the alley

the alley
Art is often considered a luxury. It can be fairly expensive. It sometimes feels lofty and vague. It seems a privilege reserved for those with talent. But there is no denying that art is powerful. Through visual art and poetry, may you be inspired, moved, challenged, and refreshed. Let us bring that luxurious, expensive, lofty, vague, talented, powerful stuff to you… the stuff we find even in the rawest of places. Welcome to the alley.	Based in San Diego, the AjA Project works with 45 local, refugee youth, ages 10 to 16, originally come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, Somalia and Sudan. The works provide opportunities for cross-cultural educational exchanges and a forum for community-wide discussions about the immigrant experience and racial justice in post-September 11th America. photo by michael vanderwarker
fragments	wet paint
The AjA Projects wraps up Intersections While journalists around the world are trying to tell the stories of refugees, the AjA Project is busy putting cameras in the hands of refugee children so that they can tell their own stories.	column: fresh impressions from art director nigel brookes, connecting how prisoners approach art. If you like Foucault, The Matrix, and art, read on.
	poetry
for further reading: Trounstine, Jean. Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power of Drama in a Women’s Prison (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001.) Tannenbaum, Judith. Disguised as a Poem: My Years Teaching Poetry at San Quentin, by poet and writing instructor (Northeastern University Press, 2000.)	Disguised as a poem by elmo chattman, jr.