2025 is the 20th year anniversary of the York performance residency – the flagship of JDPP’s Bridging Boundaries programming and the seedbed for all its subsequent programming. In 2005 a chance encounter with novelist Wally Lamb planted the idea of innovating a year-long performance residency at York exploring the theme of time as experienced by the York women. Led by a core JDPP teaching team and joined by acapella singers Women of the Cross, the residency culminated in a performance piece titled Time In.

This performance program established a trajectory for JDPP that has been groundbreaking and transformative, with 3 different programs at York CI, 2 at men’s prisons, 3 at male juvenile detention centers, 2 with returning citizens and 2 with kids with loved ones in prison. We hope that all of these programs will live on fully into the future.

We commemorate this milestone anniversary at York with Time In 2—a piece that explores the challenges of change; time in the past; times of loss; the time out’s that keep us going; the here and now; and future dreams and goals. The York women participating in this group have taken creative risks—challenging themselves to go beyond their comfort zones, trying new forms of expression, laughing, crying, exploring, and creating something deep and beautiful.