The Oakdale Prison Songwriting Workshop, led by University of Iowa Professor Mary Cohen, held an informal performance at the prison on July 21. The performance featured songs created during the summer songwriting workshop, in which participants incarcerated at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Oakdale were invited to compose music. Cohen and some UI graduate students co-composed some of the songs, and other songs were composed solely by incarcerated songwriters. This July’s concert, entitled “Personal Reflections from Inside the Walls,” was the workshop's sixth annual performance.

Cohen is an associate professor of music education, and is the founder and director of the Oakdale Community Choir. She also started the UI Prison Partnership Program and assists faculty and community members to hold classes at the Oakdale prison.

Cohen holds a joint appointment in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ School of Music and the College of Education’s Teaching and Learning Department.