tinyurl.com/linkarmswithlinkage
Follow our adventures: tinyurl.com/staylinkedup