I’ll be the first to admit that I probably don’t give as much thought to research, especially while doing the workshop, as I should. In the moment, I tend to think that the workshop is valuable enough simply because the women keep showing up and sharing. However, I realize that in order to improve not only the effectiveness and availability of workshops such as Speak Out!, research is significant and needed. Tobi made some important points in last week’s meeting about how to find the balancing point between gaining information that could ultimately help incarcerated women, improve the justice system, and bring awareness to society, while at the same time not making the incarcerated women feel like ‘subjects’ and losing the personal aspects of the workshop. In general, research helps me to answer the questions relating to the greater good, the broader, why are we doing this. However, research and theory don’t give the workshop its substance. That comes from the women’s regular attendance, shared stories, and effort.  The answers to the broader questions don’t mean much if there isn’t an individual and personal connection that helps to ground it. This means that it’s important to find that balancing point between research and practice, which as I’m learning, can be difficult.

For the past two weeks, and continuing this week, we have been discussing the issues surrounding fairy tales and body images.  Within these areas, we have discussed our thoughts about what the fairy tales we grow up with tell us about love, happily-ever-after, how we should look and what we can expect from life.  There were voices from each side of the spectrum, those who loved fairy tales and those who thought that a more realistic view should be taken on life, regardless of age.  Next week, we’ll be viewing a clip from the DVD, Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, which explores the issues of respect and body image in relation to the hip hop culture.  Within these topics we have also intermixed some of the key points about the writing process such as pre-writing, drafting, revision and editing in attempt to encourage the idea that writing is a process and it often times takes many versions and feedback from peers to get the final piece.  The women have done well with the continued, yet slightly morphing theme, as they have come back with pieces that include elements of the previous workshop’s discussion.  I’m excited to get their feedback about the DVD material and think it will be a nice change of format for the workshop.

It is undeniable the power of writing these women bring to the room.  We have laughter, tears, silence and even some anger over the words and ideas that have been shared.  It has been enlightening to witness the ability of writing to highlight our commonality (such as our shared fairy tales), bring some understanding to where perhaps there was little (for I have never been locked up), or, at the very least, tune the skill of  listening to someone’s differing ideas and still acknowledge their talent for writing. 

Last week’s workshop was a success.  We worked on Found Poems with the women, who really enjoyed cutting and pasting poetry formed from the words and phrases of magazines and literature.  There were some very creative pieces ranging from the serious, thought provoking to the more humorous, pop-culturally focused.  We had another large group in the third week, so big in fact, we decided it might be more beneficial to the women to keep the group to around 15 people.  Overall, the women seem to be enjoying the group.   Thanks to Kelly Irmen, one of our volunteers, this week’s lesson focused on the Dadaism and Surrealism movements.  The women received a brief explanation of the movements and then created some Exquisite Corpse Poetry, which they had a good time creating and sharing and ultimately crafting into some unique works of their own.

On a separate note, I read an interesting article recently as it related to literacy and its role in our socialization. Narrating Socialization: Linda Scott DeRosier’s Memoirs by Erica Abrams Locklear is a summary of DeRosier’s discussion of literacy attainment in her autobiographical books, Creeker: A Woman’s Journey and Songs of Life and Grace.  Locklear and DeRosier do a wonderful job exploring the power of literacy and how it helps with dentity formation.  In DeRosier’s case, she uses her knowledge of language to move from the “hillbilly” girl from the Appalachian region to a more “normal” studious girl in college, which ultimately gets her through a PhD program.  The article explores how people use different discourses in different circles to best fit their needs.  This concept is connected with the idea that a social hierarchy is often created when one group enforces their discursive choices over another.  In DeRosier’s case, it was the government renaming of geographical places.  The article does well at tackling some complex literary issues in relation to social, power, and gender in a real and personal manner.  The article can be found in Community Journal, Fall 2007 2.1

This was the first week of the Speak Out! writing workshop for Fall 2008. I have been busying learning the details of the program and some of the shared goals that transcend semesters. I have also had the chance to discover the amazing work of the past interns that have accumulated into records of lesson plans and readings, a work-in- process for the Resource Guide (more to come on that in the future), and archival works.   We are immensely fortunate enough to have two other student volunteers for the Speak Out initiative, Kelly Irmen and Mackenzie Moore.  I’m excited to write that the number of women wanting to attend the workshop exceeded our expectations and we had a full classroom of 20 women for the first gathering. It was very encouraging. So, next time, more copies of everything, as I so painfully learned this week. We had a few women returning from past workshops and even some who were published in the workshop’s booklet. Many of them readily shared their works of acrostic poems, and poems and essays about where they are from and their beginnings. It’s always amazing to hear the variety of writing that comes from one prompt. There were a few inquires about whether a particular guest speaker would be returning and although we don’t have any speakers on the agenda now, it is definitely something we are working out in terms of finances. I think it is all agreed that the women enjoyed past guest speakers and the workshop is strengthened by hearing from others in the field of literature. It’s going to be a great semester.

The first month has been filled largely with introductions and learning the expectations of the program. I am constantly encouraged by the women’s attendance and their willingness to actively participate within the workshop by writing during the week and sharing their work. It is especially motivating to have the women request specific guidance, for instance, during our workshop on different types of writing styles, the women openly asked for advice on how to effectively end a piece of work. Questions and comments that push the goals of the workshop a step further are always a good sign. It really is amazing how their ‘thank yous’ at the end of night seem to have the most impact and reflection of our work. There have been few frustrations during this first month. If there were any, it was mainly in the form of administration tasks, such as organizing my paperwork and finding a system for preparing the needed materials of the workshop. It has been a nice change of pace for me to experience various readings and creative writing outside CSU’s classrooms. I particularly appreciate the efforts to create an environment of equal writers within the workshop instead of a classroom structure with instructors and pupils.