Beyond Bars
Songwriting Inside Prison Walls
Ten days. One song each. A concert where 200 incarcerated men cheer on the most vulnerable performance in the room.
What is it?
Beyond Bars Collective is a group of professional independent singer-songwriters who join incarcerated people on their healing journeys, asking them to explore their deepest truths and traumas through songwriting.
Founded by songwriter Caitlin Cannon, the 10-day curriculum was created in partnership with the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County, Florida. David and his wife Anna Grace facilitate the workshop, which ends with a final concert where graduate songwriters perform their own songs for their peers and facility staff.
By the numbers
11 programs completed at the pilot facility, Walton Correctional Institution
150+ graduate songwriters
200 in the audience at each final concert
Why it works
Like a law, the more vulnerable the performance, the more the men are lifted up by the people around them. They see themselves in each other's stories and learn they are not alone.
Where they were once hurt people hurting people, they are now healing people healing people.
Prison is a radically inclusive space. Graduates come from every age, race and faith, which makes the program a rare opportunity for intergenerational, interracial and interfaith healing.
Research backs it up. Songwriting has been shown to reduce PTSD symptoms and trauma markers in the brain, and arts program participants in prisons show lower recidivism and fewer and less severe violent infractions.
How it started
In 2017, burned out on bar gigs and the music business, David wrote a song with a combat veteran living with severe PTSD. A year later the man told him the song had saved his life.
"It was a defibrillator on my fading musical heart, and the moment that led me to the work I do today."
Bring the program to your facility.
David and Anna Grace are available to partner with correctional facilities, veteran organizations and at-risk groups. Trauma-informed songwriting classes can also be booked alongside a performance.
Get in touch: