On Cultivating Voice Through Playwriting in Prisons

Open Source is the world’s longest-running podcast. Christopher Lydon circles the big ideas in culture, the arts and politics with the smartest people in the world. It’s the kind of curious, critical, high-energy conversation we’re all missing nowadays.

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In his new book Our Class, the journalist Chris Hedges describes teaching plays and playwriting in East Jersey State Prison, also known as Rahway State Prison. On this week’s show, Hedges joins us with two of his star students, Boris Franklin and Lawrence Bell.

From the episode:

Lawrence Bell: One of the things that was said to me in one of my many long conversations, and it probably was from Boris: our voices were suppressed not only by the system, but by ourselves, and by our own fears for so many years, that now I live in a space and I occupy a realm where I refuse to be silenced about anything. And that is probably my biggest takeaway from being in this class and having my voice heard for the first time in my life.

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