Shakespeare Saved My Life (Common Text 2017-2018)

The article discusses the case of Adam Capay, an Indigenous youth accused of murder who has been in solitary confinement for four years awaiting trial in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Emphasis is given to topics such as a meeting between Capay and human rights commissioner Renu Mandhane, the psychological impact of administrative segregation on inmates, and the lengths of time served for Indigenous criminals versus others.

The article describes the Persephone Project, a program founded by Lisa Wagner-Carollo in Chicago, Illinois in 1998 to help women prisoners find the words to tell their stories through theater and writing workshops. The project is an outreach of the local actors' group Still Point Theatre Collective. A typical workshop includes personal reflection and creative writing over a period of about six months, compilation of the women's writing into a play, and the play's performance at the prison.

The article discusses the impact of mass incarceration on African American families in relation to the 1965 report "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action," by lead author Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Topics include Moynihan's views on working mothers and patriarchy, the impact of the imprisonment of young African American men on the economic status of black families, and the cultural effects of imprisonment on prisoners. Challenges facing the families of prisoners are addressed.

Creative arts therapies have long made use of the interconnection between body, emotion, and mind. Movement is intimately intertwined with emotional and cognitive functions, and role play promotes perspective taking, empathy, and interactive competencies. In this pilot study, with a pre-/post-test waiting-group design of male prison inmates in three German prisons, we conducted an evaluation of the movement- and drama-therapy based, anti-violence training e|m|o processing® (Lutz, 2008).

In 1992 I was a 17-year-old college student studying at Phoenix College. Two years later I began a different sort of education, this time at "convict college." I was serving [...]

Nelson Mandela had already been a prisoner on Robben Island for 14 years when Sonny Venkatrathnam's smuggled edition of The Complete Works of Shakespeare reached his cell. Like his fellow political prisoners, the future President of South Africa picked out a favourite passage and highlighted it. In his case it was Julius Caesar's meditation on bravery, leadership and the inevitability of death.

This research investigates the impact of teaching Shakespeare to below-grade-level readers in an English Language Arts classroom on Chicago's South Side. The students studied are five middle school boys who were observed over a two-year course of study under the same teacher who, after finding success with this method, found herself asking, how is it that underperforming readers were able to make their way into such complicated text? In fact, by the end of the two years, all were reading at or far above grade level. The study argues that focusing on students' strengths, teacher choice, and using the classics, introducing students to the best that literature has to offer, can provide a convincing case for the joys of reading--a far more convincing case that typical reading interventions provide

Getting into college and making it through can be hard no matter what your circumstances. But for first-generation students — the first in their families to attend college — the challenges are even greater because they must tackle them largely on their own.

The announcement that a group of serving “lifers” had embarked upon a full-length film version of Macbeth, a play generally acknowledged as the most bloody in the Shakespeare repertory, caused some controversy in the United Kingdom’s press. Reactions were hostile and pejorative, with headlines adopting a sensationalist tone.1 Mickey B (2006), thought to be the first feature film produced by prisoners, continues to provoke sensitive reactions. Until recently, legal injunctions prohibited it from public screening and distribution.

A year ago, Kyle L. Gathers, a gang member and longtime drug dealer, was sitting in prison. On Saturday, he was sitting on the stage for his graduation from vocational school, where he was the student commencement speaker...

The article emphasizes the need to reform the prison systems with the suggested mindset on rehabilitation rather than harmful retribution. Topics include the increase in attention to prison reform as stated by prison governor Arne Kvernvik Nilsen, the being tough on crime attitude in the U.S. or Great Britain as well as high rates of reoffending. Also mentioned are Norway's Bastøy island prison south of capital Oslo City as well as the common personality disorders of inmates.

For first-generation students, getting into college and making it through can seem overwhelming. The New York Times asked five first-generation journalism students to interview other first-generation students at their colleges about the challenges they have faced. Now, those students and education experts are answering questions from first-generation students about how to handle their concerns about getting an education. The questions and answers have been edited and condensed.

The article features the Bluebird Express program, a book and drama club at Ross Correctional Institution (RCI) in Chillicothe, Ohio that teaches inmates about teamwork. Created by Correctional Officer Darwin Secrest, the program aims, among others, to promote interest in the arts, allow personal growth and sense of achievement, and provide positive interaction between staff and inmates. Topics include staff and inmate response, positive effects on inmates involved and the program's next phase.

First-generation students mostly come from low- to middle-income families, are disproportionally Hispanic and African-American and have little, if any, information about their higher education options. As a result, they often have misconceptions and anxiety about attending college.

Dameion Brown is on one knee, head in hand, surrounded by middle-school Shakespeare students, all doing their best to stand completely still. The seventh and eighth graders are part of a dramaturgy and design class at Oakland's Edna Brewer School, and they are doing a theater exercise in which they freeze on the command of their teacher, Jana Maiuri, using only their bodies and faces to convey a host of emotions: jealousy, anger, remorse. There are plenty of those feelings to be found in school, it seems, just as there is in prison...