Women in transition from prison: class, race, and collaborative literacy.
Radical Teacher › Nbr. 2008, March 2008
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Women in transition from prison: class, race, and collaborative literacy.
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One of the earlier productions of the Theater for Social Change starts with a song. The singers stroll across the stage for three beats, and then stop, turn, and sing together, facing front: Lucinda's Blues: Introducing Ourselves I like fried chicken and collard greens Yeah, I like fried chicken and collard greens The last time I had chicken and collard greens I used ALL the hot sauce Hot biscuits and syrup sho do me fine I said, hot biscuits and syrup sho do me fine I can eat biscuits and syrup any old time At night I watch the stars I said, at night I sit and watch the stars I just want to let you people Know just who we are "A text must do more than awaken moral sensibilities. It must move the other and the self to action" (Denzin, 1997, xxi). Introduction This paper focuses on meetings that are held one Saturday every month with a group of a dozen or so women in transition from prison. We facilitators (two women who lead the meetings) and fellows (women in transition from prison) read/listen to a variety of short texts; we write songs and poems, prose and fiction about our memories of life before being incarcerated, of life in prison and of our lives now. In time, this work will be edited, assembled and molded into a theater piece which the group will stage and perform. The group is called Theater for Social Change, and it is part of an organization called College and Community Fellowship [CCF] which supports women in transition in their efforts to complete college and graduate school and to participate in a community other than (or in addition to) the one in which they lived before incar...See the full content of this document
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