Professor. Writer. Speaker. Prison Teacher.
You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive. ~James Baldwin As the […]
In Defense of Teaching Troubled Texts in Troubling Times Read More »
Monday was Robert’s last class. A big bear of a man, whose gentle demeanor is at odds with his appearance (and probably his record), Robert is being released on Monday, November 24th. This is a rare occurrence, since so many have the guys in our class are serving life sentences. These days, in Minnesota anyway,
The School-to-Prison Pipeline I remember, when I was a high school teacher, working with students who I thought were walking a tightrope between going to college and going to jail. Up to this point, my teaching life has insulated me so that I’ve only seen the students who ended up in college. Now I see
The School-to-Prison Pipeline Read More »
Last Wednesday, in addition to rediscovering hope for our country and for democracy, much of the world discovered the power of the spoken word. Through the brilliant of Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman, we were able to be inspired by her words, as she recited “The Hill we Climb. ” For some, this might have been
Celebrating Poetry, From the Outside In Read More »
“Before I Was Anything” A Poem by Zeke Caligiuri Before I was anything I was an abstraction, sound waves moving through glycerin. Before the effigies of my generation in orange jumpsuits started tattooing cuffs on their wrists, bars on their hearts, I was a red jumpsuit running under evergreens on the
Before I Was Anything Read More »
We’ve all heard the saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names may never harm me.” Yet most of us have experienced the power of language to harm us. For one of my prison classes, I instructed the incarcerated students to write a personal essay of two to three typewritten or 3-4 handwritten
Sticks and Stones, Essays from Incarcerated Students Read More »
At 7:30 AM on a still cold March morning, I wait inside the entrance of an urban public high school, with Patrick, a ninth-grade English teacher on one side of me and a security guard on the other. We are waiting for the arrival of Eli, my formerly incarcerated student, who has agreed to spend
Walking the Tightrope Between Jail and College Read More »
Reading and Writing through the Hard Times: Deborah Appleman presents Words No Bars Can Hold, with Kao Kalia Yang Monday, August 24, 7:00pm Magers And Quinn Booksellers Facebook Page Ever wondered about the ability of literature “to empower inmates who are too often dismissively diminished by society”? Join Deborah Appleman as she discusses her book, in
Live Book Discussion with Deborah Appleman and Kao Kalia Yang Read More »
Eddie comes up to me after the midterm and says he too is afraid that he hadn’t done as well as he should have. Eddie is a tutor, a sweet and serious man in his late twenties, who works with other inmates to help them earn a GED. “You see, my grandma died this week,”
Saying Goodbye to Grandma in Chains Read More »
As I surveyed the cluttered, expanding, and deeply moving memorial site at 38th and Chicago, I tried to see that street corner and the murder of George Floyd and its aftermath through the eyes of the incarcerated men I am privileged to teach at two correction facilities in Minnesota. I knew that many of them
George Floyd Through the Eyes of a Prison Teacher Read More »