Unlocking Potential: The Power of the Arts in Alabama Prisons

*This venue serves beer & wine.

The Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project was initially conceived in 2001 when Kyes Stevens began teaching at the Talladega Federal Prison through a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). APAEP grew from one poet teaching in one prison to a community of hundreds of writers, artists, and scholars teaching in correctional facilities across Alabama. Course offerings have grown from poetry to a wide variety of courses in the arts and humanities, social sciences, STEM, and currently includes the first Bachelor’s degree option from a major public university in the state.

Come learn about this program from Founder and Director Kyes Stevens.

Since 2001, Kyes has worked to design and build an innovative and sustainable outreach program that works with the underserved adult prison population in Alabama. Currently, Stevens oversees all program aspects of the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Program (APAEP).

Additionally, she has served as a grant reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Alabama State Council on the Arts, was an inaugural member of an emerging arts administrators’ organization in Alabama and works in advisory capacities nationally for individuals and programs seeking to develop arts and education programming within prisons.

Kyes is the fourth generation of her family to work in Outreach at Auburn University and was awarded an Auburn University Young Alumni Award for her efforts building APAEP. She was also an inaugural recipient of the Lillian E. Smith Writer in Service Award and continues to publish poems.