Created October 21st, 2020 by Michigan Quarterly Review & The Prison Creative Arts Project

Framing Statement:

This Democracy Café is anchored by the October 8th recording of poet Dwayne Betts reading from his most recent collection, Felon, and discussing the ways in which incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people are left out of conversations about democracy. His virtual visit was co-sponsored by the Democracy & Debate Theme Semester, the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP), and the Michigan Quarterly Review, which initially extended the invitation to Betts in celebration of his editorship of the MQR’s Fall 2020 issue on “Persecution.”
Reginald Dwayne Betts is the author of four books, including Felon, which was published in October 2019 by W.W. Norton. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, an Emerson Fellow at New America, and a Fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and is widely regarded as one of the nation’s most provocative artists working at the intersection of creative arts and campaigns against the brutal realities of mass incarceration. Most recently he was awarded a grant from the Mellon Foundation to support his Million Book Project in which he and his collaborators are working to place a curated selection of 500 books—what they’re calling literary time-capsules—to 1,000 prisons and juvenile detention centers to each state in the United States, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

“My own experience as a formerly incarcerated individual has been distinctively shaped by the power of books,” says Betts. “In books is where I found redemption, reading is where I found freedom, and writing is where I was able to express my individual thought, imagination and creativity. Through the Million Book Project, I hope each and every one of my incarcerated brothers and sisters will be able to find a newfound freedom and hope that only literature can bring.”

Betts’ talk will only be available for a limited time, but the Café features a bit of his poetry, his introduction to the MQR’s Fall 2020 issue, along with coverage of his Million Book Project. It is rounded out by a variety of material from some of Betts’ other collaborators here at the University of Michigan, especially PCAP and the Carceral State Project. Cumulatively the people and projects represented here ask us to ask ourselves and each other pressing questions about not only about the possibilities for free speech and the free exchange of ideas in a democratic society, but also about the moral and political crisis of mass incarceration, the violence that it does to individual, families and community, and the resilience of the human spirit even in conditions of confinement.

For those who might want to compare poetry (as presented throughout this Democracy Café) with visual arts we recommend exploring materials curated by PCAP: https://lsa.umich.edu/pcap

For more on LSA’s Carceral State Project: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/dcc-project/

Multimedia:

Democracy and the Carceral State: a reading and discussion with poet Dwayne Betts

Afaa M. Weaver's recording of a poem "Attica"

Text:

“Freedom to Read: ‘Million Book Project’ Brings Literature to 1,000 U.S. Prisons,”

“Blood History" By Dwayne Betts

Living on Loss of Privilege: What We Learned in Prison

In many posts on social media, comparisons have been drawn between the experience of Coronavirus lockdowns and being in prison. Living on LOP: What We Learned in Prison is a video series initiated by formerly incarcerated artists Patrick Bates and Cozine Welch that reflects on this comparison. Living on LOP, a production of Documenting Prison Education and Arts, features the stories of formerly incarcerated people who share the lessons they have learned in prison that can now help us all adjust to life during the pandemic. We hope that these videos offer a sense of grounding, wisdom and hope as we all look forward to the construction of a truly just world. Living on LOP is an eleven-part weekly series that premiered June 12, 2020 with a new episode every week.

Hip Hop, Poetry and the Carceral State

This StoryMap project examines the relationship between poetry and hip hop and analyzes how these overlapping art forms act as outlets for healing as well as platforms for marginalized individuals to speak their truths. Featured here are is poetry by Desmond Williams and James Adrian, both of who are incarcerated in Michigan prisons and both of who have worked with PCAP and its students. The goal of this project is to form a community of critical readers seeking understanding of the carceral system through poetry.

“Making a Community Safer: Courtney Wise Randolph and Heather Ann Thompson,” MQR, fall 2020

In this article, LSA faculty member Heather Ann Thompson provides both a background on historical and contemporary questions of mass incarceration and a critique of the notion that the United States must imprison 2.5 million people and place another 7.5 under some form of correctional control in order to make our communities safer. She also touches here on the question of whether formerly incarceration citizens convicted of felony crimes should be denied the right to vote. The article is an excellent primer for those without a background on these social, political, economic and ultimately moral issues.

Questions & Prompts:

How do these materials help to open up a wider examination of the meanings of freedom? And what do you think about Betts association between reading, literature and freedom?

In what ways do the arts, in particular, allow us to ask different kinds of questions about both the free exchange of ideas, on the one hand, and the relationship between creativity and democracy, on the other?

The LOP project asks us to consider parallels between the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and incarceration and invites us to learn from fellow citizens and residents who are living behind bars and in situations of reduced freedom and mobility. Are these parallels valid and meaningful? Are their lessons we can all learn from the experiences conveyed in these episodes?

To what degree are we sacrificing the rights of American citizens and other residents on the promise of creating safer communities? By extension, we ought to ask safe for whom and from whom?

To what degree does mass incarceration distort American democracy? Should returning citizens have the right to vote? What about restoring this fundamental right to incarcerated citizens while they are still incarcerated?

Are there similarities between poetry and voting?
To what degree do you think that poetry might be a unique art form that conveys an important critical message about freedom and incarceration?

Notes on How to Have an Inclusive Conversation:

Please use caution with these materials. Practice active listening. Try not to assume bad motives
and welcome all perspectives into the conversation. You might want to establish ground rules or
guidelines for navigating discussions, especially around difficult topics. Here are some common
ways to approach this task. Take a few minutes to discuss these with all of the members of your
group. Make changes as needed.

- Listen respectfully, without interrupting.
- Listen actively and with an ear to understanding others' views. (Don’t just think about
  what you are going to say while someone else is talking.)
- Criticize ideas, not individuals.
- Commit to learning, not debating. Comment in order to share information, not to
  persuade.
- Avoid blame, speculation, and inflammatory language.
- Allow everyone the chance to speak. "Monitor your airtime" and remember that including
  everyone is a shared responsibility that involves us all
- Avoid assumptions about any member of the class or generalizations about social groups.
  Do not ask individuals to speak for their (perceived) social group.
- Remember that online communication can be even more challenging. If you need to step
  away use the "chat" function to let the group know, and return as soon as possible. Let
  people know what's going on to avoid misunderstandings.

Before group conversations take a moment and review the ground rules, and make sure that
everyone has agreed to abide by them.