Editor’s Note: The following article was written by Katherine Nikolau (pictured), a writing and rhetoric student in the College of Arts and Sciences and public communications minor in the Newhouse School. Nikolau is also an editor of Mend, an online and print magazine of works by people impacted by the criminal legal system. In the article, she recounts the Mend team’s participation in the CNY Teaching Artist Conference, where they led professional development for local teaching artists and arts educators, emphasizing the creative process behind Mend.

Project Mend team members engaging with the audience at the CNY Arts Teaching Artist Conference.

Art may be one of the most powerful tools we have to reshape narratives and foster healing. On Friday, October 25, artists and educators from Central New York and beyond gathered at the CNY Arts Teaching Artist Conference at the Marriott Syracuse Downtown to explore the transformative role of the arts in diverse educational spaces. Patrick W. Berry, associate professor of writing and rhetoric in the College of Arts and Sciences and the founder of Project Mend, delivered the keynote address for this year’s conference, joined by several Mend editors, including me.

Berry discussed the origins of Project Mend, an educational and publishing initiative centered on the voices of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. In collaboration with the Center for Community Alternatives, Project Mend focuses on how individuals learn to write themselves into new identities and new lives.

A&S Professor Patrick W. Berry being interviewed during the 2024 CNY Arts Teaching Artist Conference.

The project has two distinct components. The first is a publishing apprenticeship for formerly incarcerated people and their families in Syracuse, New York. Apprentices learn multiple aspects of print and digital publishing while engaging in critical dialogues on the crisis of mass incarceration alongside artists and scholars, many of whom have also been impacted. The second component is the open-source national publication Mend, featuring print and digital narratives from people impacted by the criminal legal system, including family members of incarcerated people. Berry notes, “Mend is one of the only publications in the country outside of prison that is created by impacted individuals from start to finish.”

The keynote included a short documentary about Mend editor Vince Moody, filmed and edited by former SU student Michael Bliss. Moody reflected on his life, both before and after prison, and expressed the pride he felt in having served as editor for the 2024 issue. “Project Mend is a place where no matter where you come from, no matter what your background is,” he said, “we come together for a common goal.” That sentiment was echoed by senior editor Troy White, who has been part of the program since its inception in 2022. White also paid tribute to James Seibles, a community leader and Mend editor, who passed away earlier this month.

During the event, I spoke about structural barriers to creativity and artistic expression, sharing insights from my SOURCE-funded research on formerly incarcerated artists (writers, visual artists and actors), which emphasizes the profound healing impact of art on their lives. An anthology of this work will be published in a special issue at the start of 2025.

A highlight of the keynote was Mend author, spoken word artist, actor, and poet José A. Pérez, who discussed how poetry and theater offered a sense of liberation to him and others during his twenty years in prison. Pérez concluded his presentation with a powerful recitation from his upcoming poetry collection, Till Ink Meets Paper: Poems for Guendalina…My Mommy, commanding the room’s attention and prompting a standing ovation for Project Mend.

José A. Pérez speaking during the conference.

Following the keynote, a Project Mend workshop, “Healing Threads: Publishing and Designing Just Futures,” offered attendees an inside look at the journal-creation process. Along with Berry, Pérez and me, the workshop was facilitated by writing and rhetoric major and Mend editor Ilhy Gomez del Campo Rojas and composition and cultural rhetoric doctoral students Gabby Wilson and Molly McConnell. “What impressed me,” shared writing and rhetoric major and new Mend editor Kaylee Ramirez, “was that they aren’t just producing a journal; they’re building a community.”

Project Mend is supported through collaboration with the Center for Community Alternatives and an HNY Post-Incarceration Humanities Partnership, generously funded by the Mellon Foundation. Additional support at Syracuse University comes from the Engaged Humanities Network, the Humanities Center, SOURCE, and the Department of Writing Studies, Rhetoric and Composition.