Introducing Agnes Wilcox
Prison Performing Arts
#Advocates
Audio.mp3: DOWNLOAD
"...theater provides great insight into a person's life."
During the Fall semester of 2014, Criminal Justice & Youth Outreach (CJYO) student, Janet Valdez, did her final presentation on the Prison Performing Arts project. A note from Janet's reflective essay has been noted below. Above you can download a speech given by Agnes Wilcox for the Ethical Society of St. Louis discussing the Prison Performing Arts program and its impact. It's a great audio and I encourage everyone to listen to it. Especially if you conduct creative expression programming in prisons or are interested in playwriting, theater, and Shakespeare.
This post will be one of many that will acknowledge the work of advocates to include audio you can download and LISTEN to, video, or interviews you can reference. I think this type of information is especially helpful for individuals that are planning, or trying to figure out how to get involved in similar initiatives or even how to start their own in their community.
Whether you're on a mobile device or your laptop, download the audio above, listen, share, and learn. When people want to know whether creative programming in the justice system "works" and wonder about data... how about the number of years people like Agnes Wilcox have dedicated to the participants of Prison Performing Arts initiatives? How about the number of people that support the program's existence? The number of participants? The number of people that participate and attend the event? Or even the people that learn about the program and are inspired to get involved, or to think about and talk about creative justice with others in ways that promote a new way of how a person thinks about the justice system?
What I like about this post and future #Advocate posts, is that we can't talk about Agnes without also learning about everyone else that's involved with making a program like Prison Performing Arts exist, including the participants. And in listening to the speech, you'll learn more about its impact in the people served by this program.
Download the audio and pass it along!
The audio was retrieved from the source noted below:
Prison Performing Arts. Ethical Society of St. Louis Hosts Agnes Wilcox. October 2012. Sunday Platform, St. Louis. Prison Performing Arts News & Media. Web. December 2014. http://prisonartsstl.org/blog/2013/1/12/ethical-society-of-st-louis-hosts-agnes-wilcox
"Researching programs for juveniles was a very different experience. In other courses we just read how there’s not enough programs, but we never investigated the types of programs that are offered to the youth. In this course we had to actually look them up and we had to research the program of our preference. In a previous class with professor Lecroy we had to do a project about The Beat Within (TBW). TBW is a program that is offered to youths in different states. As criminal justice majors we need to be more informed about the programs that are offered to youths to help them rehabilitate and have a successful re-entry to the community. It’s not necessary to be directly involved in the programs to help them we could support them by donating, or we could create or volunteer with a program in our city."
A note from CJYO student Janet Valdez
In addition, I encourage that you check out the interview below which was linked by Janet in her bibliography & notes section of the presentation. I've included Janet's citation below the quote and a link to the interview so you can read in full. Janet's presentation was titled 'Learning through Art'.
YOU'VE CALLED WHAT YOU DO "STEALTH LITERACY."
Agnes Wilcox: I love when a new man comes into the group and he's having trouble reading, and three or four guys will say, "Oh, don't worry, it gets easier. You'll be fine in a couple of weeks." There's a member of our company currently who has great difficulty reading and pronouncing words. When we are in a circle reading, Kevin reads very slowly and relies on someone next to him to help him with the difficult words. And every man in the room waits.
Cooperman, Jeannette. "A Conversation with Agnes Wilcox." St. Louis Magazine. 24 July 2008. Web. 22 Oct. 2014. http://www.stlmag.com/A-Conversation-With-Agnes-Wilcox/.
Another source to listen to regarding the Prison Performing Arts program you will find on This American Life WBEZ radio archive. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/218/act-v
Keywords
+ Tag = Criminal Justice & Youth Outreach | CJYO | St. Louis | New
Mexico State University | Prison Performing Arts | Agnes Wilcox | literacy | St. Louis Juvenile Detention Center | stealth literacy | Ethical Society | Shakespeare | prison | creative expression | WBEZ | reading | Hamlet
