That's a Pretty Thing to Call It: Prose and Poetry by Artists Teaching in Carceral Institutions [Hardcover]

Frank, eye-opening writing by arts in corrections educators

Poetry and prose by artists, writers, and activists whove taught workshops in U.S. criminal legal institutions, including acclaimed writers Ellen Bass, Joshua Bennett, Jill McDounough, E. Ethelbert Miller, Idra Novey, Joy Priest, Paisley Rekdal, Christopher Soto, and Michael Torres; the late arts in corrections pioneers Buzz Alexander and Judith Tannenbaum; and Guggenheim Award-winning choreographer Pat Graney. These educators demonstrate a diverse range of experiences. Among the questions they ask: Does our work support the continuation or deconstruction of a mass incarcerating society? What led me to teach in prison? How do I resist the savior or helper narrative? A book for anyone seeking to understand the prison industrial complex from a human perspective. All author royalties from this book will be donated to Dances for Solidarity, a project that brings arts opportunities to people incarcerated in solitary confinement.

Thats a Pretty Thing shows us that it is possible to seek beauty from hell; that it is possible to cultivate sweetness and honesty in the face of brutality and betrayal. We learn that buried deep in the American carceral system are people. People who love and hurt and think and grow. People who have something to say if only we would listen. Sugar and the collected writers contend with the emotional upheavals and moral hazards of teaching in prisons. Here, in knife-edged detail, is prisons mundane hell: the ceremonies of entry and exit, the arbitrary rules, the pointless cruelties. Here, too, are careful portraits of incarcerated students and writers, who challenge their would-be teachers and write with an urgency that most of us will never possess. This book has translated the ancient and forgotten language of the dead into the organic syllable of the living. As the Prince in Hamlet identifies the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller lS6