F195. Doing Time and Writing Time: Teaching Writing Behind Prison Walls

Room L100 J, Lower Level
Friday, April 10, 2015
12:00 pm to 1:15 pm

 

“Do you feel safe teaching in prison?” Teaching this marginalized population rewards those willing to be subjected to the aggressive oversight and invasive searches required. Professors of writing in jails and prisons (from minimum to maximum security) will advise how to gain entry into this type of teaching and discuss classroom strategies for encouraging writing students in the dehumanizing, intellectually harsh environment of incarceration. 


Participants

Moderator:

Rachel M. Simon is the author of the poetry collection Theory of Orange and the chapbook Marginal Road. She teaches writing, gender studies, and film classes at Purchase College, State University of New York; Pace University; Bedford Hills Correctional Facility; Poets House; and others.

Gretchen Primack is the author of two poetry collections, Kind and Doris' Red Spaces, and a chapbook, and she is the co-author of the memoir of Jenny Brown, The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight for Farm Animals.

Kamilah Aisha Moon is the author of She Has a Name. Widely published in journals and anthologies, Moon is the recipient of fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, the Fine Arts Work Center, and Cave Canem. She teaches poetry and creative writing for schools, colleges, and diverse organizations.

Kyes Stevens is the founder and director of the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project, and is a poet who earned her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. In addition to teaching hundreds of students in prison, Stevens has trained over 100 people to teach within Alabama prisons. She sees poetry as the beginning of an educational movement within Alabama that is reshaping how people consider people, prisons, and education.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center