BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Bakersfield College has been awarded $5,000 for its project entitled "Portraits in Their Own Words." The grant comes from California Humanities.

The Humanities For All Quick Grant is a competitive grant program of California Humanities that supports locally-initiated public humanities projects.

"I hope that this will challenge the stigma associated with past imprisonment while encouraging an open dialogue about incarceration and life after it,” project writer and director Andrew Bond, a Professor of English at Bakersfield College said.

Public readings and viewings of the artwork of “Portraits in Their Own Words” will take place at the Levan Center for the Humanities, UC Berkeley, and the Bakersfield Museum of Art next year.