These Wounds Will Heal

creative writing programs inside the fence...

We gather with our simple rules: a. Don’t let the anxiety of sharing keep you from writing. b. Don’t act like you’re too gangster to write a poem. 

“As I sit in full concentration on my breath, my heart thunders beneath the surface, my own mantra, my own drum. Telling me it's okay, you'll be fine, these wounds will heal. Uncovering the man I want to be.” Michael R.

The rich, acidic tang of brewed coffee fills the air, heavy and inviting. Windows on one wall let grey light seep in from the cool, damp fog fog-laden morning. We are muted here in the blue-grey carpet, blonde bare wood tables, and whiteboards on industrial green walls reflecting back the somber light from the windows. Silently, their chairs roll on carpeted floors to meet the table.

There are only two spots of color in the room. One is the display holding the youth-created collage of workshop pictures and their own works of art. The other is hidden in the minds of these young men who write in community. 

A “write around” begins. Coffee cups filled, snacks gathered in front of us, we open our notebooks and write.

We choose from a couple of prompts written on a whiteboard or any topic of our own. We write, the room quiet but for the scratch of pens and pencils on paper. Lost in thought in shared safety and open space of the mind running free. We write, and when done, we wait.

Anticipation crackles through the room as the facilitator gives the countdown; ‘One more minute…finish your thought…stop writing there…’ Pens continue furiously to finish the thought. We all stop and enter the suspense-filled space between the writing of it and the brave heart of sharing.

“People like me cry ink, and after it blots down our cheeks, it lands inside books, creating our stories…I write because I have to because if I didn’t, people like me wouldn’t survive.”

Stephen F.

What Works

We have been hosting Write Around Portland non-profit in the facility since 2010. The young men who created the precursor, The University of Hope, engaged the non-profit in 2009. We knew we had to continue bringing in this workshop. As an educator, I knew having arts programming in the facility setting was really necessary and important. We are trying to help young people fill in the gaps in emotional and executive function development they’re missing in their lives for various reasons: poverty, trauma, lack of resources, and marginalization. That’s why turn-around schools have bold arts programs; because it’s so good for developing skills and confidence.

An important component of a successful program is faciliator particpation in workshops.

What I love most about the workshop with Write Around Portland is that it’s quiet; just the sound of pens scratching on paper that really puts things on pause.  Our brains can just calm down, and there are so few spaces to feel calm in correctional settings. The young men can be in this kind of trauma-induced alert state because they don’t feel very safe. With Write Around Portland workshops (all of the various workshops offered), they are in a room where they feel safe, supported, and calm for a couple of hours. That’s just healing for the brain and the emotions they’re going through.

Once they start feeling safe and they are sharing their writing, they are surprised at how similar their stories are and how we all have struggles. And a lot of the humor, too – that’s even a commonality that we find similar things funny. We build connections and understanding where healing and repairing harm can begin.

The power of the arts in healing is evident in the number of non-profits and writing programs beginning in correctional settings. Read about this program “where A former prosecutor found solace and renewal in a writing process he teaches to inmates in Minnesota.” We have newly engaged Unlock the Arts, a non-profit focusing on the healing and transformative power of writing in their workshops.

Coaching and supporting volunteers and facilitators on a transformative journey is paramount to the success of the workshops and the safety and security for the participants.

Future newsletters will feature the voices of volunteers and participants on the journey of the power of the arts in correctional settings. Community connections drive transformation. We do not harm that to which we are connected. And there are many wounds to heal.

So many of the guys said it was one of the most important workshops they did in helping to empower them and making them feel like they could achieve more. “Write Around Portland just needs to exist in our facility.”