Still alive: reflections on carcerality, arts and culturally responsive teaching

ABSTRACT

In this article I reflect on my experiences as a previously incarcerated individual being involved in theatre performance for the first time. I reflect on how my involvement in arts and education programmes in prison made me aware of the larger structures of Whiteness that were embedded in the educational and arts contexts that I found myself in later in life. I argue that much of the arts programming and delivery supports rather than challenges structural forces of White supremacy and domination that underpin both the prison system and educational institutions in the US.

KEYWORDS:

• Prison Theatre
• incarceration
• arts
• Whiteness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Man.Alive. Stories from the edge of incarceration to the flight of imagination. 2009. Co-directed by Amie Dowling, Paul S. Flores and Natalie Greene. October 1– 3, 2009 University of San Francisco Studio Theater Lone Mountain Campus, San Francisco, CA.

2 In the US, jails are used to incarcerate individuals who have been accused of a crime and are still going to court. If they have gone to court, they might be serving a sentence of five years or less. Prisons incarcerate individuals who have been sentenced from two years to life.

3 The ‘Dream’ sequence is a based on a poem that I wrote that references the famous speech by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and expresses hope and a vision for a new reality for people impacted by White supremacy, slavery and incarceration. The performance opens with the actors dragging chairs into the playing, with the chairs becoming a metaphor for the difficulties that disenfranchised communities of colour face and that they drag with them through life. The sequence ends with the chairs being flung into a pile on stage at which point I recite the poem by addressing the pile of chairs. The text of the poem can be found in edited collection by Brigham and Conner (2018).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Massy University.

Notes on contributors

Reginold Daniels

Dr Reginold Daniels received his master’s in business administration in 2014 and was awarded a doctorate in education in 2019. He is currently an adjunct professor at University of San Francisco where he teaches the course Performing Arts and Community Exchange that takes students into correctional institutions. Dr Daniels is an educator, scholar and theatre-maker who has extensive expertise in issues related to the incarceration of the Black community in the US. He was a distinguished visitor and keynote at the Performing Arts and Justice Symposium at Massey University, Auckland New Zealand in 2019.