We Own Our Words is a creative writing zine featuring original poetry, essays, short stories, and drawings by Breanna, Chelsea, Fermina, Lisa, Sabrina, Shawn, Shellie, Sheryl, Soy, and Tatïana, who are all currently incarcerated at Washington Corrections Center for Women. Echoing the grassroots prison publications that are included in
Illustrating Injustice: The Power of Print,
We Own Our Words opens channels of communication that disrupt the dehumanizing isolation strategies systematized within carceral institutions.
Submissions for
We Own Our Words were solicited during Fall 2020 by the Henry Art Gallery in close partnership with educators from Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS), an organization that creates pathways to higher education for incarcerated women and trans-identified and gender nonconforming people in Washington. The zine has been printed with the permission of the contributors and they retain the rights to their work. A digital copy is available
here. A limited supply of risograph-printed copies of the zine are available at the front desk.
