I'm a visual artist and educator. Since 2010, I have coordinated Through Barbed Wire events and projects for my friend Arnie King, who created and directs this and other programs from inside Norfolk state prison. Seeing prisoners as intelligent, loving human beings, through their writings, has been transformational, where an entirely overlooked human reality revealed itself after removing a powerful, internalized fear and frustration barrier, intentionally constructed to keep families, friends, and communities weak and fragmented.