Our Vision
For years journalist Emily Palmer, was one of the first reporters on the scene of murders across New York City’s five boroughs. A witness to some of her community’s worst moments, she focused on trying to answer the why behind the stories she told. Children were at the heartbeat of many of them: dead on the street or locked up in detention centers and charged as adults. She felt like she was writing the same story again and again. She founded Next PAGE with the belief that systemic change is only possible if you switch the narrative, handing the pen to kids in the system so they can learn to tell their own stories and imagine bigger and better endings.
As an education innovator and the founder of Boldly Moving Education Ahead, Dr. Curtis Lewis has transformed classrooms in New York, Chicago, and Detroit through culturally responsive teaching and trauma-informed care. He joins Next PAGE as Acting Chair of the Advisory Board, helping shape curriculum design with the belief that education is a right — one that must extend to all kids, including those behind bars. Curtis’s commitment is deeply personal: his best friend’s murder more than 20 years ago drives his belief that every young person deserves a second chance to rewrite their story.
Next PAGE is a literacy nonprofit providing restorative creative writing workshops to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated youth in New York City.
Providing a safe, supportive space for youth to build community, Next PAGE encourages kids to explore their personal narratives and develop the tools to take agency over their own stories. Our workshops foster a love of storytelling and creative expression, while seeking to redress deeply concerning literacy rates among youth in the system.
Designed in collaboration with the national nonprofit Boldly Moving Education Ahead and child trauma experts, Next PAGE programming is grounded in restorative and arts-based pedagogy, helping participants imagine futures beyond their current circumstances. Students engage in writing practices that encourage emotional expression, strengthen literacy and communication skills, and support positive behavioral development.
The syllabus and coursework are systematically refined by an advisory board and student surveys, enabling participants to make their own mark on the program’s future. Guest artists – including award-winning musicians and artists – collaborate with students, offer creative guidance, and help spark creative storytelling ideas. With a focus toward kids successfully transitioning out of the system, their work will be published in a coffee table collection, with royalties split between student-authors.
At its core, Next PAGE exists to meet young people where they are— and help them decide where they’re going.
Opus 1 Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN: 84-4029712), serves as the fiscal sponsor for the Next PAGE program, providing fiduciary oversight and enabling tax-deductible contributions to the program.
Our Mission
Giving incarcerated kids the tools to craft their own narratives
