Asia Johnson and Cozine Welch are Detroit-born artists involved in prison reform and restorative justice. Johnson is a filmmaker working on a documentary about the trauma of the prison pipeline. Welch is a published poet, singer-songwriter and Managing Editor of The Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing, and co-teacher of the Atonement Project and a course on theatre and incarceration at the Residential College. The breadth of relatable experiences that Johnson and Welch bring to the Telling It youth meets them where they are and provides a space that is judgement and censorship free.

Open to all -- no experience necessary!
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Telling It is an award-winning trauma-informed community-based program designed to support under-served school-aged youth in Washtenaw County. Since 2002, Telling It has established a close collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Residential College through the offering of the Engaged Learning courses, Community Empowerment through the Arts and Advanced Practice in Community Engagement through the Arts. Deb Gordon-Gurfinkel is the lead teacher of both of these courses and the Founding Director of Telling It.

The Telling It internship opportunities provided by these two courses bridges the academic and neighboring communities. Each Telling It site is led by a site leader and a social worker along with a trained support team and visiting artists. As a result of their experience, many U-M students express a desire to continue their commitment to social justice through a career that involves community service.