[I’ve long been
a fan of book
talks, but since my most recent book, We
the People: The 500-Year Battle over Who is American, is intended to be
my most public yet, I’ve redoubled my dedication to talking about it anywhere
and everywhere. Since I’m on sabbatical this fall and even more flexible, I
wanted to take this week to highlight some of my prior and upcoming talks, as
examples that I hope can lead to more such opportunities! I’ll travel and talk
anywhere and am happy to pay my own way for the chance to share these stories
and histories!]
On what’s
different about a book talk for a prison class, and what’s importantly not.
In one of my
earliest, November 2010 blog posts I highlighted the inspiring teaching
that my colleague and friend Ian Williams
was doing (alongside FSU students he brought with him) in Massachusetts
prisons; while I didn’t say it there in so many words, clearly I felt that I
should find a way to enter those all-too-forgotten and important pedagogical and
social spaces as well. I’m ashamed to admit that it took me almost eight years
to achieve that goal, but this past fall, thanks to my friend and colleague
Kate Smith who has been teaching in the MA prison system for a good while, I
was able to talk about immigration with a class of hers at Gardner’s North
Central Correctional Institution. The experience was such a positive one (for
me for sure, and it seems for the students as well) that we found a way to do
it again in the spring, this time at MCI-Shirley and this time focused
specifically on the ideas, histories, and stories at the heart of We the People.
To one degree or
another I try to connect every book talk (and every talk period) with the specific
audience and setting for which I’m giving it, but I felt the need to do that
even more strongly in this setting—in large part because this is a community
that in so many of our collective conversations receive either no or entirely
negative attention and focus. And that was precisely where I chose to begin
this talk: by noting that “exclusion and inclusion” as concepts connect to all
Americans in one way or another; and by using as an example the ways in which incarcerated
Americans are so easily and often excluded from our sense of civic society. I
highlighted in particular how many states do
not allow convicted felons to vote—virtually all states do not allow them
to do so while they are incarcerated (Maine and Vermont are the only current
exceptions); and many continue denying them this fundamental right after their
release. For a long time we did not even publicly debate those exclusions
(Florida’s landmark
2018 Amendment 4 has helped change that, although it is receiving continued
exclusionary
pushback), which truly reflects how deeply engrained the exclusion of
incarcerated Americans from this key civic practice has been.
I don’t know that
I would have made that connection without the need to do so for this particular
audience and setting, and that’s a small but telling corollary reason to
continue finding ways to be part of these classes (for book talks or
otherwise). But when it came to the Q&A/discussion after my talk, I would make
precisely the opposite point: that conversation did not feel distinct or
specific at all, but rather like the best versions of such discussions I’ve
experienced at any talks and with any audiences (especially with adult learning
communities like the ones I highlighted in yesterday’s post). I hope that doesn’t
sound condescending—I’m not suggesting that incarcerated Americans are fundamentally
any different from all Americans; but am rather noting that they are generally
denied access to things like the internet and many texts/materials, restrictions
which you might think would limit where and how such conversations might develop.
But my experience in Shirley was, again, exactly the opposite—the questions and
responses challenged and extended and deepened my ideas, and I took as much
away from this talk as I have from any book talk, with this project and
overall.
Next book talk
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Ideas or
suggestions for future talks, in-person or online? I’d love to hear them!
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