Mary Cohen, an affiliate in Music and Peacebuilding
with the Min-On Music Research Institute (MOMRI in Tokyo, Japan), is a
Professor of Music Education at the University of Iowa, lead author of Music-Making
in U.S. Prisons: Listening to Incarcerated Voices, and co-leader of the
International Music and Justice Inquiry Network: IMAJIN Caring Communities—an
organization with people from over 25 countries who work at the intersection of
music-making and prisons. For over 11 years she led the Oakdale Community Choir
(2009 to 2020) comprised of incarcerated and nonincarcerated singers where she
facilitated songwriting and a reflective writing exchange. She facilitates
collaborative partnerships with artists inside and outside prisons, building the
Songs of Generative Justice Bandcamp channel with their original songs and
other programs’ collaborative songs. From 2023-2025 she co-facilitated weekly
music groups at Linn County Juvenile Detention Center. From 2023-2026 she
co-facilitated the Singing Love into Life Circle with formerly incarcerated
individuals. She has been a keynote speaker in Germany, Canada, Portugal, and
England, interviewed by over 20 podcasts or media stories including the BBC3
Music Matters, and completed over 40 publications in journal articles, book
chapters, and conference proceedings, plus five publications co-authored with
currently or formerly incarcerated members of our community.

Publications

• Music-Making in US Prisons: Listening to Incarcerated Voices
• Despite challenges, we continue to create communities through music