Words Is a Powerful Thing : Twenty Years of Teaching Creative Writing at Douglas County Jail.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Daldorph, Brian, 1958-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Daldorph, Brian, 1958- author.

Daldorph, Brian.

Creative writing--Study and teaching--Kansas--Douglas County.

Creative writing.

Prisoners--Education--Kansas--Douglas County.

Prisoners.

Prisoners' writings, American.

Poets, American--20th century--Biography.

Poets, American.

English teachers--United States--Biography.

English teachers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (238 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

La Vergne : University Press of Kansas, 2021.

Summary:

"Since 2001, poet and professor Brian Daldorph has taught a creative writing class at the Douglas County Jail in Lawrence, Kansas. During this time he has worked with thousands of inmates, helping them to find the words to express their struggles while also giving him a unique insight into the behemoth that is the American justice system. Daldorph has taught the class every Thursday now for nearly two decades, and over the years he has watched these talented persons channel their pain into poetry and so make the experience of incarceration just a bit more tolerable. A few of them, like Shane Crady and Antonio Sanchez-Day, leave the classroom knowing it might mean even more than that, as some of them have become published writers as a result of the work they did in Daldorph's class. Words Is a Powerful Thing is a work of bricolage-memoir, creative writing chapbook, literary analysis, journalism, pedagogical handbook, and more. The work invites readers to sit in the classroom, hear the students' poetry, and see these lives that too often remain invisible to society. By giving his students the opportunity to tell their stories, Daldorph demonstrates not only that writing and artistic expression can change lives, but also how much one can achieve in limited time in a small classroom at a county jail in Lawrence, Kansas"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. "Imagination Knows No Cinder Blocks": Education Inside the Walls

Chapter 2. "What Truly Matters": Teaching Creative Writing at Douglas County Jail, Lawrence, Kansas

Chapter 3. "Sing Soft, Sing Loud": The Literature of US Jails and Prisons

Chapter 4. No "Snitches," No "N-Word": Rules of the Class

Chapter 5. "Self-Expression, Self Destruction": Creative Writing Class, May 18, 2017

Chapter 6. "In This Circle of Ink and Blood/We Are for Awhile, Brothers": A Poem a Year: Inmate Poetry 2001-2017

Chapter 7. "My Name is Methamphetamine": Douglas County Jail Blues, Volumes 1 and 2

Chapter 8. "[The] Automatic Connection Between Inmates in Class and Mr. Cash": Johnny Cash's Hurt

Chapter 9. Maine Man: Mike Caron, Programs Director, Douglas County Jail (2001-2015)

Chapter 10. "It Don't Get More Real Than That": The Poetry of Antonio Sanchez-Day

Chapter 11. "Mainly I Just Want to Help People Because No One Helped Me": Sherry Gill, Programs Director, Douglas County Jail (2015-)

Chapter 12. "I Done Good and I Done Bad": Topeka's Bad Man from the Badlands, Gary Holmes

Chapter 13. "It Really Is a Form of Counseling, in a Sense": Mike Hartnett

Chapter 14. "It's Just So Much More Than a Poetry Class": Visitors

Chapter 15. "Don't Carry Much with Me No More": The Songs of Troubadour Joe Parrish

Chapter 16. "The Creativity Faucet Is Still On, and We Are All Drippin' Wet in Poetry!": Last Words (for Now)

Epilogue

Appendix A. Reflections from Former Writing Class Volunteers, Douglas County Jail

Appendix B. PERMISSION FORM Douglas County Correctional Facility Poetry Anthology

Notes

Back Cover.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-7006-3217-4

OCLC:

1259319966