Karla Robinson, a Bronx based teaching artist, cultural organizer, conceptual artist, and poet, believes deeply in the arts’ ability to transform culture and community. She uses poetry, immersive installation, and facilitation to support people caught at the intersection of multiple state institutions. With over 15 years of direct service and professional development expertise, Karla has worked with people of all ages in detention facilities, group homes, treatment programs, schools, and nonprofits.

Karla’s multimedia work spans discipline and medium. Her poems appear in the anthology “That’s a Pretty Thing to Call It Prose and Poetry by Artists Teaching in Carceral Institutions.” “Land Witness,” a poetry and photography collaboration, explores the manner in which Black, Brown and Indigenous bodies have been segregated and detained on US soil and is a refusal to be complicit in the erasure of domestic terrorism. “Anxiously Awaiting Your Return: A Love Letter Altar to Children Detained Across Bridges and Boroughs” is a participatory public altar installation designed to support children, currently and previously detained. Whether at one of her poetry readings, creative workshops or immersive installations, the concepts of reclamation and connection are a driving force.