Prison Poetry Workshop

Etheridge Knight (April 19, 1931 – March 10, 1991) was an African-American poet who made his name in 1968 with his debut volume, Poems from Prison.

We sat with Reginald Dwayne Betts and listened as he shared his own story of incarceration and his ongoing process of becoming a writer and poet.

Patrick Mathieu is a New York city based artist who majored in dance at City College of New York and had a successful career as a performer. Then, one day, there was a knock on his door.

Patrick shared his story of incarceration with the Prison Poetry Workshop and his journey both in and out of prison.  Today, Patrick leads creative writing workshops on Rikers Island and at the Fortune Society.

Poet, publisher, editor, and founder of Broadside Press. Dudley Randall was born 14 January 1914 in Washington, D.C., but moved to Detroit in 1920 where he founded the legendary Broadside Press. Broadside helped define the Black Arts movement and published Etheridge Knight’s Poems from Prison in 1968, bring prison poetry to a national audience.

Lead Belly was born Huddie William Ledbetter near Mooringsport, Louisiana around 1889. We explore Lead Belly's life in and out of prison. Take a listen.

Shaun Moore-Bey is a poet, activist, and regular on the Detroit spoken-word circuit. He is working to be a cultural force for his community.

Poet Cara Benson leads a powerful writing workshop at the Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility in Saratoga County, New York. We listen in as a group of poets dig deep and create powerful work.

Alan Lomax traveled the south visiting prisons and recording songs and interviews. Lomax was a great collector of folk music of the 20th century and invested his work on recording music that was disappearing from the American cultural landscape.

Angie shares her story about giving birth behind bars in New York.

Our time with Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop was powerful! D.C. youth who are shipped into the Federal prison system had little contact with home or educational opportunities until Free Minds arrived. We hear their stories and poetry. Check it out.

We traveled to San Quentin State Prison, California’s oldest prison, to learn about the lasting tradition of arts and spoken word in this well know institution.

Judith Tannenbaum taught poetry in prisons across the United States and intensively at San Quentin and other California prisons through Arts-in-Corrections.  While working at San Quentin she began a collaboration with Elmo Chatmann and Spoon Jackson that resulted in two books.  Come learn about this unique exchange.

Join the Prison Poetry Workshop as we travel to New Orleans and join a group of prison poets who are taking on Walt Whitman.