KB Brookins (they/them) is a Black, queer, and trans writer, cultural worker, and installation artist from Texas. Their work brings poetry, storytelling, and community engagement into conversations about identity, justice, and the lived experiences of people navigating incarceration.
As one of the 2025–2026 artists-in-residence with the ACLU of Texas, Brookins used poetry, workshops, and community collaboration to draw attention to the human impact of pretrial detention in Texas jails, with a particular focus on Harris County.
During the residency, Brookins co-organized “Poets and Advocates Against Cash Bail,” a gathering at Allen’s Landing Park in Houston that brought together poets, advocates, and people directly impacted by the bail system to share stories and performances across from the Harris County Jail. Brookins also curated “End Cash Bail,” a multimedia exhibition at Lawndale Art Center featuring poetry, photography, paintings, collages, and other visual works examining the far-reaching effects of incarceration on individuals and families across Texas.
We spoke with KB about their artistic journey, what it means to bring poetry into conversations about incarceration, and how creative work can help people understand the human impact of pretrial detention.
What first drew you to poetry and storytelling, and how has your relationship with writing evolved over time?
I like to say poetry and storytelling chose me! I heard a poem read aloud for the first time in middle school (shoutout to Mrs. B. Williams, my 7th-grade English teacher) and was captivated by poetry as a sonic, vulnerable art form. It took me until high school to finally try my hand at writing and performing a poem. That was due to a friend I made in 9th grade who really wanted to go to my high school’s after-school poetry society, and I tagged along with her. My friends and the poetry society teacher, Ms. Elaine Duran, made poetry feel like something I could do. My relationship with writing today is still very community-involved. I do my best writing and studying in email exchanges, Zoom calls, dinners, and retreats with friends and my partner.
I believe that I’ll forever be writing alongside people I love.
Your residency focused on the human impact of pretrial detention in Texas jails, particularly in Harris County. What drew you to this issue, and why did you feel it was important to explore through creative work?
I have two uncles who have been in Texas jails on and off throughout my lifetime — and I’ve seen how it has really set them back financially, emotionally, and otherwise. I’ve seen the ways that one interaction with jails can destabilize work, housing, and really trickle down to creating strife for an entire extended family. So when I learned that there were terms like “prison-industrial complex,” “cash bail,” and “pretrial detention” for the things that I’ve seen throughout my lifetime, and when I learned that pretrial detention affects everyone in Texas (our taxpayer dollars go into it), I wanted to get involved. I know, also, that the best way for me to get involved is to make art and empower others to do something through my experience teaching and programming.
I think artists have a unique ability to touch audiences that otherwise wouldn’t engage and, with that power, it’s important that we bring people into this issue that affects all Texans in one way or another.
Your project included writing, workshops, and community engagement. What has it been like to bring people together to reflect on this issue through storytelling?
It’s been really insightful to see just how many people are affected by cash bail and pretrial detention in different ways. For instance, when I had my event “Houston Poets and Advocates Against Cash Bail,” artists went on the mic and talked about themselves, their parents, their cousins, siblings, lovers, clients. It was really stunning (and disheartening) to see just how many people were affected by this issue. Moments like these during my residency have really emphasized for me the importance of blending art and advocacy. People may have come to hear poems, but left with stories they can remember and organizations they can turn to in order to ensure that in the future people don’t have to earn their liberty.
When people think about the criminal legal system, the conversation often focuses on policy or statistics. What can poetry or creative expression reveal about these experiences that numbers alone can’t?
I’ve personally learned more throughout my lifetime about social justice issues at open mics, poetry slams, teach-ins, and writing workshops than I have sitting in the galleries of my local city council. Art is so much more accessible, in that usually all you need is a way to get to the event. Maybe a library card. Maybe a pen and paper. You don’t need a degree to be an artist or to appreciate art, so for that reason, art making and sharing have the opportunity to make more concrete knowledge about policy. This possibility excites me.
Art has the ability to touch people in ways that policy can’t. Full stop.
What do you hope people take away from the work you’ve created during this residency?
All of us can make a piece of art, teach a piece of art, make an event about said art, or some flavor of those things to spread the word. I’m very happy with the collaborations that were fostered amongst poets and visual artists, the conversations that happened, the people that were paid and platformed and affirmed due to the workshops and events that I was able to do, courtesy of the ACLU of Texas. I want people to know that if I can do my part to make even one person more aware and willing to do something about pretrial detention, then they can too.
Artists have an important role to play in making a more just future for our formerly and currently incarcerated siblings in Texas.
Website: earthtokb.com
Social Media: Instagram, Tik Tok, Threads, and Substack
Photography by Israel Angel and Lexi Parra
Videography by Holrich Jacques Paul and Lexi Parra