The Writing on the Wall

Education Not Incarceration Pillar
September 3, 2018
Global Gatherings and Events
November 24, 2019

The Writing on the Wall

The Writing on the Wall is a shape-shifting, pop-up art installation made from writing by people in prison around the world, a partnership between Dr. Baz Dreisinger and the Incarceration Nations Network; the acclaimed visual artist Hank Willis Thomas; the nonprofit architecture firm MASS Design Group; the production team Openbox; and the creative agency Chemistry Creative. In an effort to center the words of those directly impacted at the heart of the fight for prison reimagining, the installation has been displayed in public spaces as a form of verbal and visual intrusion. Each debut of The Writing on the Wall is an event and ongoing campaign, coordinated in collaboration with INN global partners and demanding that we collectively heed The Writing on the Wall: #DefundThePrisons and invest in communities and peace.

In myriad formats - as a pop-up in enclosed spaces, a collapsible booth, a video preview in movie theaters, a series of light projections born during the Covid-19 pandemic, and an LED-screen mobile truck—The Writing on the Wall has been exhibited in: Detroit; New Orleans; Philadelphia; Miami; Washington DC; Columbus; Boise; Indianapolis; Mexico City; Santiago, Chile; and Santiago, Dominican Republic. In New York City it debuted for eight days on the High Line park, the most trafficked public park in the world.

For more information and to read some of the writings, visit TWOTW.org.