The liberal arts are techniques for freedom.
Our second book of the semester is Mike’s choice: Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea. I have to say: Hemingway is the kind of author I think of as another “man’s” writer. Like Steinbeck, it’s all externals, action,…
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I’m writing this paper while lying in a hospital bed in the Emergency Room at MedStar Memorial Hospital, where I was sent this morning after consulting the doctor about my knee. It’s not an injury, she said, but an infection,…
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This semester, we’re trying something different in Advanced Literature. After putting the men through Conrad, Melville, Poe, Shakespeare, Nabokov, etc., I’ve decided to turn the tables and let them select the books for a change. The book we’ve started with…
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This excellent article by Beth Schartzapfel, Staff Writer at the Marshall Project, refers to the JCI Prison Scholars program, and includes quotes from scholars Josh Miller and Vincent Greco. Obama is Reinstalling Pell Grants for Prisoners
Photographer Mark Hejnar attended my Advanced Literature class at the end of May and took some great photos of the students. Not all the men can be shown due to an arcane policy regarding victim notification rights, but here…
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Warren Hynson, who works under the name Renaissanz Rzen, began painting after being inspired by the work of his fellow prison artists. His vibrant acrylic portraits of inmates help tell the story of his own struggle and the struggles of…
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Friday June 13, 2014: My name is Shelby Norton and I am an Interdisciplinary Sculpture student at MICA. During my freshman year I took a class called Community Arts Partnership (CAP): Finding Baltimore. An advocate for restorative justice came to…
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There’s always something a little bit sad about the last class of the semester. I’m leaving for a relaxing summer vacation, and the men are… stuck exactly where they always are. In a normal academic environment, the summer is a…
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This week, we discussed Part II of Kafka’s “Metamorphosis.” For their homework, I’d asked the men to imagine themselves as Gregor’s sister Grete, and to write a letter to their best friend, giving an account of what’s been happening in…
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interesting article from The Atlantic. A Supreme Court decision 40 years ago this summer allowed states to block access to specific prisoners. What does that mean for freedom of the press and our justice system? by Adrian Shirk, Jul 15…
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