Writing Beyond the Prison: Reimagining the Carceral Ecosystem with Incarcerated Authors “Writing Beyond the Prison…” is an interdisciplinary public humanities project led by faculty from three academic departments (Africana Studies, English, and History) at Stony Brook University that is working in partnership with two nonprofit organizations, the United Black Family Scholarship Foundation (UBFSF) and HERSTORY.
Notably, both organizations have turned to writing as a process of personal and social transformation in their work with individuals and communities impacted by incarceration. Writing, we know, is more than simply the production of the written word as a final product. Instead, it is a process that involves successive stages of creation and conceptualization, organization, expression, reflection, and self-realization that can be truly transformative. When shared with the wider world, writing moves beyond an act of individual consciousness and self-expression to become a cooperative exchange that creates knowledge, compassion, empathy, recognition of shared conditions, and analysis of social dilemmas.
For over 25 years, HERSTORY’s founder, co-executive, and artistic director, Erika Duncan, has devoted her life to giving voice to unsung stories and transforming the lives of the most marginalized members of society–including the incarcerated and their families–into written testimonials powerful enough “to change hearts, minds, and policies.” Through writing workshops held in jails, shelters, and underserved schools, HERSTORY has gathered hundreds of narratives that speak about the isolation, stigmatization and hardships suffered not only by the incarcerated but so too their families. Very much like Ms. Duncan, incarcerated author, activist, and UBFSF founder, Ivan Kilgore has devoted over two decades to learning and teaching the power of the pen to transform not only his life, but that of his fellow incarcerated brothers and sisters.
Writing Beyond the Prison… Through numerous writing workshops held in maximum security and medium security prisons throughout California, an Abolitionist Writers Workshop with Critical Resistance, and the “Writers Room Workshop” held at the Contra Costa County Youth Detention Facility in Martinez, California, Ivan, and his organization’s volunteers strive to share a truly transformative experience. “After being wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, writing assisted me to pick up the pieces of my life and begin reorganizing it as an author and community leader,” Ivan often informs students who intern with his organization. In 2020, Professor Robert Chase at Stony Brook’s History Department was introduced to Ivan and learned of his organization’s 100 Prisoner Book Publishing Literacy Program which aimed “to create a culture of higher learning within [incarcerated] communities.” Over the course of the next two years, the professor watched as some 100 manuscripts were gathered, including essays, poetry, artwork, and articles that expounded on social, political, economic, and racial inequalities created in underserved communities bound by the criminal justice system. Thereafter, Professor Chase and colleagues at Stony Brook’s Humanities Institute were inspired by an idea that eventually lead to a very prestigious grant from the American Council of Learned Societies to preserve, publicize and utilize these works to create a curriculum and “Living Achieve” website. Notably, their inspiration was fueled by the New Deal-era Federal Writers’ Project at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. which recorded and preserved the narratives of formerly enslaved African Americans in an effort to advance democratic practices and ideals during the Great Depression.
Similarly, the “Writing Beyond the Prison…” project will amplify oral and written testimonies of the incarcerated Writing Beyond the Prison… authors reveal how they experience modern-day captivity in an era of mass incarceration. Moreover, it will document it as a genuine crisis of American democracy, democratic practice, and racial equality. And while it recognizes the kinship with the WPA initiative, the approach differs. Often, there is a separation between the marginalized and voiceless people at the center of such projects and the artists, writers, and scholars who tell their stories. This project will do more than help those whom society has silenced to create their own powerful testimonial literature. Indeed, while the project focuses on dissemination–not only of this carceral literature but also of pedagogical tools–it will also nurture new writers, speakers, community organizers, and leaders while creating an ongoing public history digital archive that makes these narratives available for use by future humanities scholars, activists and policymakers.
Even more, to maximize the project’s impact among diverse audiences, Stony Brook University will hold three public events:
(1) a community event that takes the project directly to system-impacted communities to encourage their active engagement;
(2) to provide a model of how the archive furthers student research and educational development, a student symposium will be held to showcase the work of students who use the living archive in course-related or faculty-mentored research projects; and
(3) a “Capstone Conference” will be held at the university to bring together students, scholars, community organizers, and writers to create a lasting network of scholars, activists, and writers of carceral literature to share ideas on the importance of the project and its future directions.
To learn more, contact:
Professor Robert T. Chase (703) 853-9054
Email: robert.chase@stonybrook.edu
Incarcerated Writers can submit essays, poems, manuscripts, and art, with SASE to
UBFSF ATTN:
SUNY Project, P.O. Box 862, Bristow, OK 74010
United Black Family Scholarship Foundation 