Walled Women

Found this and HAD to share:

GROUPED OUT
"Please make these groups interesting, 'cause I am grouped out!"
— Elaine Bartlett, Bedford Hills prison, September 1997

I'VE BEEN
CHAINED UP / BANGED UP / FELT UP
ROUGHED UP / STUCK UP / HELD UP
NOW I'M
LOCKED UP.
I HAVE
PUT UP / SHUT UP
SUCKED UP / TALKED UP
NOW I'M
MESSED UP —
IT'S SO
FUCKED UP.
THEY MAKE ME
STRAP IN / WALK IN / SIT IN
TUNE IN / MOVE IN / FIT IN
I FEEL
PINNED IN.
THEN SOMEONE
GETS IN / PUSHES IN
COMES IN / PULLS IN
WANTS TO
BLEND IN —
THEY'VE NEVER
BEEN IN.
SO I'M
TURNED OFF / RIPPED OFF / SHUT OFF
CUT OFF / PISSED OFF / FLUFFED OFF
ALL YOU'ALL SHOULD
FUCK OFF!
CAUSE I'M
CLEANED OUT / WASHED OUT / SQUEEZED OUT
THROWN OUT / GROSSED OUT / PASSED OUT
READY TO
SHOUT OUT
CAUSE I'M
GROUPED OUT!
PEACE OUT!

Found here:

http://www.lifeontheoutside.com/poem.html

“You may find that the cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to search realistically and regularly the processes of your own mind and feelings. In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education …. but internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being: honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, purity, generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve your fellow men – qualities within the reach of every soul – are the foundation of one’s spiritual life …. at least, if for nothing else, the cell gives you the opportunity to look daily into your entire conduct to overcome the bad and develop whatever is good in you. Regular meditation, say of about 15 minutes a day before you turn in, can be fruitful in this regard. You may find it difficult at first to pinpoint the negative factors in your life, but the tenth attempt may reap rich rewards. Never forget that a saint is a sinner that keeps on trying.”

Nelson Mandela 1975

Letter to Winnie Mandela from Kroonstad Prison

WE HAVE TO READ RADICAL TEACHER AND DISCUSS THOSE ARTICLES!

& we need to start talking about writing together!

Active reading/making connections
give them highlighters to mark the text
emphasize the process…
framing note-taking as a way of putting yourself in the text
things to write in the margins: connections/reflections/

From InClass/OutClassed notes:
A moment here to think-and-talk about interactive reading strategies:
not just highlighting, but marking while you read (what do you mark?),
writing on the text, making connections w/ experiences, other readings;
most importantly: asking questions of the text. You haven't read unless
you've written on/written back to the text.

also to note for further discussion: Sara’s observation that current social science practices
of representation “are not ethical” (or, “to make people anonymous doesn’t empower them”)

1) By now, Elaine was thirty-five years old, older than most of the other inmates. Angry young women reminded her of herself in her first years here. Often, she pulled them aside and dispensed advice, urging them to get a job and go to school....Most of the time, though, she just listened to them talk about whatever was bothering them....

Bedford Hills was full of such makeshift families, where one strong woman played the role of matriarch and cared for a few younger prisoners. At any given time, there were at least 10 prisoners whom Elaine considered her "kids"....

Her children were scared of her, and they almost always did what she said....For young women with no parents, a strong maternal figure was exactly what they wanted. "We knew she loved us, Tarsha Thompson,one of her children, recalls. "It was nice to be loved. That's something we were all lacking"....

Just like her own mother, who had always prepared enough food for their whole building, Elaine made sure nobody was left out (p. 103).

2) In Elaine's opinion, clemency was a cruel and unfair game. She saw it as part of the governor's political dance, a way for him to show concern about the injustices of the laws without actually changing them. She did not think the governor should give anyone clemency; instead, he should just repeal the laws (p. 149).

Whenever Elaine spoke, Jamel leaned forward and listened closely.  He was quiet, polite, deferential.  There was no hint of the fierce temper that the Bing guards knew well.  Here on Rikers Island, Elaine’s lengthy imprisonment gave her a certain authority in the eyes of her younger son.  She could tell that he was proud of her for surviving such a long prison sentence with her dignity intact.  (p. 183)

To (the recovering addicts at Project Renewal), she was a role-model—a real-life example of someone who had made it, who had lifted herself up from the bottom of society and found her place in the workforce.  For her part, Elaine hardly considered herself a success, at least not yet—not until she found an apartment where she could live comfortably with all her children.  (p. 219)

I was just sent this link by a friend- http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1r2q6h/orange_is_the_new_black_author_piper_kerman_here/

Apparently Piper Kerman, the author of Orange is the New Black, announced on her twitter that she would be answering reader/viewer questions on reddit. Some of her answers/the conversation that was provoked seemed interesting so I thought I'd post the link here in case anyone wanted to read. IN particular, I wanted to post her answer to this question: "First of all, I have to say that I love that show, and love the book. But I have one big question. Do you think a women of color at Danbury would have had the opportunity to write a book & turn it into a successful TV show like you did?" (http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1r2q6h/orange_is_the_new_black_author_piper_kerman_here/cdj00ra)

I am in the middle of reading Robert Scott's "Distinguishing Radical Teaching from Merely Having Intense Experiences," and I just had to stop and write some of my thoughts down. While I agree with Scott's assertion that the intense isolation of the prison environment has negative effects on prisoners as learners, I am struggling with some of the assumptions which bring the author to make this conclusion. Scott writes "There is no internet to cross-reference the course materials so the reading process itself becomes isolated. An isolated reading can easily become a misreading. When a teacher introduces an unheard-of subject, the resources they provide may be the only reference that students have." While Scott is not wrong in pointing out the stark lack of resources (such as outside reading materials, internet, etc.) that exist for prisoners while reading, I don't think it is possible for the reading experience to ever be entirely isolated. As we learned from Megan Sweeney in "Reading is My Window," reading allowed for the women on the inside to form what she titles as an Underground Railroad of Reading, through which women exchange books and critical conversation. Rather than reading in total isolation, the women become resources for each other. When we meet with the women from Riverside, I get the sense that similar connections are being formed between our group members during the time in between each meeting.

I wanted every one to know that the full text of the whole issue of
Radical Teacher on teaching in carceral institutions is now available on-line through Pro-Quest,
and I'd like to recommend that we read (@ least!)
Artif Rafay, "An 'Impossible Profession'? the Radical University in Prison" and
Robert Scott, "Distinguishing Radical Teaching from Merely Having Intense Experiences While Teaching in Prison."

I really enjoyed our conversation last Wednesday; coupla other things i want to remember:
* if we go in talking, we're not attending to the "series of lock boxes "we have to go through
--what about the possibility of our "going in silently," the better to attend to what's happening around us?
--the danger/vulnerability of doing so-->"the more casual we are, the more protected we are"
--sara s's project has got us "sensing" the environment there, attending to what it looks like-->
--but flip this: what does the environment think of us?

one of the students in my critfemstudies class recommended What I Want My Words to Do to You (this in response to our reading Eva's Man last week, and reflecting on our frustrations with her silence...). she found the film life-changing. watching the trailer, i realize how direct it is, how grounded in a belief that the truth can be told. very different than the film i'm imagining sara's working toward making, which sounds as if it will be so much more oblique and evocative...