Judith Tannenbaum

Just home from Michigan. What a great art show! So glad to witness the PCAP Associates speak Saturday morning, and to join Phyllis Kornfeld (Cellblock Visions), Joe Lea (York Correctional Center in CT), Leslie Neil (ArtSpring in Florida), Deborah Tabola (Poetic Justice in San Luis Obispo), and Aylaina Verdejo, Lionel Stewar and Philip Sample for the afternoon panel.

First By Heart readings, too! At U Mich on Sunday, at Women’s Huron on Monday afternoon, and at Parnall on Monday evening.

Phyllis Kornfeld – whose Cellblock Visions is a powerful and beautiful collection of art made by people in prison – has begun the Inside/Outside Envelope Project. As Phyllis describes: “Envelope art is a long-standing tradition in prison art. Beautiful envelopes sent to loved ones communicate a deep connection. The Inside/Outside Envelope Project is expanding that connection. Incarcerated men and women donate their pre-stamped, ready for use, envelope art to be sold as a fundraiser. 100% of the proceeds benefits non-profit organizations.”

Anyone interested in helping with a tax deductible contribution, send to:
A.P.E. Ltd.
126 Main St
Northampton, Ma 01060
(with a memo “For the  Inside/Outside Envelope Project.”)

R. Dwayne Betts – “a good student from a lower-middle-class family” – carjacked a man, went to prison, and has written a book about the experience. Betts was sixteen when he committed the crime, but tried and convicted as an adult; he served eight years in Virginia prisons. He’s been out for four years now and in that time has earned a BA, founded a book club for young men (YoungMenRead), been an intern at The Atlantic, married and become a father. Betts is now a graduate student at Warren Wilson College. His book of poetry – Shahid Reads His Own Palm – won the Beatrice Hawley Award and will be out from Alice James Books in May 2010.

A Question of Freedom is getting lots of attention (from NPR to HipHopWired), and I’m very glad. Those of us on the outside – the ones making decisions about who we lock up – need every report on prison we can get from those who’ve been there. Betts’ report is that of a very young man – a teen-ager still (“Sixteen years hadn’t even done a good job on my voice,” is the book’s first sentence) – and therefore shines important light on this aspect of contemporary US incarceration practice.

What I appreciate most in A Question of Freedom are the ways Betts attempts to:

1. understand why he was drawn to the uncharacteristic moment that brought him to prison;

2. express the responsibility he feels, especially to his mom;

3. speak out about all the young black men in prison with him, while at the same time working hard for a complex – rather than a simplistic – analysis of this fact;

4. present the varieties of senselessness he encountered in prison;

5. describe the various ways he educated himself (with some, but not much, help from prison programs or staff);

6. claim how literature – reading and writing – shaped the man he became as he walked out of prison.

Betts is no longer a teen-ager, but he is still a very young man. A Question of Freedom is being marketed as the first work of an emerging author, and that description makes sense. The book has the virtue of rawness – conveying as it does the confusion and circuitous thinking experienced by a child locked up with adults – and some beautiful writing. Betts’ telling also bears the (probably inevitable) limitations of a young mind that has not yet developed enough scope or distance to create a coherent whole. No matter the “more” I wish from the book, A Question of Freedom is important and I’m very glad to see it building a large readership.

I love this new movie about Youssou N’Dour, the amazing Senegalese musician. I love all the concert footage, and also love just looking at the streets of Dakar, the colors, the clothes, the faces, the gestures, the courtyards where households gather, the look on Youssou’s grandmother face, the street art, Youssou leaning to talk with his son at the mosque. I appreciate what I learn about the Sufi Islam of Senegal, about Youssou’s commitment to Africans working together and his “yes we can” message to all especially to youth. And I appreciate learning about these through a subtle approach instead of a talking head lecture.

So it makes me sad to see that most critics don’t also love the movie, but want it to be either a conventional documentary or a concert film. Also makes me said to see that so far it’s playing in so few theaters. I hope a wide audience is somehow able to see this film, and I hope most love it as I do.

Just home from residency at Hedgebrook on Whidbey Island overlooking Puget Sound. Six women writers are each given a cabin to live and work in, as well as meals. Applications for February through November 2010 must be postmarked by September 24, 2009.

During this stay I finished work on By Heart: Poetry, Prison, and Two Lives, the two-person memoir I’ve been writing with former San Quentin student, Spoon Jackson. By Heart will come out April 2010.

On my next-to-last night, I read Spoon’s first chapter in our book to the group. After I read the last word, the room was completely silent. I looked up from the page and saw each woman was crying. I went back to my cabin and tried to describe this amazing moment to Spoon in a letter to where he’s housed at New Folsom. Each woman wrote him her own note about what his story — and the beauty with which he wrote his story — meant to her.

Many quote these days from the opening of A Tale of Two Cities, that line about the best of times and the worst of times. Others remind us to take advantage of the opportunities always inherent in crisis.

What might be possible for artists and arts in this (grim and hopeful) moment? Arlene Goldbard has written two excellent essays on the history of federally funded arts-work programs and on the possibilities for such programs in this moment.

Congressman George Miller, Chair of the House Committee on Education and Labor announced that he will conduct “a series of hearings this Spring to examine how the arts benefit the nation’s economy and schools—and what can be done to improve support for the arts and music fields.” Please write to thank him and to let him know your thoughts on this subject.

And check out the work of the National Campaign to Hire Artists to Work in Schools and Communities Take time to view the great YouTube interview on the site with actor Bill Irwin about his work as a CETA artist for San Francisco’s Pickle Family Circus.

Please visit a wonderful new blog site that allows people sharing art-making in prison (or any corrections or post-release setting to share information about programs and resources, as well as to post blogs about the work.

The group that worked on this blog site is in the process of developing what we need (mission statement, etc) to create an actual Prison Arts Coalition entity. We hope to find funding that will allow in-person gatherings as well as other ways to share the work we’re all doing. We’ll post whatever we come up with on the blog site.

Creating Behind the Razor Wire is an excellent resource for those wanting to know more about prison arts and for practitioners hungry for connection to colleagues. The book’s author, Krista Brune, received a fellowship that allowed her to research dozens of programs across the United States, and this book documents her research. There are essays by people in prison, teaching artists, program administrators, and college students. There’s an advice section from three of us old-timers (Buzz Alexander of Prison Creative Arts Project, Grady Hillman and me), and an extensive program directory and resource list.

The book’s available for purchase and some of its information is available online.

Phyllis Kornfeld, author of Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America, sent the link to a wonderful essay she wrote (the piece includes beautiful images of work done by people in prison). Phyllis writes about how she thinks of her work:

“‘Art Teacher’ didn’t seem the right job description after a few weeks of working behind bars. Some of the men and women had already created strikingly fresh work without benefit of an art program or decent materials.

“Teaching the conventional principals, techniques, and subject matter—in other words, what was taught to me—not only seemed irrelevant, but that such an approach was likely to put a lid on the intense yearning to create what was obvious, and poignant, in most of the people who came to my classes.”