Reading for Justice: Poetry Inside Prisons

Words & Music 2025 concludes with a Reading for Justice session featuring Adam Clay, Michael Kleber-Diggs, and Alison Pelegrin.

In the introduction to You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, Ada Limon writes “poems are like trees...They let us breathe together. In each line break, caesura, and stanza, there’s a place for us to breathe.” Our work with incarcerated communities has provided just that–a place to breathe. For those isolated from the natural world by carceral facilities, the experience of reading and writing poetry together offers a break from their daily routines, routines over which they have no control. As much as the carceral environment is based on uniformity, our work in prisons has shown repeatedly that there is also a great flourishing inside of these walls. Reading and discussing books, visiting with authors, writing poems that detail the miniscule yet significant nuances of the natural world, even in a carceral environment, are all profound acts that carve space for freedom in the mind, holding space for hope and connection in a place where it is needed most.

This project was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. This project is also supported by Arts Midwest.

Free and open to the public; donations gratefully accepted. Donations support One Book One New Orleans' year-round work.

The Andre Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice is accessible to community members who require mobility-related ADA accommodations. Parking near the venue is free, though somewhat limited. The nearest RTA stop is at N. Broad and Columbus.

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