July 1 Tip: Learn about teaching creative writing in prison

Learn about teaching creative writing in prison

(The July 1 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/books/review/with-that-im-in.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

Teaching writing behind bars is transformational work for the teacher as well as the taught. The intense focus of a locked room and locked life creates a tension that resonates deeply in the teaching and learning process, as revealed in Helen Elaine Lee’s essay “Visible Men” (June 16) 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/books/review/creative-writing-in-a-massachusetts-prison.html.

Almost 40 years ago I participated in an innovative program at the Fulton County Jail, Atlanta, where classes were offered to provide stimulation for long-term inmates assigned to that facility. I was inspired to participate by Kenneth Koch’s work in the New York City public schools, which demonstrated how poetry can transcend boundaries.

I especially appreciate Lee’s resilience over 12 years of institutional work and her emphasis on meditation as integral to the writing practice, to the sense of community. The ritual of beginning class with a check-in followed by the line “And with that, I’m in” speaks to the sense of belonging that words and stories bring, a becoming of something more. Somehow creative writing could save the world, one better self to another.

ANNE LUNDIN
Madison, Wis.
The writer is a professor emerita in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.