plainKate – The online portfolio for Kate Powers: I work with a group of men who aren’t used to seeing themselves in the narrative, unless it’s as the villain; maybe not in your history book, but in a few newspaper articles a few years back and in the hearts of their victim’s families. These men understand that much of America thinks they are monsters who deserve to be locked in cages. They are the bastard, orphan sons of … every kind of women you can imagine; they are also beloved sons and husbands in close families who come to see them in the visiting room at the prison every week. Maybe they’ve been “livin’ without a family since I was a child. My father left, my mother died, I grew up buckwild.” Many of them know all about impoverished, in squalor, and fathers who split. A few of them are in college, working on being scholars.
People look at them like they’re stupid; they’re not stupid.
1 comment:
This article is really beautiful. I think that it is great that people are using the art to connect to prisoners, and to get prisoners to connect to others. I have often read other articles about the benefits of theatre for kids or young adults, but those positives can hold true for adults as well. The benefits of increased empathy, confidence, and determination are vitally important in rehabilitating those who find themselves in prison. In the article, the lyrics of Hamilton fit in surprisingly well with the situation of those the author is applying them to, especially the lines from Wait for It. I love to see the reach that this musical is having, piquing the interest in theatre place far wider than I have ever thought. I hope that the group Rehabilitation Through the Arts continues on it mission for a long time to come, and that more and more people are touched by the amazing thing that is theatre.
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