Prison Book Program

Anyone seen this before or seen projects similar to this? Here is a link to a prison book program based out of Quincy, Mass:

http://www.prisonbookprogram.org/index.html

"This is Bullshit"

Britt and I wanted to continue focusing on the creative process rather than the final product, so we decided to do a workshop of de-constructive art. We conceived of this layout:

-everyone got a blank sheet
-with colored pencils only, everyone had 10 min to draw a nature scene.
-then, we told them to pass the sheet to their right.
-with washable markers only, everyone had 7 min to draw civilization over the nature scene passed to them
-then, we passed again
-with black sharpie only, everyone had 7 min to fundamentally alter whatever was in front of them
-then, we passed again
-everyone had to pick their favorite 1/3 of the picture, then cut that out in whatever shape they like. We mounted those favorite parts onto black paper.
-finally, discussion altogether about why the piece was your favorite, how the activity went, how it felt to pass your art and change other people's art, etc.

We originally didn't want to tell the women that their art would be passed, but in the workshop at the beginning I did accidentally tell them that "you won't end with the paper you begin with", then Britt cut me off. So some of the women who listened got that clue.

Climax of the workshop: When everyone was using sharpie to fundamentally alter the paper in front of them, one woman started to say that she wanted to leave (Let's say her name was Shelly). Shelly hated the activity, thought it was bullshit, didn't see the point of it, and really just wanted to leave because she was extremely pissed. Shelly's friend who was drawing over her civilization drawing apologized if it was her fault, but Shelly assured that "I'm not mad at you for drawing over it -because you're just doing what they told you." Britt and I told her that she could always leave if she felt uncomfortable; she said she knew that, then said some more loud statements about the workshop, then left. Britt then told everyone that the workshop was about de-constructive art, and one woman made a comment about how Shelly's exit shows how intensely personal art can be. We were all quite shaken by Shelly leaving, so people were really ready to talk about it. After Shelly's friend left to see if Shelly was OK and if she wanted to come back and talk, Shelly said no and just wanted to know why we made the workshop like that. We did our best to explain the goal of the workshop - to expose ourselves to the entire process of de-constructive art and explore how we feel about it. Who owns art? Everyone who made a part, or just the first person, or just the last person, or whoever liked it best, or no one, etc? Must art be so personal? How does it feel to have your art taken away? Etc. We really wished Shelly would have stayed to discuss her feelings and thoughts, because there was never meant to be a right answer or a decision that de-constructive art was good or right. Her comments would have been valuable in the space. It eventually got into a great discussion beyond de-constructive and into ideas of nature, civilization, why women created what they did, etc.

Britt and Becky, Collective Poems

Britt and I enjoyed a spectacular workshop last week. We've been wanting to focus on the process of creative expression and less on the product, since we've been feeling that the latter has been getting a lot more emphasis in our workshops, unintentionally. So, we devised a low-tech workshop to construct work together and focus on the writing process:

-We handed out blank paper to everyone, and said to label the lines 1-10
-Then, we told everyone to write the same line in Line 1: "Scraped up and put back down". We used this line because we wanted it to go in any direction--it's pronoun-less, direction-less, time-less, etc.
-After everyone wrote those words in line 1, we passed the papers to our left. Then, everyone would write down a new line in Line 3, and try to connect it to the line in Line 1. (We apparently didn't communicate this so clearly, and someone chose to write random lines without any connection to the other lines)
-We kept passing the papers with everyone filling in the odd Lines, then we reversed the direction and filled in the even numbered lines.
-We each read the poems out loud once, then read them out loud a second time: the second time, we took notes on each poem while the reader was reading, and we referred to each poem as "Britt's poem" if Britt was the reader, etc.
-We then had a discussion on each poem: thoughts, impressions, favorites, confusions, criticism--which was really important, to discuss what worked and what didn't

We then did a second prompt: "Set in motion", with a shorter number of lines, and we also read them aloud twice. The women really loved the workshop, and it was definitely one of mine and Britt's favorites. Here are some poems from our workshop:

Set in motion

A lit candle and lotion

That landslide you put me on, it sent me back fast.

Shivers up my spine, I can’t walk

You shook my world. How do I move forward?

Frozen, I want to make a move – my body says yes, but my mind says NO!

Legs like Jello. Feet tingly and mouth dry.

--------------------------------------------------------

Scraped up and put back down again

We found elevation, you gave me altitude, we had an atmosphere

A helping hand, I was lifted by a friend

Lifted from below

Thought I couldn’t get any lower than where I’d been

To the depths I fell, now how will I recover?

I stood up straight and just lifted my chin

And the right side of my jaw swelled up again

Now I knock on my window and let myself in

Hello is anybody in here?

The Alpha and the Omega where it ends is where it begins

But you’ll die forever if you don’t forgive yourself of your sins.

Workshop 7: Chen and Rachel

This week's workshop was centered on the idea of space, the expansive or restrictive inner space of a house and the memories associated with buildings and homes.

We brought in two reading selections: an excerpt from Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities" and from Margeurite Duras' "Writing."

The entire text of the "Invisible Cities" can be found here.

Calvino's excerpt was on a city of the dead, very image driven and somewhat nonpersonal, an intellectual exercise. Duras' is much more personal, about her experience as a writer and how space (the interior of a house, the surrounding grounds) affects her writing habits.

For introductions I asked for the women's names, per usual, and a vivid memory of a space they used to inhabit. This actually turned into a very long and wonderful discussion about people's pasts, the houses they used to live in. One woman mentioned how she always used to seek out the basement as her private space, and someone else said that for her, that place was in a tree. The discussion evolved into memories of grandparents, death, and ghosts.

We then went on to read the excerpts, and no one had much to say about them, some were eager to start writing.

The writing prompt is as follows:

For prompt 1 I gave them printouts from this website of rural ruins:
http://community.livejournal.com/rural_ruin/

1. Based on your picture of an abandoned home, imagine what the home looked like fifty years ago (or when it was newly built). Who lived in it? What did it smell like, feel like, upon walking in? You may want to describe it very specifically, going from a view of its outside and then continuing inside, taking us on a "tour." The picture is only a starting off point; you can imagine the inside of the house to be anything you'd like it to be.

And then for prompt 2,

2. Remember the first place you ever lived? Look out of one of the windows of that building. What do you see? (What you see can either be what it looked like back then, or now). If you are illustrating, use the frame of the postcard paper as the frame of the house: that is, fill in the whole card with what you see.


I think that because of the beginning discussion, people really wanted to write about their own homes, so for prompt 1 it was less about looking at a random ruin and imagining, and more about describing a memory. I gave two prompts because there was a visual element to it and one of the women, who didn't speak English very well, ended up copying a drawing. She also composed a poem in her head and then read it aloud to us from memory.

Rachel brought up a good point about the structure of workshops because of how well the discussion went. How much of class should be discussion and how much reading and writing? It's hard to say... sometimes when a discussion is going really well, I'm hesitant to curb it and move on to the next activity. When it came to the writing itself, Rachel thought that people didn't write with the same openness as they had when they were speaking. had they exhausted what they had to say? Was the page a more daunting place to put down words than in a "storytelling" group discussion?

Cold-readings in Medium

So, for the past four weeks or so Evan and I have been reading a couple plays in our workshops. This kind of format is called a "cold-reading" because its based on the idea that none of us have read the play before, at least not together.
For several weeks until the first play workshop, we had consistently been having the same three women attending our Monday evening workshops, give or take one new woman who changed every time. This had been wonderful, and four weeks ago, we brought in Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie". Having the same steady three women was so fortunate because it let us cast the play (it is essentially a three person play, with one pivotal fourth character at the end) deliberately so that each woman was very well suited to her role, and had something in that she could really get a kick out of. The woman who had never been in before said she was feeling quiet but wanted to listen, and so she was assigned the fourth character. The reading was wonderful. Within the first ten lines, everyone was on board (whereas before we began one woman in particular had expressed fear she would "sound stupid" if she mispronounced big words--this woman is a fiery poet by the way), and we were off! I even interjected one or two teeny pieces of directions when I had the sense we were comfortable with it, and those were taken and it even gave the reading more intensity and commitment. We got almost exactly half way through before we had to leave. All of the women seemed to feel really good (I think getting assigned a role, and being solely responsible for it can be so exciting and empowering) afterwards, and promised that they would come next week.
The next week, though, completely unexpectedly, we had ten women in our workshop, including only two of the three women from the week before. Evan and I had planned to finish "Glass Menagerie", but with this many people, had to make a quick decision that it didn't make sense (It was so silly because it was the one workshop we had come in thinking we already had a great plan for, whereas all the weeks before we had plan as and bs and cs!). The two women were disappointed, it was clear, and simultaneously were telling the other women how cool it had been last week but also saying that it wouldn't be the same if we reassigned the third role to someone else (and, after all, it would still leave seven women with no roles, unless we just rotated through, but that wasn't really the style we were going for!). So, we ended up improvising a workshop in which we did word at a time ensemble poetry. Each of us would say a word, and we'd have a poem, and then we'd repeat it louder, and by the second or third time around at least one woman would have it memorized and she would belt it out and get some applause. It was fun, and pretty supportive, and more based in groupmind than usual.
The next week we brought in the second half of Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller's "The Crucible". We had four women, none of the ones from our first "Glass Menagerie" (they each had a visitor or were in Orange). We got through the first act with perfect timing. The women were really into it; I had been hesitant because of the sort of intentionally stale environment of Salem that the play is set in, afraid that the women might be "bored". That was a stupid thought. When the first woman delivered the first line, I wondered if she had been rehearsing! She had this energy that gave the whole reading momentum. Even the woman who had a hoarse voice and who had been a hesitatnt to read was asking for more parts at the end. There are a lot of little roles in the play in addition to the bigger ones, and Evan and I were reading some as well, which was so fun. Having a well written structure to explore and play in can be really freeing; for example there can be a scene in which someone is yelling at another, or suspicious of another, and it's never tense because there is this understanding that we are sort of visiting another world. Whatever-don't get me started, I think I am going on a bit. We can talk about why I (and others) had such a good time in person! The women asked to keep their scripts, and all excitedly promised to come next week.
The next week (yesterday) only one woman was there (the other three were all in Orange, I think). And we kept going with the Crucible, the three of us getting to the end of the penultimate act. We had a really nice time.
The trajectory we are on (loosely) is that next time I am going to bring in some two person scenes from different plays, and assign women different roles and after reading through them, maybe even stand them up and play around with acting them out a little more. And the workshop after that, ideally, we are going to start writing some scenes on our own, starting from brainstorms (and maybe some improvs). Maybe the women will partner up, maybe not.
One thing that is frustrating, which we have all talked about, is that participation is so inconsistent (even, as we learned, when it seems like its going to be). I think this is mainly because of Orange and discipline. Last night the guard came in and told us that one of the women in Orange wanted to give us a message that she was in Orange but that she wanted to make sure she could still participate next time, and that she wanted to very much. It's so (explitive explitive) frustrating. But, despite the length of the plays that we have read and their need for multiple workshops, the workshops have still managed to be sustainable individually, which is a tribute to the women's patience and commitment and curiosity, and to the writing.
I apologize for not writing in weeks. It's all up there now. Have a great break--it snowed today!

Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate

By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: November 18, 2007
NY Times

For the first time in a generation, the question of whether the death penalty deters murders has captured the attention of scholars in law and economics, setting off an intense new debate about one of the central justifications for capital punishment.

According to roughly a dozen recent studies, executions save lives. For each inmate put to death, the studies say, 3 to 18 murders are prevented.

The effect is most pronounced, according to some studies, in Texas and other states that execute condemned inmates relatively often and relatively quickly.

The studies, performed by economists in the past decade, compare the number of executions in different jurisdictions with homicide rates over time — while trying to eliminate the effects of crime rates, conviction rates and other factors — and say that murder rates tend to fall as executions rise. One influential study looked at 3,054 counties over two decades.

“I personally am opposed to the death penalty,” said H. Naci Mocan, an economist at Louisiana State University and an author of a study finding that each execution saves five lives. “But my research shows that there is a deterrent effect.”

The studies have been the subject of sharp criticism, much of it from legal scholars who say that the theories of economists do not apply to the violent world of crime and punishment. Critics of the studies say they are based on faulty premises, insufficient data and flawed methodologies.

The rest here

I saw this article in the NY Times over the weekend and thought it would be of interest. The first time I remember thinking about the issue of the death penalty was in sixth or seventh grade, where my english teacher divided us into two camps: for and against the death penalty. I was put into the "against" category, even though all of us were pretty ambivalent about the issue and no one particularly wanted to be against. This summer I was tracking the case of Kenneth Foster, who was going to be executed in Texas (where I'm from), for being a sort of "accomplice" to a murder when what he actually did was sit in the back of the car. His sentence was commuted to life. While I followed his case I researched the death penalty a little bit and it REALLY surprised me that the electric chair was still used in some states (or at least allowed to be in use), and so was hanging. I thought those forms of execution were archaic and had gone out of fashion, and it was really jarring to think they were still utilized.

Anyway, there you have it. I don't really know if it's helpful to have economists debate over this issue: I mean, people aren't currency, and I have a feeling that any of these studies must be deeply flawed.

Workshop 6: Chen and Rachel

We took excerpts from "I Remember", a text by Joe Brainard that were basically memories by Brainard, each sentence starting with "I Remember." We discussed how the prose was like a poem, the syntax, visual associations that were akin to collage (Brainard also worked in the visual art collage format). The women liked writing their own "I remembers"... a lot of them cut right to the chase, such vivid memories, small and sincere and amazing. One woman wrote about her grandmother...

I often forget that not everyone sees things the way I do, or interpret them, and it's a great pleasure to be surprised by someone else's point of view that opens a window into things... There was one Brainard memory that went like this:

"I remember regretting things I didn’t do."

I interpreted it as a memory of regret, so perhaps Brainard no longer regretted. One of the women said it might be that he was regretting again. So interesting...

It was a little hard to discuss Brainard's stuff because people were eager to write their own memories-- and his are so specific to the 70s that perhaps it was a little hard to connect with... they were also pretty simplistic. But it was a good jumping off point. Workshop ended early then and Rachel asked them to write from the point of view of an object in the room. Someone wrote a really great "surveillance" poem from the POV of a fly. Pretty rad.

Teaching, especially workshop style, is such a matter of exchange. I'm pretty grateful for everything people have shared with me and opened up about, and I realize an inherent inequality about this give and take procedure. We sort of started this conversation last Saturday, but some of it was about balancing what we are able to offer vs. what the women are interested in, their background. I still need to crystallize my thoughts on this, so look for a later post.

11/14 workshop in minimum

Today, I went in alone and did a dialogue-writing workshop. The women and I began by discussing what it means to write dialogue -- convey in writing a conversation between two people without relying on description. All of the prompts to follow were restricted to written speech only, no narration.
The first warm-up prompt was short and silly: think of a person you know at this point in your life, and write out a dialogue between that person and yourself as a 10-year-old. We wrote for about 5 minutes, some were eager to share their work...
The second prompt was more restrictive: I have them a setting (backstage of some show, dressing room), and they could write their dialogue using 3-word utterances (each of the statements/responses in the conversation had to be 3 words long). We wrote for maybe about 10 minutes, and shared again.
The last and longest assignment was more open: they were to write a dialogue between 2 people talking about another person. I warned the women that once they begin writing, I will intermittently interrupt them with prompts that they could work into their dialogue. So a few minutes into the writing, I asked them to include a rhetorical question; a little later -- an apology. Finally, the "third person" in the initial dialogue was to walk in and join/interrupt the conversation. We wrapped up after that prompt, and most women shared their work.
The feedback that I got from the women was generally positive. Three women hung around after the workshop was over to chat; they told me that they liked being challenged, because they write regularly and well but are not used to being restricted/stimulated by specific prompts. I also got feedback from other people that they found the workshop fun. As far as my perception goes... I think a significant part of today's experience was that it started off light-hearted and almost autobiographical, so there wasn't too much pressure to "write something good". I was pretty impressed with their work [especially with the energy in the 3-line dialogues, actually] and, from their enthusiasm/support for one another when they shared, generally thought that the workshop went well. It did feel a little off-balance at times, because one or two women were *really* enthusiastic about the exercise, and others were getting stuck at times. But generally people seemed to be on the same page.

Question

Britt and I are planning on doing a workshop in Medium on the Kweli lyrics to 'Get By', and then ask three prompts: To write off a verse that speaks to you, to draw off a verse that speaks to you, or to write the verses.

Has anyone done this song yet in Medium, or done something similar to this? If so, let us know so we can make sure not to overlap.

Thanks!

11/5 workshop

This week made for quite an entertaining SPACE session. Molly and I (Anna) planned a workshop focused on beauty. Our plan was to begin with a brief discussion of what we thought beauty means and then show visual works, mostly portraits, by different artists and talk about how they presented beauty. We planned on spending the last half of the class working on broadly-defined self-portraits– i.e. picking traits of ourselves that we found beautiful and finding ways to visually depict them.
In class the discussion on beauty was fine, although a bit colloquial. Once we brought out the portraits by other artists all hell broke lose at the sight of Frida Kahlo’s unibrow and mustache. It was actually quite funny, and it seemed that there was a fine balance struck between understanding the more serious undertones of the session and just having fun. The self-portraits turned out great, and although most everybody balked at the idea of having to draw themselves, once they realized the possibilities for abstraction most seemed to enjoy themselves and create meaningful works.

Becky and Britt 11/7 Workshop

Our workshop this week focused on interviewing. Beforehand, I typed up a list of questions ranging from "What is success to you?", "When have you felt the happiest?" and "What historical figure do you most identify with?" etc. (I can email you this list if you'd like.) We paired up the women randomly to interview one another based on these or their own questions, except for two women who really wanted to be together and explained that otherwise they wouldn't get anything out of the activity. We also explained that the goal was three tiered: One--to interview and find out about the person, and follow tangential conversations to get more out of it. Two--to be interviewed and share with the interviewer. Three--to write about the person you interviewed by answering the prompt "To me, s0-and-so is..." One thing I should have made clearer was that the writing assignment was meant to express their views of the person in their OWN words, not just a tally of the facts about the person. We gave the groups about a half an hour, and we told them when the half-way point was to switch. Then we spent about 10-15 minutes writing, which wasn't enough for some people, while others had finished early. Then we shared what we wrote. The women who wrote laundry lists about their interviewee presented entirely differently than those who put their own thoughts and words into their writing, and the result was that the laundry-list writers wanted to improve and bring it back next week. We got mostly positive reactions to the workshop.

Britt and Becky Halloween Night

In reaction to popular requests to celebrate Halloween in some way (ie decorations), Britt and I did a workshop that was half writing and half mask-making (not allowed, as it turns out). The writing prompt was "What is your spirit animal and why (If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?)". If they could only think of an animal that they definitely were not, then they could write about that as well. After sharing our animals, we made masks of our animal with cut-out Gate pizza plates, leaves, construction paper, magazine images, paints etc. But, making disguises is against the rules as we and Ariel were notified later, so no more mask making again. Otherwise, it went really well and the women enjoyed it.

10/29 workshop

This week's workshop went pretty well. We brought in a poem by Lisa Lewis called "Bridget" that addresses issues of gendered violence and female solidarity. We read the poem aloud (each woman--there were about five women present-- read a section of it), and then had a discussion. Several women talked about ways in which they identified with the speaker and subject matter in the poem, and even shared narratives of their own, some of which I (Molly) felt ill-equipped to respond to. In general, though, it was a good discussion, and I think people liked the poem. When we asked how they felt about turning a subject of violence and violation into a work of art, one woman said something along the lines of, 'When I read this and can identify with it, I know I'm not alone.' We talked about expanding the solidarity discussed in the poem into a broader solidarity between us as female readers of the poem and the female author. After the discussion, everyone wrote a poem in response to the poem, beginning with the last few lines of "Bridget." We shared what we had written at the end of the workshop. Everyone seemed willing and happy to share, and also supportive of one another's work.

Workshop 5: Chen and Rachel

Oscar Kokoschka, Bride of the Wind

We went in this past Thursday and did a visual arts oriented workshop. I was thinking that after the last color workshop, there was a gap between skill-based learning and the motivation to think about art at all. I thought that bringing in some reproductions of paintings and just talking about them, looking at them, would spark some interest that would perhaps lead to a desire to learn more about color. I think of it as analogous to reading and talking through a poem before taking pen to paper and writing a poem yourself. I also wanted to think about color in a different way, using the medium of small bits of colored paper as the mixing tool, as opposed to actually mixing color. The advantage in this is that you don't muddy up the paper. What you "mix" will stay pure.

These are the paintings we brought in, in chronological order. I made a handout to accompany them.

Justinian and his Attendants, a mosaic made in the 1500s in Ravenna, Italy
Georges Seurat's "Les Poseuses"
Van Gogh's "Starry Night"
Oscar Kokoschka's "Bride of the Wind"

The latter 3 were all made sometime in the late 1800s, and Kokoschka's was early 1900s. They all use fragmented color to different effect, and mosaic is a tiling medium, so different from paint, but the thing about these painters is their unadulterated color, their separation of each stroke/dot of paint so that the unity lies in walking back from the painting, not from standing up close. "Starry Night" has always looked mosaic-y to me, and Seurat is a practitioner of pointillism, which has a whole scientific ethos behind it as to why dots of color should be used instead of mixing.

We started out asking for names and what kind of art people liked. Most people didn't have anything particular in mind (we had 5 people maybe at the beginning of workshop), but someone mentioned liking cartoon art and someone else was really into pop art/Andy warhol, although the kind of stuff she herself liked making was "trompe l'oeil" (trick of the eye... a sort of illusionistic realistic art). So we began with that, then had a conversation about the first two pieces of art which lasted for 35 minutes... Some people left because they had to, and then we felt we should probably get started on the activity. We had torn colored sheets of construction paper into bits (not small enough bits, I felt... a shredder would've worked better, probably). We just told them that they could play around with it or copy a picture I brought in, but I think if I ever hold this workshop again, I'll make the time frame more rigid and have enough time for them to copy a simple color study (that way they are actually mixing the colored fragments in a way that makes them think about color...) A similar activity would be to bring in markers and have people copy a color picture but without making broad swathes of color-- they have to create it by making points only (a version of pointillism without ever having to bring in paint.)

Rachel can talk more about the dynamics of the group, which I thought were totally mellow compared to other workshops. I don't know why, but looking at art was pretty calming, so was playing with little paper bits. The two women who stayed through the whole workshop said it was fun and they'd like to more visual arts workshops. It's hard because I hate to lose anyone on account of which type of activity we bring in. last week a woman didn't join us because we were doing writing only, and then this week a old-time writer didn't join us because were doing visual arts (I think that was the reason, may've been something else.) But I guess you can't win them all.

Workshop 4 - Ariel and Katie

in our workshop, ariel and i have been working on spoken word. last week we started off by focusing on the performance aspect of spoken word. at the beginning of the workshop ariel read the poem "Church" by Anis Mojgani twice, once in a tone that conveyed contentment and happiness and once in a resentful, angry tone. after she read both poems we discussed what was effective in conveying intended emotions in each reading, i.e. tone, speed, volume, body language, pausing, inflection etc. we then had everyone perform "Church" in a way that was meaningful to her. we followed this with another discussion about what makes a performance effective. we did the same process of performance ad discussion with the poem "Bedrooms and Battlescars" by Buddy Wakefield. picking up on a writing project we started the previous week, we finished the workshop by writing autobiographcal poems in 30 lines or less, and then performing and discussing those pieces. we plan to continue working on those poems, cutting them down to 15 or 20 lines so as to work on word selection and distill specific strong images and language, and to work on the editing process in general.

the workshop was very small, only two women (well, three at the very beginning), but this actually made the workshop more effective because everyone got to perform each poem and discussion was more fluid than in previous weeks. while the workshop was an overall success, at the very beginning a very negative woman was in the room. from the moment she walked in she seemed to have something against ariel. she repeatedly bashed ariel's performance of the poems. ariel and i handeled the problem well, i think. ariel simply ignored the negativity in her comments and instead probed the woman about why the pice bored her. i took the opportunity to point out that her reaction exemplifies the beauty of spoken word, which is the versatility and personal nature of the poems and their performances. fortunately the woman removed herself from the workshop (she didn;t have her glasses and was aware of her own negativity). at the end of the workshop the two women who stayed for the duration were enthusiastic about the work they were doing, which was awesome to hear.

mariya and amanda workshop 2

for our second workshop, mariya and i wanted to provide more structure than our previous workshop (which mariya will post on). we did a langston hughes-focused workshop, where we brought in three poems: i, too sing america; may america be america again; theme for english b. we read the three poems and discussed them/shared our initial reactions about the poems. then everyone had to write their own i, too ____ america poems. meaning, that had to be the title and first line of their poems. everyone wrote for about ten minutes, and then we gave them a line from one of the three poems (i.e./ it's hard to say what is true for you and me--taken from theme from english b), which they had to write into their poems, wherever they were at that moment. and then continue writing. then another ten minutes passed and we gave them a new line, etc. we had five lines in all.
we chose langston hughes because his poems are really poignant but also extremely accessible and easy to understand. they're straightforward and also universal. the poems were full of really rich themes; some of the poems that the workshop participants wrote were about america directly, some more abstract. they were all very personal and sincere, and i think everyone was really proud of their work.
it was a really powerful workshop, and everyone wrote really kickass poems. everyone shared and was completely supportive and in awe of everyone else's work. it was a really encouraging space and afterwards everyone wanted copies of each others' poems. i think the structure was just enough to keep everybody writing (sometimes time limits can get you going, and they had new prompts every ten minutes to refresh their poems if they maybe were getting lost) but the themes were broad enough that everyone found her own voice. it was just a really great workshop, and i was completely blown away by it.

Workshop 4: Chen and Rachel

A really interesting workshop... lots of things on my mind...

Rachel brought in a poem called "Safe Subjects" by Yusef Komunyakaa, from his collection of poetry "Copacetic." There are a lot of dense, frightening imagery in this poem-- very evocative and very sensual. can't seem to steer away from that in the poetry that we like. Interestingly enough, some of the women had a harder time with this poem than the Neruda poem, which had more abstract imagery. Perhaps because of Komunyakaa's specificity, it is hard to extrapolate that into your own personal life. Rachel also had the thought that since one of the women was a really great writer, she tends to control the direction of conversation, if she's confused than other people are hesitant to challenge that confusion.

So we began with a warmup... I took lines from the poem we brought in and wrote one line on each sheet of paper. I gave each woman one paper. They would write the next line, fold the paper over so that only their line is visible, and pass it on to the next person. It had some hilarious results... if a poem started out as funny, it would end seriously, and vice versa. The tonal range is just huge, and the sort of freedom it allows is really great.

Then we read the poem and talked about it. One line really called out to some of the women "Redemptive as a straight razor/ against a jugular vein--". One of the women essentially said that if someone were to cross her, that was how she would act. She wouldn't take any shit. So parts of the poem were really concrete, but others somewhat confusing.

Then we had them write a poem themselves, incorporating repetition drawn from the poem. These turned out really great. One of the women mentioned "railroad tracks" in her poem and I inquired about that, thinking it was a metaphor. Turns out she was talking about shooting up. I was a bit taken aback, especially when she confronted us very honestly about how we felt about coming into prison, considering our backgrounds as college students. This is the first time that this has ever happened to me-- someone questioning our purpose in this space and comparing and contrasting our lifestyles... I did not know what to say at first and then told her that I wanted it to be a safe space, no censorship... And she said she knew that, but she really wanted our opinions on what it felt like to be there... Rachel can speak more on this.

I am very glad that she opened up this conversation: the essence of why we even go to prison in the first place. She then went on to talk about writing habits in and out of prison, and wasted talent.

We've had some women come to workshops more than once and it's good to see familiar faces in workshop.

Liberation through Education

Many of you have asked for resources on systems of incarceration. There are so many, but I will go over a few. First, a list of websites, then links to specific texts. I encourage you to look at these!

SITES:

• History is a Weapon
• Bureau of Justice Statistics
• Critical Resistance
• Families Against Mandatory Minimums
• It's About Time: Black Panther Legacy
• MotherJones: Debt to Society
• National Coalition to Free the Angola 3
• Prison Activist Resource Center
• Prison Legal News
• Prison Moratorium Project
• PrisonSucks.com
• RI Family Life Center
• RI Right to Vote
• The Freedom Archives
• The Sentencing Project
• Center for Community Alternatives
• AssataShakur
• Sasha Abramsky
  

TEXTS:

• In 2001, Christian Parenti, author of the excellent Lockdown America: Police And Prisons in the Age of Crisis, delivered a talk at the Stop The ACA(American Correctional Association) conference. His talk is about the thirty year explosion in prisons in the United States. A rough transcript is included below the mp3. Check it.
• George Jackson -- Black Revolutionary
• Linda Martin Alcoff -- What should White People Do?
• Angela Y. Davis -- The Challenge of Prison Abolition
• Angela Y. Davis -- Reflections on the Prison-Industrial Complex
• Stephen Hartnett -- Prison, Labor, Slavery & Capitalism
• David M. Oshinsky -- Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm/Prison
• Christian Parenti -- Crime as Social Control
  
• Gregory Shank -- Radical Criminology and Social Movements
• Paul Street -- Race, Prison, and Poverty
• Paul Street -- Empire Abroad, Prisons at Home
• Kim Gilmore -- Slavery and Prison: Understanding the Connections
• Kristian Williams -- the Demand for Order
• Anthony Platt -- Social Insecurity
• Bettina Aptheker -- the Social Function of Prisons
• Assata Shakur -- Women in Prison: How it is with Us
  

Becky and Britt Halloween Wkshp

In response to serious requests to make Halloween decorations, Britt and I did a pre-Halloween workshop. Only 5 women came this week, which is the lowest numbers we've had yet.

We began with a writing prompt: "When I think of Halloween, I think of....", and the women shared an array of wonderful memories. Then we prompted with "The best celebration of my life was/is...." and shared. Again, wonderful, intense memories.

Then we did collages: designing your own Halloween costume. We used newspapers and color magazines, and we did our collages on Halloween-colored construction paper. We shared, and each of them was totally different, different reasons, different colors and materials...they look great. And mad positive comments kept coming, like "I dont want to leave!" and saying how fun the activities were. It was really nice.

BUSINESS

- I bought a boombox. I have it in the trunk of my car (it's little and cute) so let me know whenever you need to borrow it (preferably one day before your workshop) and I'll bring it to you.
- Let me know when you want to buy materials with SPACE monies. If we agree that it is a smart purchase, go ahead and buy it with your money, then bring me receipts so I can reimburse you.

- There is a file cabinet on the 3rd floor of the Swearer Center at the top of the stairs where we can put some shared materials (Chen mentioned construction paper).

- I have release forms for publishing in the Zine. I will have them for you at our meeting (Sunday, 8 pm, 34 congdon).

- Certificates are on their way, please be patient.

Love A

Anna and Molly 3rd workshop

Our workshop this week was pretty intense, but overall went well. The workshop itself was a continuation of last week– where we brought in cutout words from the newspaper and everyone constructed their own individual newspapers by either collaging the words or writing out sentences including the words. We had found that this was a great activity because it allowed for a lot of individual creativity and choice, as the inmates and ourselves were able to make things that were either bizarre, funny, or more of a more serious nature. We had decided to do the same project for two consecutive weeks since last time it had felt like there just wasn’t enough time to complete the papers in the time allotted.

One challenge was that different women kept coming in and out of the workshop (to a greater degree than before) so it was hard to do introductions and closing presentations. What made the workshop especially intense was that one woman in particular broke down and began to tell us about being brutally raped. We weren’t really sure how to address the situation– on the one hand we had to keep the workshop going, and on the other it was really frustrating to feel like there was so little that we could do to work with her in the context of SPACE. Ultimately, we gave her Mimi’s contact information and emphasized the importance of contacting Mimi for legal aid. Molly and I also discussed how to deal with future situations similar to this one. Also, we realized that we had gone way over the allotted time (leaving Tasha and Evan waiting) and discussed working to follow the schedule more closely.

In the moment, this experience also seemed to undermine the value in doing funnier, more lighthearted workshops. For next week, in light of this, we are going to bring in a poem of a more serious nature and try to have a more in-depth discussion and writing session. While we know that we’re not psychologists or lawyers and cannot provide these services, we also think that it will be beneficial to create a space where these issues can at least be safely discussed among the women.

First few workshops

Chen and I have gone in three times, and each time has been very different.

The second week we read and worked with a Pablo Neruda poem called "No Hay Olvido (There is No Oblivion)." The poem negotiates a space between the concrete and the abstract and is very intense in tone-- one woman was resistant to this, but the general response to it was incredible.

To respond to what Molly was saying about sensitivity and being "on" as a facilitator: I was really affected emotionally by what the women were seeing in the poem-- moving through the poem, instead of on top of it, to get somewhere-- their interpretations spoke to an amount of life experience that is inconceivable for most of us. One strand of the conversation, about a woman's associations with "broken things" (she shared traumatic memories), was absorbed into the general discussion-- not ignored, but brought back into the fold. This was all the doing of the other women in the workshop.

There wasn't really a way to directly address this woman's responses to the poem, because my instinctive response to someone's having shared something like that wouldn't have been appropriate to the environment... I think she didn't even want to shift the focus to herself. She said it as though it wasn't even real to her. I'm still working through my thoughts about this-- it came and went and then I got my driver's license back from the C.O. and got in the car and went back to my house? As more time passes I get more of a sense that I hope the workshop can be a place for women to encounter and work through personal questions in materials outside of themselves-- to constitute themselves-- to even conceive of themselves in a way that the simple fact of being in prison does not (I say this knowing I have no idea what that effacement of identity might be like). Is that even valid?

Is it self-indulgent to be horrified, want to vomit? Is the question also: is it self-indulgent for me to give my own emotions range and space when, as Molly put it, the world in all its multiplicity does not even exist in the prison? What's been strange to me is that there is rarely a specific thing that affects me-- it is something in general. I'm not sure what it is.

Last workshop was strange. The women were very shifty, things were happening all over the place, there wasn't much positive response to the workshop content. Maybe we should do more at the beginning of the workshop to bring everyone into the same space? Or should we, if no one seems to be into it, adapt the workshop to that? How?

Sometimes, women leave the room and come back with writing/drawing they've done and show it to us. I appreciate their wanting to share their work with us but it really disrupts the space of the workshop. This mostly happens right at the beginning or toward the end when we're wrapping up... we are thinking in the future of discouraging this. Things get chaotic. Has anyone else had this experience?

sensitivity vs. effectiveness

I really wanted to address Molly's post on sensitivity because I found it very thought provoking. I too had some of these issues sophomore year but I never paused long enough to think them through. So thanks for making me think them through. Yes, I think there is a way to balance sensitivity with holding a good, successful workshop. I mean, I often go into the prison with the mentality of: Ok, I want this to go smoothly. I want people to generate good ideas and good writing. Sometimes I forget that people have lives outside writing, they've had bad days, prison sucks, there is a super personal aspect to this I will possibly never understand.

To give an example I went in sophomore year once and I said my day had been "painful" for some stupid reason or other. And one of the women just made fun of me for that, because how could my experience compare to theirs in matters of "pain"? I think it's one of those times to not take ourselves too seriously though. Things do slip out unintentionally-- you can't be uber sensitive all the time-- although the very fact that you think about this is great, and it should be a continuing process.

There's also just a huge discrepancy in the different types of women I've met throughout my time in SPACE. Some just "get it." Doesn't mean they're smarter, it just means they were probably educated in some similar manner to our educations, or their learning process melds well with the teaching methods most people use in highschool. Some people have never heard of Picasso. Just one of those things... I learned not to assume people's background or knowledge, and never never to underestimate anyone.

Umm yeah... so I don't really know how to answer your question, but only, do what you do best and be honest and a "good person" whatever that means, and people will see that and respond to that honesty.

Workshop 3: Chen and Rachel

Because one of the women had expressed interest in learning more about color in the previous workshop, we did a color workshop today. I think I was a little too ambitious... see my lesson plan below. I made a handout for the women that reiterated some of the main points to lessen confusion, but there was still a lot of confusion, mostly because color is just a broad and hard concept to understand, and a lot of color examples I would bring in (paintings etc) are much more than one color scheme. Some of the fundamental things I found hard to explain, even things I take for granted. For example, red is a warm color and blue is a cool color, right? Yes, but you can have a "cool" red and a warm red, and sometimes brown can swing either way. It's very hard to grasp.

We started out with an Anne Sexton poem (For my lover, returning to his wife) with a lot of color imagery. I'm not sure this was the best way to do a color workshop, because the women had to shift gears twice: once at the beginning and once at the end of the workshop, when I tied in the poem to the exercise. I do like to have alternatives to just writing or just visual art, so that is part of the reason I put this in there. I also wanted to bring up the emotional value of color, but by the time I had reached the end of the lesson, people's attention had strayed.

Part of the problem is that yes, this is sort of a boring workshop. Color wheel, yadda yadda. It's sort of like teaching grammar. Yet these concepts are the very foundation of what painters use to make pictures, so I thought it was important to convey this.

Finally, I think that just because of the nature of the workshop, you lose a lot of focus from people after the first 20 minutes.

Lessons I learned from this workshop:

Perhaps this needs to be a two part workshop, starting with VALUE and THEN color, because you build off from one to the other.

Have one person sit at the other end of the table in case one group gets cut off from the conversation.

Definitely have free-draw at the end. It's a good release from the info I was throwing at them in the beginning.



Color Workshop


1. Read Sexton’s poem. Keep an eye out for mentions of color. We’ll come back to this later.
2. Color workshop:
- primary colors (medium specific… oil paint, watercolor, acrylic water-based paints you can mix will follow color mixing properties. Not so much dry media, because the colors may turn muddy.)
- Secondary colors and complements
- Color wheel exercise. Also, just experiment with medium.
- Warm / Cool colors (cool recedes, warm comes forward.)
- Color schemes: primary colors, complements, warm/cool colors, or mix thereof
- Examples of what we just talked about. Example of primary color scheme, complementary color scheme, a warm / cool color scheme, and something “complex.”
- Colors in shadows, colors to aid creating dimensionality, space. (ex.)
- Finally, color as emotion and mood. Matisse, etc. Picasso’s cool period.
3. We’ll read the poem again and talk about the moods / meanings color creates
4. Create a piece that uses one thing we’ve learned: Pick one scheme to go with. If you pick a complementary color scheme, remember that you don’t just have to use those two colors, but make sure they are the dominant aspect in your work.
5. Free draw.

Evan And Natasha's WorkSHop

We started with 30 second self portraits, in which no one could look at the page or themselves. then we had everyone draw who was across from them - not looking at the page - and people had 1 minute. then we drew our hands, looking at page and at the hand. then we drew gesture sketches - 30 seconds each and we did a set of seven. then we could draw whatever we wanted for however long we wanted and it went well.

ACI inmate protests new restrictions on publications

Thanks to Evan for sending me this article by Tom Mooney in today's ProJo on the Department of Corrections’ latest flop: restricting inmates’ access to books and magazines.

He writes:

Until earlier this year, state prison inmates could receive paperback books, magazines and newspapers ordered and paid for by friends and relatives.

But corrections officials — saying they want to prevent inmates from extorting items from each other and reduce the time-consuming process of reviewing incoming mail — have changed that long-standing policy.

Now inmates can receive only those publications they order directly from a publisher and pay for in advance.

Forget about reports of newly-transferred 17-year-olds getting kicked around in the exercise yard… it’s time we focus on the real issues, like the tedious process of connecting inmates with reading material and the inevitable prisonyard fights that erupt in the mayhem of reading. I don’t know about you, but I feel just a little bit safer knowing that the criminals will remain as we’ve intended them to be… illiterate.

Workshop 1 Feedback: Anna and Molly

October 10--Anna Ninan:

Overall, I was pretty happy with the way our workshop on Monday went. I felt like in a strange way it really did flow from concrete forms of creative expression (i.e. drawing and writing) into other forms, such as the conversations we had at the end. Beginning with these basic starting points of automatic writing & drawing seemed to get people settled into the environment, and allowed those who didn't want to be there to leave. As the workshop progressed into creating a final project, it seemed that there was a natural flow of expression, feeling, and connections within the room. In a way I believe it actually did become a safe space for people to be open and share.

From that, I think that it could be interesting to explore the possibilities of collaborative workshops where the projects themselves would actually tap into the creative energy flow between individuals as a group, rather just from individuals itself, to perhaps put together a project that would be meaningful.

On the notes of logistics:
I agree with our discussions after the workshop that as facilitators we could be more authoritative, although I think it's a careful balance between the being authoritative and still letting the needs and interests of the participants dictate the direction of the class. And our introduction was way too long.

October 10--Molly Little:

Anna, I think your comments are astute.
In thinking about how I would write my reflections on the workshop, I started off trying to differentiate between my experience of it and more objective reflections of how things went. Then I realized that I couldn't really differentiate between the two, because I think my experience of the whole thing affected my ability to be cognizant of different dynamics in the room and also to be an effective facilitator.
So, here are some things that have been on my mind:
I don't know why it didn't occur to me before we began the icebreaker, which involved asking people to write down a good and bad aspect of their day, but as soon as I had the piece of paper in front of me I froze. It was as though some of the reality of what was going on suddenly hit me. I realized that anything I'd write down about what had happened in my day would likely be something that is outside the bounds of the reality of daily reality for these women. This was one moment when some of what prison is all about began to get through to me--depriving people of life, of the world with all its multiplicity, in the most basic way. I realize that these are really obvious things to say, but I guess I just mean that they began to hit me emotionally as well as intellectually.
Why should that matter? I think I need to balance being sensitive and aware of and awake to what is going on while also staying 'on' as a facilitator, being present, engaging with people and not shutting down in a state of being stunned and horrified. Most of all, I don't want to get used to it--I don't want the feeling of horror to go away, I don't want that reality to become normal to me. I'd rather feel like I'm going to throw up once a week than have it become normal. But then again, feeling like I'm going to throw up isn't helping anyone and maybe it's just self-indulgent.
I feel like all of these thoughts are a little rambling and not particularly helpful. I agree with Anna's assessment of the workshop, logistical and otherwise.
I guess I would find some reflections from those who have done this before helpful. Is it stupid to ask how one ought to balance sensitivity and effectiveness?

Workshop 1 Feedback: Becky and Britt

October 4--Britt Harwood:

Ariel,

Hey. We didn't have any trouble getting the photos today; it took about ten minutes total, which was great. We went over to Medium and got in at about 6pm, and decided to teach in the classroom on the third floor of B Wing. There was a question about conflicts--visits are on Mondays and NA is on Thursdays at the same time as SPACE--so I was wondering if you have a plan worked out for that. Otherwise, the workshop was more of an introduction and meeting session, we all talked a lot about ourselves and our goals (we all = both us and the women), we did a short writing exercise, we threw out some ideas for future workshops, and then we called it a day. All told, about an hour and ten minutes. It was really really good.

A few of the women are wondering about certificates from last semester. Do we give them out? Does the prison? Why did some women get them and not others? Did you and Ruki give them, and Tess and Mariya and I just dropped the ball? I'm not sure how that works, but they asked that I try to see if it's possible to let someone know that they were skipped over. Do you think Janet would know?

I'm too tired to think of anything else right now... I hope this is helpful... See you soon, have fun tomorrow,

Britt

October 4--Becky Mer:

Hi Ariel!

I thought it went really well last night. Photos took a total of 1 minute, and after they were taken they went directly into the computer. The COs were really accommodating and friendly. We had about 15 women from A and B, and our classroom was on the 3rd floor next to the common room (which definitely was distracting for some of them, but we did have the benefit of a wonderful CO nearby). Some women did say that they preferred the basement room because it was bigger. Also, two women told Britt that they never got their certificates last year, and they really want them. We began the workshop with introductions, which really was a wonderful chance to see why people came, what they wanted and expected, and definitely made it a really comfortable atmosphere. We were able to tell them our goal for the space as a safe and expressive place. After intros, we did an envelope activity that Rosi did last year: on the outside, draw or write what people see on the outside/what you want them to see, and on the inside write what's inside you. The women could chose to seal it or not. Most women shared, and I never expected the high level of honesty and openness we had in just that first activity. The sharing of the envelopes was my highlight for the workshop. After that, Britt gave them the option of reading the memoir now, or saving it for next week and instead brainstorming ideas for workshops. The women really wanted to share their ideas, so we got a nice list of what they'd like to do with us. We ended around 7:15, and I think we were able to communicate that we really wanted them to come back and have some continuity in the group. Also, Britt and I talked to one of the women about their schedules (when they have AA, NA, visits, etc) which was really helpful--it seems like Wednesday is clear for many of them.

Thanks so much Ariel, have a great weekend!
-Becky

A Forum for Discussion

Hey hey,

First, major props to Chen to for getting this off the ground. Just to re-cap from the meeting, the point of this blog is:

• to prevent overlap among the (count em!) SIX workshops we are holding each week
• to suggest new materials to bring into the ACI that meet DOC regulations
• to share ideas for productive and successful workshops
• to discuss problems, concerns, and questions
• to share exciting moments and triumphs
• to circulate articles, etc. on incarceration and prisons and criminal justice and anything of that nature for our internal education
• any direction we want to take it...
  

If you have immediate questions or responses that concern logistics, please e-mail me in addition to posting on the blog.

Please also be aware that this is a public forum. We have made it a public forum in order to share this discussion on leading arts workshops in prison with people elsewhere who may be working under the same restrictions without access to resources, as they are limited. This means that, not only will people from Mens' SPACE and the Swearer Center be reading this, but also, people anywhere in Rhode Island or the country may happen upon the blog. Therefore, it is so important that YOU USE FAKE NAMES FOR ANY INMATES YOU MENTION. I repeat, FAKE NAMES FOR ALL INMATES.

I'm running to class now, but I have two more points:

1. Some of you have been sending me 1 paragraph write-ups after your workshops. I'd love those to go on the blog. Feel free to edit or add to them yourselves and slap em up here. Otherwise, I might just start posting your write-ups tomorrow. Cool?
2. Just to start the education sharing, everyone check out www.historyisaweapon.com.
   

That's all for now.
Thanks, again, Chen!

Solidarity,
A.

first post

Welcome to Space in Prison for Arts and Creative Expression, a student group at Brown University that holds workshops in the Rhode Island ACI weekly.

This is a place for us to post things about workshops and anything else on our minds about the prison system.

I hope there is lots of discussion that goes on here... an extension of things we are not able to discuss in person.

Cheers

Chen