Resistance in Black Women's Prison Poetics: The Alabama Prison Arts and Education Project

• In Event: The Sites of Our Resistance: Land, Prisons, and Religion

Abstract

This paper focuses on the work of Black women poets published in the anthologies of the Alabama Prison Arts and Literature Project. Though women of color are the fastest growing prison population today, most prison education programs exclusively serve mens facilities. As a result, fewer published anthologies of student work feature women and especially women of color. There are important exceptions, including the Alabama Prison Arts and Education Project. I will focus exclusively on Black women’s poetry as resistance in these volumes. I argue that the act of writing and publishing is inherently resistant for incarcerated Black women.

Presenter

• Holly Genovese, UT Austin