Daniel Marcou

1. Daniel Marcou

2. Adult Corrections Facility (ACF) • 5813 men & women booked (2011) • Average daily population • 400 Men • 80 Women • One year maximum stay • 48 days Average stay • 15 - 30 days Most frequent range

3. Program Overview: • Writing workshops & author visits (January to March 2012) • Bao Phi, spoken word artist visit to the men’s section • Sarah Fox, poet visit to the women’s section • Steve Healey, poet/instructor for 3 workshops at men’s section • Poetry book – “Poems from Inside” (April 2012)

4. Program Goals for ACF Residents: • discover how to express emotions about positive and negative life experiences • explore their own personal and cultural heritage • learn about new forms of writing and writers from multicultural backgrounds • increase self-esteem, pride and accomplishment by writing a poem and having it published in a book • create awareness of issues, like abuse or addiction, that led to their incarceration

5. Author Visits

6. Bao Phi Poet and spoken word artist. 51 residents at the men’s section signed up for the program. Participants received a copy of his book Song I Sing. 50% said the program made them think about poetry in a new way. 80% said the program inspired them to think about their lives. 60% said that the program inspired them to write. 65% said they learned about an author and writing.

7. Bao Phi’s program continued Selected comments from participants: “ It was good that guy shared part of his life and it really made think about my life!” “From his words, I view the world differently.” “I like that he could let go with us. It made it real and I appreciate him letting us into his world.” “I am going to write a poem.”

8. Bao Phi’s program continued Bao Phi’s comments about the program: “ It was one of the few times that people from my old neighborhood – Phillips – were the majority of the audience! When I spoke to them, I was surprised that so many of them were familiar with my old haunts, and it made me think, long and hard, about class and race, and me as a writer. What does it mean that one of the only readings I’ve done where the majority of people are from my old neighborhood, and it’s in a corrections facility?”

9. Sarah Fox Poet and publisher. 14 residents at the women’s section attended the program. Participants received a copy of her book Because Why. 77% said the program made them think about poetry in a new way. 54% said the program inspired them to think about their lives. 31% said that the program inspired them to write. 62% said they learned about an author and writing.

10. Sarah Fox’s program continued Selected comments from participants: “ I fully enjoyed the author visit. The poems were excellent. I also learned a lot of things I never knew. I think Sarah is wonderful and spoke well to the group. Keep inspiring the young writing – and old writing – women of the world! I forgot for whole hour an a half that I was in jail!” “I learned that listening to someone else read poetry is relaxing.”

11. Writing Workshops

12. Steve Healey Poet and creative writing instructor. 95 residents at the men’s section signed up for three workshops. Participants received a copy of his book Earthling. An ongoing writing class is offered by a volunteer at the women’s section. 94% said the workshops were excellent/good. 84% said they would use what they learned. On what they learned, 47% said they learned how to express their emotions through writing. 45% learned more about writing. 40% said it inspired them to think about their lives.

13. Steve Healey’s program continued Selected comments from participants: “ I like this class and wish it was an everyday thing.” “This is a very motivational program. If you have a lot of emotions, this is the perfect program to release them.” “It was refreshing to be able to participate in an activity and not just get lectured to.”

14. Steve Healey’s program continued Steve Healey’s comments about the program: “ The workshops I led in the facility were full of men eager to write poems about their real lives, their regrets and losses, their families, their hopes and aspirations. Almost all of them were excited to read aloud what they had written, and they did so with great passion. I think they were grateful to feel the power of being an author and believing in themselves…”

15. Suggestions for Writing Workshops: • Keep it simple – don’t dumb it down but be aware of very low literacy levels. • Keep it active – get participants engaged and doing activities/exercises. • Allow lots of time for participants to read aloud or talk. • Be flexible about timing and schedule – anything can happen in corrections. • Use examples of writing that students can really relate to.

16. Poems from Inside Program Funding Coffee House Press • Books for Pate, Phi, Fox and Healey programs Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund • Author visits • Poetry book • Staff time Friends of Ridgedale Library • Books for Baca program

17. Comments from a Program Partner: “Writing allows for a quite direct expression of our human-ness, and may offer many people who are in corrections facilities to express who they are or talk to others in a way that is difficult in other arenas. As with all arts activities, writing programs are a positive activity that allows for a deliberate and meaningful way for individuals to both explore themselves and express their creativity to others.” “Engaging people who are incarcerated through poetry gets them involved in a positive activity, may allow them to explore new worlds, provide a venue for some self-examination, an helps them constructively express themselves - all of which may play a part in their continued positive development as they look to return to the greater community.” - Stu Wilson, Coffee House Press, Board President

18. Comments from a Program Partner: “Coffee House Press was excited to participate in the Poems from Inside Program because we believe that our books and authors can and should be active participants in the culture, and in making our communities better places to live. In general, people look at the literary arts as being an art form with passive participation from its audience. We want our books to inspire action.”“Language is the currency we all use to understand each other. Poetry is the guardian of language, and poets, working constantly to stretch the language and keep it fresh, are caretakers of the language. If language grows stale, we can’t communicate well with each other, and misunderstandings, or worse, can happen. The better a person is with language, the more likely they are to succeed.” - Chris Fischbach, Coffee House Press, Publisher

19. Selected Poems from Poems from Inside book: Inside Out When you finally reach your fate it can be hard to adjust, but there’s something inside you that tells you, your survival is a must. Our perceptions of the world determine how we utilize our time, you either strive toward opportunities, or to become better at crime. It’s a fact that everything in life has a degree of difficulty involved, but you have to face each of its challenges until your problems are eventually solved. If for some reason you view this obstacle as some type of setback, then you have been blinded by the struggle, that your blessings are attached. From the outside looking in spectators always run their mouth, not knowing that hardships are required, to get the best of what’s inside of you out. - Albert B.

20. Little Indian Girl Little Indian girl with long dark hair Mother made 2 tight braids every day to keep the bugs away. The kids would call her names, Poor little Indian girl go back to the reservation. At night she would cry to her mother and tell her to cut off her braids - I don’t want to be a little Indian girl anymore. The long dark hair stayed. The tarpaper shack still stands. I miss my mother. - Janet M.

21. Benefits of Art & Writing Programs

22. Aesthetic Experiences “The arts especially address the idea of aesthetic experience. An “aesthetic” experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak. When you are present in the current moment. When you’re resonating with excitement of this thing that you are experiencing. When you’re fully alive.”

23. An “anaesthetic” is when you shut your senses off and deaden yourself to what’s happening.” - Sir Ken Robinson

24. Positive Change Through Reading (and Writing) “Reading in prison counters the forces of isolation, abandonment, and dehumanization by serving as an opening to other people, ideas, and the world outside the prison. Furthermore, reading generates possibilities for prisoners to reenvision and rescript their lives.” - Megan Sweeney, Reading is My Window

25. Reduce Social Distance Promotes empathy by putting a human face on an issue. - Howard Zehr We aren’t designed to solve problems by ourselves… When we are familiar with someone, they become part of us – if you are under threat, then a part of me is under threat. - James Coan

26. Previous Creative Writing Projects CHS & JDC – juveniles Diverse-City (2007) Diverse-City (2008) Diverse-City (2009) My Life isn’t Easy (2010) ACF – adults Creative Minds (2007) Words from Within (2008) Set Me Free (2009) free to dream (2010)

27. Resources Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip-Hop by Adam Bradley Handbook for Writers in Prison by PEN American Center Hip-Hop Poetry and the Classics by Alan Sitomer and Michael Cirelli True Notebooks by Mark Salzman Writing as a Way of Healing by Louise DeSalvo

28. For more information or to get a free copy of the Poems from Inside book Contact Daniel Marcou at: dmarcou@hclib.org 612.543.8852