Re Entry into Society Via the Arts

Summary

Highlights

• Regginal Dwayne Betts, once a juvenile incarcerated for 16 years, uses poetry to transform his life and help others. 📖
• Creative writing workshops in prisons offer a reprieve and a way to connect with personal stories. ✍️
• Actors like Adam Driver use art to bridge military and civilian lives, underscoring the arts' role in transition. 🎬
• Crafting a narrative through art can provide closure and a new beginning for many individuals. 🔖
• Artistic programs in prisons and mental health institutions are vital for social reintegration and personal growth. 🖇️

Key Takeaways

• Art can bridge the gap between isolation and connection, offering a lifeline to those who feel marginalized or forgotten. 🖌️
• Regginal Dwayne Betts' story exemplifies the healing power of literature and the impact of arts in personal transformation. 📚
• Creative expression isn't just an outlet; it's a tool for articulating one's story, emotions, and aspirations. 🎨
• Repeated engagements with art can foster a sense of belonging and purpose, aiding in the rehabilitation process. 🖼️
• Programs like Adam Driver's initiative showcase how arts help military personnel reconnect with civilian life. 🎭

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Agenda Overview The introduction outlines the purpose of the gathering, emphasizing gratitude towards the audience and instructors for attending during a lunch hour. The focus is on discussing material relevant to the book 'Felon,' which is part of a common reading program. The chapter sets the stage for an upcoming event involving the book's author.
• 00:30 - 01:30: Events with Author Regginal Dwayne Betts The chapter titled 'Events with Author Regginal Dwayne Betts' discusses an upcoming visit by the renowned poet to a campus. Betts is scheduled to participate in two events at the Puddle Auditorium, one at 9:30 and the other at 11:00. The purpose of the chapter is to encourage students to engage with the poems in Betts' book of poetry. The transcript also includes an introduction by Allison Pelgrren, Louisiana's poet laureate and writer in residence at Southeastern, who is there with her colleague and friend Sherry Craig.
• 01:30 - 03:00: Role of Arts in Reintegration In this chapter, the discussion revolves around the utilization of arts as a tool for helping individuals reintegrate into society. The content is informed by the experiences of a freshman English coordinator who has extensive involvement in creative writing efforts within the prison system. The chapter aims to share insights and methods by which the arts can facilitate successful reintegration for people transitioning back into the community from incarceration.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Arts and Catharsis The chapter "Arts and Catharsis" discusses the role of writing workshops, particularly poetry, in the lives of incarcerated individuals. These workshops focus on writing, discussing, and reading poems, offering a form of emotional release and intellectual engagement. An example provided is a group at Rayburn Correctional Center in Angie, Louisiana, where the author participates regularly. The chapter also highlights the involvement of Regginal Dwayne Betts, a notable figure who has generously decided to visit the group after attending an event at South Eastern, illustrating the bridge between the workshop participants and the broader literary world.
• 05:00 - 09:00: Arts in Military and Other Isolated Contexts The chapter discusses the commitment of individuals in isolated contexts, such as the military, to give back to society and contribute positively. Sher talks about her expertise in reintegration into society, emphasizing the importance of understanding various aspects of the process.
• 09:00 - 15:00: Personal Impact Stories and Poetry This chapter delves into the therapeutic nature of writing and the arts, discussing how they serve as cathartic outlets for individuals. It explores the process of using artistic endeavors to help people navigate their personal experiences and enhance their interactions with others. The focus lies on examining the role of the arts in aiding various groups to integrate and heal.
• 15:00 - 18:00: Importance of Creating Art in Confinement This chapter explores the significance of art creation for individuals in confinement, such as prisoners and military personnel. It discusses how art serves as a medium for expression and connection, allowing those isolated from society to find a voice and integrate into the broader community. Through engaging in artistic activities, these individuals can process their experiences, communicate with others, and potentially ease their reintegration into society.
• 18:00 - 21:00: Rehabilitation Programs Using Arts The chapter introduces the topic of rehabilitation programs that incorporate arts, beginning with a reference to a TED talk by actor Adam Driver. It highlights that Driver, known for his role as Kylo Ren, was a Marine who joined the military shortly after the 9/11 attacks. The transcript suggests watching the video to gain insights into how arts and military experience can intertwine in rehabilitation efforts.
• 21:00 - 27:00: Teaching Poetry in Prisons The chapter discusses the challenges faced by a former military individual who was discharged due to a non-combat-related injury. The discharge created turmoil for him as he tried to readjust to civilian life. The military life had conditioned him to be constantly aware of his surroundings and relationships, making the transition to a civilian mindset difficult.
• 27:00 - 33:00: Erasure and Visibility Through Art The chapter discusses the experiences of a person transitioning from the military to civilian life. They felt isolated after leaving the military but found a sense of belonging and purpose through acting. They attended Juilliard for acting, discovering that the connections and discipline from the military were beneficial in their acting career. This connection between military life and acting helped bridge the gap between their past and present identities.
• 33:00 - 41:00: Art as a Tool for Trauma Processing The chapter titled 'Art as a Tool for Trauma Processing' explores how art can be utilized to assist military personnel in processing trauma. It discusses the efforts led by an individual who initiated a program aimed at integrating the arts within the military. This program not only aids those transitioning back into civilian life but also brings art to various military bases. The initiative highlights the therapeutic potential of art in addressing trauma experienced by military members.
• 41:00 - 45:00: Concluding Thoughts and Q&A The chapter 'Concluding Thoughts and Q&A' discusses the integration of arts into mental and physical health programs. It highlights the importance of arts in helping individuals who are isolated, such as those in mental health units or hospitals, to reconnect with society. The discussion suggests that arts can be a bridge to improving both mental and physical well-being, and there is an indication of a further list or discussion on similar programs.

Re Entry into Society Via the Arts Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Thank you all for coming today during your lunch hour. I know that's this is my lunch hour and so I'm thankful to everyone for being here. I'm thankful to your instructors for telling you about this programming. We're here to do some talking about um material that's relevant to this book Felon that you're using as your common read. As you know, on Monday, March 10th, the author of
• 00:30 - 01:00 this book, Regginal Dwayne Betts, will be on campus. He'll be doing two events in the Puddle Auditorium. One at 9:30, the other at 11:00. And it's our job as your teachers to help you think of different ways that you can engage with the poems in this book of poetry. And that's why we're here today. My name is Allison Pelgrren. I am Louisiana poet laurate. I'm also writer in residence here at Southeastern. I am here with my colleague and friend Sherry Craig who is
• 01:00 - 01:30 the freshman English coordinator and also an expert in many things. Okay. Um so anyway, we're going to talk about the different ways that the arts can be used to help people reintegrate into society. Um, I'll be speaking from my position as someone who's done a lot of work inside of prisons doing creative writing project, not projects, but um, creative
• 01:30 - 02:00 writing workshops, specifically poetry with incarcerated people who are interested in writing poems, talking about poems, reading poems. Um, an interesting fact, I've been working with a group at Rayurn Correctional Center in Angie, Louisiana. I was there last night with them. And um Regginal Dwayne Betts will be visiting the prison to meet that group of writers the day after he's here at South Eastern. So he's been very generous with his time and is really
• 02:00 - 02:30 committed to giving back to society and um offering as much of himself as he can to make the world a better place. And now Sher will talk about her area of expertise. Uh I have a lot of information about reintegration into society from different aspects. Um so as I was reading Felen um what stood out to me was not so much
• 02:30 - 03:00 the content but the creation that goes into the content. Um, the idea that writing is cathartic and the arts in general is cathartic to help people process what they're going through, how to interact with other people. And so my focus was looking into how the arts help other groups of people integrate
• 03:00 - 03:30 back into society as well or integrate into society for the first time. Um so in felon you have people in prison who you know have a lot of time to think and to contemplate and a lot of times they're isolated and they feel isolated from the rest of the world and through the arts they're able to put that expression out there and to connect with people. The same is true for people in the military.
• 03:30 - 04:00 Um, there's a video I recommend everyone to go watch. It's it's a TED talk, so it's pretty easy to find with the actor Adam Driver. Is everyone familiar with Adam Driver? Kylo Ren, bunch of other movies. Um, you might not be familiar with the fact that he was in the military. He was a Marine. And um, he joined the military shortly after 9/11. and he says it's the proudest thing that
• 04:00 - 04:30 he's ever done. But um he was discharged from the military for an injury not related to battle. But being discharged from the military caused him a bit of turmoil getting back readjusted to civilian life because the military life for him was a way of thinking. Um, you constantly thought about where you were, who you were with, who you were
• 04:30 - 05:00 working with. You were working with a team. You had to make your make sure that your team was on point as well. And going out into the civilian world, he felt just kind of isolated and acting had always been something he was interested in. and he did end up going to Giuliard for acting and realized at that point that there was a lot of connections that he could make being in the military and being part of an acting an acting troop. And so that caused him
• 05:00 - 05:30 to want to have that experience for other people in the military as well. And so he started a program for um the arts in the military, not just for people coming back into civilian life, but also going to various military bases to present art to people in the military. Um, beyond that, there are a number of other art
• 05:30 - 06:00 programs, and I have a whole list I'll go over later on, where people in situations where they're isolated, such as with mental illness, mental um, mental health units, mental hospitals, using the arts as a way to connect back with society. But not just in mental health, physical health as well. People who have been in
• 06:00 - 06:30 hospitals for an extended stay um or who have neurological damage and things like that using the arts to help get back into their previous lifestyle. Um so that's that's what I found interesting and as a connection for this particular book and that's that's the focus that I'm coming in with. Well, I I love um Bets's story about how much poetry means
• 06:30 - 07:00 to him. I'm sure you all know that he was incarcerated as a juvenile um for 16 years. And part of that time he actually spent in solitary confinement. Um during his confinement, you know, he tal he wrote about how he felt like he was losing his mind and he couldn't take it anymore. So, he shouted out, "Somebody somebody send me a book." And um someone, no one knows who, I don't think he ever saw the person who did this, slid a book of poetry into his cell. And
• 07:00 - 07:30 the poetry, it was a book of um it was called the Black Poets. That's an anthology edited by Dudley Randall. So that was the book that Betts had while he was incarcerated. And he talks about how it was a lifeline for him. He felt like he could attach his experiences, his pain, everything that was going through his mind to what he was reading in that book and making it his his own thing. So that's how he got into poetry.
• 07:30 - 08:00 And um talking about paying it forward, like you were talking about, Betts, when he was released from prison, um he he went to become a lawyer, by the way, and so now he works as a defense attorney. He's also a professor at Harvard and in his spare time he founded the Freedom Reads Project which you can read about online. They have a great website and what the Freedom Reads Project does is it brings little dorm little libraries
• 08:00 - 08:30 shelving into prison dorms. I don't know if any of you all have ever been into a prison before. Um it's not like what you see on TV in Louisiana. all of the unless you're on death row. Um you're you're sleeping in dorms with maybe 60 maybe 120 people sometimes stacked on top in bunk beds sometimes just in narrow beds next to each other just spread out as far as you can see. You
• 08:30 - 09:00 have a little locker by your bed where you can keep your few possessions at at the discretion of the guard and the warden. There's no air conditioning. So, in the summer when it's 95° 99° outside, um it's hotter than that inside in inside of the prison dorms, it's very loud because there are huge fans going. Um and they don't really circulate heat, but they circulate noise. So, anytime you try to speak, to express yourself, any of that, there's the fan going,
• 09:00 - 09:30 there's people screaming. It it it's very chaotic. Um, but Betts found a way to bring books into that setting and he stocks those libraries with hundreds of books when he brings them into prisons. Um, the place where I was yesterday at Raybrin Correctional Facility, that's a facility that houses about 1500 inmates and there are um, we were trying to figure out how many there's 14 freedom reads libraries there. So that's over
• 09:30 - 10:00 4,000 books that Bets has made available to that population. And I was sitting around a table last night with a group of poets who were sharing their work. They were putting together a little booklet for him for when he goes there to visit. And one of the writers, this is a man named Ezekiel, had written a poem that was based on a book that he came across in the Freedom Reads library. And I just loved hearing that because um as teachers I can tell you and I feel like I'm speaking for all teachers when I say this. There's
• 10:00 - 10:30 nothing that brings more joy than to put book a book into a student's hand and see them have some sort of reaction to it. You know, hopefully a positive reaction, but to see students reacting to the literature that we're putting in front of them. There's nothing better than that. And um I you know, Bets wasn't there to see that reaction, but I was happy to see it. and I'll certainly be telling him that story um of the person I met who was so moved by those libraries. Um what do you want to talk about next?
• 10:30 - 11:00 Um I think that one of my favorite stories of isolation and kind of an in not a reintegration into society but an integration into society um comes from the author slash artist Christy Brown. No, if I don't recognize anyone out there, but if you took me for 101, you probably read the letter A, which is part of a longer book called My Left Foot. And in that story, Christy Christy
• 11:00 - 11:30 Brown was born not being able to speak or move. Um, and he was part of a very large family. So, they always treated him basically like he was normal, but they knew that or they didn't know rather that there was any way to for him to communicate. And he was able to pick up a piece of chalk one day with his left foot and draw the letter A. And
• 11:30 - 12:00 that was his I guess break into the world of communication. And I find that just an amazing story that someone who was around I guess he was probably about three or four when he did that was around his whole family but kind of on the outside looking in to all the discussion. And you know his mother never gave up on him. That was that was the story of the letter A. She would
• 12:00 - 12:30 show him, you know, how to do letters and stuff like that even though all the doctors told her that he would never be able to speak, never be able to to to do anything. And, you know, she still had faith in him and he was able to prove her wrong and pick up that piece of chalk and open his world of communications. Um, he would later go on to paint, to write a whole novel. um he could communicate a little later on, not
• 12:30 - 13:00 very clearly by speaking, but he was able to communicate to the world with his artwork. And I think that um that is a good indication that the arts are important for communication. Um, we might not think of it on an everyday basis as being someone's only form of communication, but there are many people out there who are who are able to communicate with
• 13:00 - 13:30 people when, you know, the majority of the people around them thought they couldn't. So, I find that that an interesting story. Um, oh, sorry. Go ahead. I was gonna actually gonna ask you a question. um when the the prisoners are able to to write, you know, how does it help them as they're I I suppose getting ready to be
• 13:30 - 14:00 released? Is there any Well, um this is the part where I say that what I have to say doesn't quite fit under the umbrella of this um panel because a lot of a lot of the people that I um have the chance to work with are serving extremely long or life sentences. So, um it's it's about it's more about creating a life. And um while I'm not someone who has been incarcerated before, I can't understand
• 14:00 - 14:30 that perspective, but I can understand what it's like to create a life out of poetry. Um to find life there. I think you see evidence of that in this book. If you all have started reading, I certainly hope that you have. Um and I I'd like to tell the story of how I got started in this work. Um I um as poet laurate at the state I get a lot of invitations to go places and it's usually either to go to a library which is awesome or maybe to a book club or to a museum or just
• 14:30 - 15:00 something like that. It's always kind of the same thing. And so I was really excited to get invited to go visit the poetry group at Angola about a year ago because I said what poetry group at Angola sounds awesome. Let's go. And so, um, it's fair to say I didn't really know what I was getting into. I believe that poetry connects everyone, but then I was thinking, what can I tell this group of people that I I I felt like I didn't have anything to offer to them. So, I was a little nervous going in because of that. I was also nervous
• 15:00 - 15:30 because I wasn't allowed to bring anything with me, which probably seems obvious to you, but as a teacher, you if you saw me come in here, I got this big bag and it's full of pens and books and cough drops and all this other stuff. And and I had to go in empty-handed. Um I begged and begged and eventually the warden gave me permission to bring in one book. And so then I spent two weeks thinking, "What book do you bring to 5,000 people who are never leaving where they like what do you bring?" And so what I decided on was a book of poetry
• 15:30 - 16:00 exercises. So it's all about writing poems in different ways and different styles. And then in all of the white space on the pages, I copied poems that I thought would go over well. And my friend Kelly Harris told me, she said, "You know, people want to read poems about their moms. They want to read home poems about place and about home because they're missing their moms." And so I took that to heart when I was making selections to bring into the book. And so I can tell you one of the poems um
• 16:00 - 16:30 was a poem called And Them. And I'll have to put that into context. You all know what I mean when I say my mama and them. You know, so it's a poem that was just called and them by Jericho Brown who was a um Louisiana writer. He's from the Shreveport area. I don't know if that applies to any of you all now. He's at Emory now in Georgia, I believe. But anyway, so that was a poem. It was a Louisiana poem. It was kind of in regular normal language like the poems
• 16:30 - 17:00 in this book and people reacted to it really well. Um, another thing I like to do is I like to use haiku, those little short poems as kind of an icebreaker and um, I can give you samples of what I used with that group. So anyway, I walked into a room. I didn't know what to expect. And um when people ask me about it now, what was it like on that first day? The way I describe it is it's like going into what's going to be your favorite class ever, but on the first
• 17:00 - 17:30 day of class when everybody's really excited and you're getting to know everyone and there's just nothing but potential and this kind of energy buzzing about in the room. That's what it was like on that day. Um, we had carrot cake and coffee during our break and we wrote poems and talked about poems and people asked questions. And while that was happening, I realized that I needed to use this platform that I have to reach out to people who were incarcerated. That's something I could
• 17:30 - 18:00 do. And so, um, I ended up applying for a fellowship from the Academy of American Poets, which I ended up receiving. Um, and so I I received a a fellowship of in the amount of $50,000 to support this work that I've been able to do and and which I love doing. And um anyway, I'll tell you the how about it. Maybe you want to talk for a little bit.
• 18:00 - 18:30 I think that as you said, um, if someone is serving a life sentence, maybe writing poetry or writing their memoirs is a way to exist in society by putting that information out there. And I I realize I can't answer your question to some extent because sometimes I work with juveniles too. Um, so like in the Florida parishes juvenile detention center on Old Hammond Highway. I think I'm pointing in the wrong direction.
• 18:30 - 19:00 It's this way. Um, so I meet the young folks in there and um, you know, from all kinds of situations, but they could use the skills that they develop writing poetry to articulate clearly, to express themselves clearly in a hearing in front of a judge to let some of themselves come out in a way that's I don't want to say practiced, but in a way that they've been able to think about and be really deliberate about um, and feel that they have some
• 19:00 - 19:30 control over it. So I I sometimes it can work to help people get back into the world. I think I think reading in general and and writing, the more that as students, you know this, the more that you do it, the more that you're able to make connections to what you read, to the world around you. And I think for someone who's isolated in any sense, that's what's important in terms of making that connection to not feel
• 19:30 - 20:00 alone. Um, I think that people who are isolated generally come from what we would consider invisible populations, populations that we don't think about all the time, like people who are incarcerated. You know, I think on an everyday scale, most people aren't thinking about people in prison and what those people are doing. Um, people in hospitals, people in mental hospitals,
• 20:00 - 20:30 um, people who are, you know, not seen in society, they feel that they're not seen in society. And by being able to interact with other people in the arts, especially going back to the Adam Driver thing, um just that feeling of belonging in a group is what helps people to to flourish and to get back
• 20:30 - 21:00 into feeling seen. Um, I I would think that in prison such as Betts being in solitary confinement and wanting a book, I would think that, you know, reading is often times an isolated event. You read by yourself, but you don't have to. So, reading groups, um, and for other artistic endeavors, there are art groups as well where you can get together with
• 21:00 - 21:30 other artists and write and create. um the theater group and music um getting together with other musicians and just feeling like you're part of something. Um do you see uh are there a lot of like reading groups or group work in prisons that you go into? Um it depends on the prison. Some prisons have a group for any type of just like on campus. If you want to have a zombie group or whatever, you
• 21:30 - 22:00 start it up and do the paperwork and there's a zombie group. Um, some less than others. I want to brag on Rayurn Correctional Facility. Um, they have a drama club there that they started. It's called Talent, which is an acronym, and I can't remember what it stands for. Everything in prison is an acronym of some sort. And, um, I was able to go to Rayurn with Dr. Wayne Wright and some of our other university leadership over the summer. And um the group of men who are
• 22:00 - 22:30 in that that drama club performed an original play which they had written, produced, staged, they did sets. Um they had live musicians behind the I mean it was the the level of production absolutely blew my mind. It was something you would expect to see in any theater and it was done with you know the bare minimum this all this ingenuity
• 22:30 - 23:00 that came through and um so it was a delight to see all of that creativity on display and it was also delightful for me to see how much pride people took in um doing the performance and and talking about it afterwards. It was really great. Um, so that's the only prison that I've been to where I've seen the the production of the play, but I know there are others. And I'll plug um an event that's happening on campus March 20th. Thanks to generous funding from the SGAA, the Student Government
• 23:00 - 23:30 Association, we're going to be able to screen the film Singh. Um, that'll be in the Student Union Theater at 6 PM on March 20th. And that is a film all about the arts inside of Sing Singh Prison. Specifically, it's a group of men who are putting together a production of Shakespeare. And then, as happens so many times with art, what you're reading reminds you of something inside of yourself and you see that those connections and that's what's able to come out um in the performances from the
• 23:30 - 24:00 people who are are doing that. Um, so I I've already forgot your question, but I hope I answered it. Yes, you did. Okay. Um, I've I've seen that I work a lot with artists and my husband is an artist and my husband is also bipolar and in some of his really bad times, he kind of draws in to himself. Um there was a time that was really bad where he wouldn't leave the house
• 24:00 - 24:30 for oh a couple of months except to go to the doctor's office and art was what kind of kept him grounded. Um he's kind of a cartoonist but as he worked through that I mean he created beautiful artwork but he just he wouldn't talk to anybody. he was didn't want to leave the front door. Um but during that
• 24:30 - 25:00 time he did start interacting with other artists um there towards the end as he was as he was feeling better. But I think that did a lot to help him pull out of some of those mental health issues that he was having was by talking about art. And um we have a good art community in New Orleans especially, but even around here that get
• 25:00 - 25:30 together back then it was called drink and draw. Um but not for you kids. Yeah. But that's what kind of got him out of the house and got him talking to people. And through those interactions, he got more and more confident um more and more expressive in to other people and was able to even move on to a couple of teaching roles at
• 25:30 - 26:00 local libraries. Um, so I I do think that even in a time where you feel the most alone, it is a way for other people to kind of reach out to you as well. Um, just just people talking to him about his artwork got him out of his shell. And I think that's um again another benefit of bringing artwork into into those
• 26:00 - 26:30 types of situations. Um, I would imagine that in any situation where you have someone who has been kind of not feeling themselves for a long time that it's difficult to start up a conversation. Um, another of
• 26:30 - 27:00 the avenues that I researched was um the elderly. um not only just elderly people who were living on their own, but elderly people in um nursing homes and facilities like that who were, you know, just kind of feeling left out. Um, art programs in nursing homes, art
• 27:00 - 27:30 program or music programs as well have been proven to help people to interact better in those situations. Um, have been proven to and help people's memories. Um, so we see that that type of that type of um communication going on all the time. I know during co my parents were stuck in the middle of nowhere Texas um talking to us by the
• 27:30 - 28:00 phone every once in a while but they really kind of changed a lot during co and started basically just staying home all the time not doing the things that they used to do and to get them involved outside of their home. You
• 28:00 - 28:30 know, my aunts and uncles would go and um you know, bring them music. Um they would do like art parties. Um so that started bringing them out of their shells as well. I think that [Music] um that might kind of tie into
• 28:30 - 29:00 well co was very hard on prisons as you can imagine. Everyone's all cramped in together and they're not I mean there's no way that they could isolate people in in the proper way, right? Um but what they did do is stop allowing anyone to go into prison. So any outside group or anything for any reason, all of that stuff was stopped. So you have an isolated community, a community that is by design completely removed and erased from um our society, even further
• 29:00 - 29:30 isolated during COVID. And it so it took many years for them to start opening back up and allowing um people to come in and offer what they have to do. I know that there are prison arts programs. Um, Angola has a they have a rodeo every year. Um, and I'm not into the rodeo so much, but I did most of my Christmas shopping at the arts and crafts market at the rodeo where you you
• 29:30 - 30:00 can get anything from a belt to um cutting boards to very interesting art, paintings, etchings, all kinds of things. Um, so and that's a good way for people to do the type of stuff that you're talking about. Um, one thing I've always loved about poetry is that while there's no money in it and you're never going to get famous or get a million dollars from being a poet, um, there's a few things you do get. One is you get to
• 30:00 - 30:30 say all kinds of stuff. And most people aren't paying a lot of attention to poetry, so you can really get away with saying a lot of things. I maybe couldn't get away with saying in a faculty meeting, per se. Um, so I've always been the person that my mouth would get me into trouble and poetry helped take care take the edge off of that a little bit. Um, another thing is it's really cheap to do poetry. Um, I don't need expensive paints or canvases or anything like
• 30:30 - 31:00 that. Um, I need a piece of paper and I need something to write with. And now sometimes a pen is hard to come by in a prison, but not always. And then there's kind of stuff, you know, going around. But those are things that are readily available and that's really all you need. And technically, you don't even need that. If you're one who can kind of do everything in your head or if you're a musician and you like to write lyrics, that's something you can maybe even do in your head and not even need the paper. So, I love the fact that we we can kind of make something out of
• 31:00 - 31:30 nothing in the in these poetry workshops. Um, and I mean that in a few ways. A lot of times I'll be in a a classroom that it has windows, but the windows are covered with a um I mean wire, but also a film that makes it un you're not able to see out of the window. So you can see generally that it's daylight. Okay? And generally when it's not daylight anymore, but you cannot see any particulars of anything
• 31:30 - 32:00 that's going on outside. So your eyes are like hungry for something to look at. And I think that is almost a good spot for a poet because it's forcing you to really pay close attention to things you might ignore otherwise. Um and you know when I went to Angola that first time I was in their library and they had windows up on the top which weren't filmed over. You could actually look out and we had seen a bird fly by the window. And when there's not much else to look at and you see a bird fly by one
• 32:00 - 32:30 time, it's human instinct to do what? What? Go. We went and then what else did we do? I mean, can't you read my mind? We sat there and waited for it to happen again. Okay. Um, who when is it going to happen? Is it going to happen? I don't know. Will we see it again? Oh my gosh. I don't know. It's a plain brown parking lot looking type of bird, but it was a a source for something us all of us to look at, to think about, and then the bird itself becomes a metaphor and and things that you can write about it in
• 32:30 - 33:00 that way. So, um I really value having those experiences and it's it's experiences. I mean, I know now you all are taking selfies of this event or maybe filming it so that you can take notes and type it in for your professional experience and all of that's fine. I'm not discouraging that at all. But I I will point out to you that I know you recognize that type of vent event where you can record and come back and consult your information that you have or whatever your documentation. That's one
• 33:00 - 33:30 type of experience. But another type of experience is when you are simply living inside of the moment and being fully present while whatever is going to happen is going to happen. Um, that's what you're doing when you're inspired and writing or creating art. And that's what I'm also doing when I'm in these environments. I have a limited amount of time, a limited amount of resources, and I have to just bring everything I possibly can offer. And then after that
• 33:30 - 34:00 couple of hours, it's over. Like, if I haven't given it, then I can't send a follow-up email. There's no canvas announcements. It's just me feeling regret that I didn't say something I wanted to say. One part of rehabilitation is basically writing your life story. Um that's something that I think um in the field of psychology there has been a lot of for
• 34:00 - 34:30 probably I don't know the past 30 years with that's introspective but actually write out what the plan of your life is and that I think that's what's important um when you're looking at reintegrating into society or going into society. There is actually a prison program called rehabilitation through the arts and their ma main program for re-entry is called reimagining myself and it's
• 34:30 - 35:00 basically a series of journals um and other artbased curricula where you start thinking about your future, how you're going to act when you get back into society and basically rewriting your life. That's also something that I've seen happen in um situations for
• 35:00 - 35:30 physical therapy for um re-entry after being in a mental hospital. the whole idea of using your creativity to figure out your best path into society. Um, we can do that too outside of um that type of situation. As as students, you're entering basically a
• 35:30 - 36:00 different world um outside of college when you graduate. And so part of what you do throughout your college education is think about your future and how you're going to act and what you're going to do when you get out of school and enter into society as well. So I think that that connects, you know, with what Betts and everyone else is doing as as well. Um, I think it is an interesting idea
• 36:00 - 36:30 to think about in terms of, you know, just just processing your goals and what you plan for your future. Um, I have some students here from my prison lit class. Do you all happen to have the book I gave you on Monday? And if you do, can I borrow it? of one. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, this is a book that's called The
• 36:30 - 37:00 Sentences That Create Us. It's put out by the Pen Justice Center and um, this is a book that I'm often able to bring with me into prisons and leave behind for the interested writers. And it's all about crafting a writer's life inside of prison. Um, less about thinking of what will happen when you leave, but it's about crafting a life for yourself inside of a prison. And um it talks a lot about memoir and autobiography. Um and you know, of course, you can still have hopes and
• 37:00 - 37:30 dreams and you can look ahead, but you are restricted in some cases depending on what your exact situation is. Um, but one of the things I found fascinating and inspiring and uplifting about many of the people I've met inside of prisons is the absolutely profound um spiritual or soul progression that
• 37:30 - 38:00 they have achieved behind bars. Um, you know, when you're when you're 18, is it fair for me to say that you're probably more of an idiot than a sage? I mean, is that a fair comment for me to make? You know, you're you're young. You you think you're going to live forever. You're rash. You do, you know, this is how people make mistakes and do things that that have really bad consequences.
• 38:00 - 38:30 Um, but what has been profound to me is to see how people move beyond that and and create something meaningful community and otherwise in a very restrictive environment. Um, in my prison lit class, we read about Alfred Woodfox who was in solitary confinement at Angola for over 40 years. And I think one of the things we took away from that book was, "Oh my gosh, where did this man get this wisdom from?" You know, where does it come from
• 38:30 - 39:00 when you're literally locked up in a box of darkness? Um, so it's a reminder to me of what humanity is is capable of. And that's something that poetry do can do, that art can do. And part of my mission with um the lifelines poetry project which brings me into all of these prisons is of course to do the workshops and be present in those environments, but also to to remind people on the outside about the shared
• 39:00 - 39:30 humanity that exists in all all of these populations. And um that's overlooked often. Um incarcerated people are erased by design. Prisons are very far removed on the fringes of society and we just don't think about those people. I mean, look at the cover art in this book, right? You've got erasers on the inside of the book, right? If you've started, of course, no page I'm showing you has the eraser. Help me. Here's one. Okay.
• 39:30 - 40:00 So, here's an eraser inside of the book. And then the cover art itself is a type of eraser. You've got these faces, portraits that have been dipped in tar over the mouth. not speaking. So, it's definitely symbolic. Um, anyway, an eraser, like poetry, eraser is a cheap art, okay? Because all you need is a text and a pen to mark out the text. It doesn't require expensive paints or canvases or anything like that. There's a program in um
• 40:00 - 40:30 Jacksonville, Florida called I Still Matter. Um it's specifically for mental health um especially patients who have been in a facility for a while and it helps them process trauma. So I mentioned at the beginning of all of this the idea that arts are cathartic. Um there is a trauma in being um marginalized and erased but also
• 40:30 - 41:00 there's trauma in being injured. There's trauma in, you know, having to face horrible things. And part of that being able to fit back into society or to feel like they're part of a society is processing that trauma. Um, and of course, writing is a great way to process that trauma. as she mentioned, poetry, um just journaling, but also painting being
• 41:00 - 41:30 abstract, music, working your way through the things that scare you or the things that keep you from wanting to interact with other people is easier if you can be creative in that process and if you can be real. I think that's what stops people from wanting to interact because they feel like they don't have the right to interact with other people or they're they're not they don't they're afraid
• 41:30 - 42:00 that they will do or say the wrong thing. And processing through what they want to do or what they're thinking using that artwork can help them again as my husband gain more confidence in being able to communicate with someone. Um, when you have a group of people who are talking about writing, talking about art that you can be yourself with and you can say
• 42:00 - 42:30 whatever you want without being criticized, you know, that helps you gain that confidence that you need to continue on and to keep interacting with other people. Um there are people in the world who are isolated not because of going to prison or being sick or you know being um in the military or you know any part of that type of situation.
• 42:30 - 43:00 There are people who have self um self put put their self in a in that situation because of trauma. Um, but there's also people who were traumatized by other people and isolated. And those people can slowly incorporate back into society by using the arts because it's that comfortable. It's it's that
• 43:00 - 43:30 comfortable process of, you know, all art starts with you as an individual and then spreads out from there. Well, I'll I'll wrap up by quoting Betts who wrote the introduction to this book I told you about. And here he is at the end of that. He says, "There is no technology more democratic than language." And so let us sing, which is kind of a call to action. And then here he is. This is the last line of the
• 43:30 - 44:00 first poem in the book, Guzzle, where he says, "Then sing Shahed. you're loved, not shipwrecked after prison. So, he's giving that command again to sing. And I thought I would leave you with some of the um the singing or the poems, little snippets that I'm sharing with permission from people I've met along the way, and then we'll take we can take your questions. Here's one. Um instead of my mouth cursing, it closes to laugh.
• 44:00 - 44:30 12 years old, swimming in the industrial canal, floating on whatever floated by and calling it fun. Blackbirds fly and I am jealous of their wings. Even in life, hearing the laughter of others, I long for life. And that's my favorite one. So, I'll I'll stop there. Um, but we'll welcome your questions if anybody has or you can make your escape.
• 44:30 - 45:00 I also have a number of programs up here if you're interested in the arts programs for military prisoners, ex-prisoners, mental health, physical rehabilitation. Um, I'm happy to share that information as well. Reentering
• 45:00 - 45:30 I didn't hear the first part. They're very accessible in first read and my suggestion would always be to read them out loud, but I think they're extremely accessible. You don't have to have a knowledge of prisoners, but number of programs that you kind of Thank you for the loner. Yeah, there's a lot out there.