Toward a performance of possibilities: resisting gendered (in)justice

Abstract

In the twenty-first century the United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other country. While the numbers of incarcerated males far outnumber incarcerated women, there are still great concerns about the growing female prison population. This fixation with incarceration and building prisons has trickled down to America’s children as well. Among those who have been strategically extracted from childhood and adolescence and catapulted into the category of “adults” are teen girls and more specifically girls of color. This postcard from the resistance seeks to examine the ways in which playwriting and performance serve as mediating tools for formerly incarcerated black girls seeking reentry to their schools, communities, and families. More specifically this postcard extends the notion of performance ethnography and formerly incarcerated girls’ “performance of possibilities” that serve as a bridge between incarcerated and liberated lives.

Keywords:

• school-to-prison pipeline
• gender
• performance ethnography
• resistance
• healing

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the Race and Difference Initiative at Emory University for their generous support of this work.