PEN America Works of Justice

Theater harnesses the power to both break worlds down, and build worlds of our choosing. As a performer and a former community engagement specialist for a Washington, D.C-based theater, artist and scholar Lisa Biggs has seen this happen several times across many places. As a graduate student, Biggs chose the discipline of ethnography to study the work of nonprofits who provide theater and performance-based programs in women’s prisons in the United States and South Africa. The book produced from that research, The Healing Stage: Black Women, Incarceration, and the Art of Transformation (Ohio State University Press, 2022), is a thoughtful reflection on how mass incarceration affects Black women and the means by which they process their past and their experience with the criminal justice system.

In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, Malcolm Tariq, senior editorial manager of PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program, speaks with Biggs about her process of working with theater programs in prison, and how these groups cultivate healing spaces for Black women.

This month marks the three-year anniversary of the exoneration of Lacino Hamilton, who was falsely incarcerated for the murder of his foster mother at the age of 19. Sentenced to at least 50 years in prison, Hamilton spent 26 years maintaining his innocence and was exonerated by DNA evidence in September 2023. While in prison, Hamilton wrote countless letters advocating for his release and published widely on his experience of incarceration and injustice. A collection of those letters has recently been published as In Spite of the Consequences: Prison Letters on Exoneration, Abolition, and Freedom (Broadleaf Books, 2023), and includes Hamilton’s communications with family, friends, professors, journalists, lawyers, and international pen pals he has never met. More than dispelling the realities of life in prison, the book is an offering of Hamilton's profound intellectual engagement with matters of justice and the carceral state.  

In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, Prison and Justice Writing Program Assistant Jess Abolafia speaks with Hamilton on his journey as a writer and the intentionality of language in writing about incarceration.

How far would you go for forgiveness? This is the question stamped on the cover of Forgive Me Not (Nancy Paulsen Books / Penguin, 2023), the debut young adult novel by Jennifer Baker. The novel follows two siblings navigating the growing pains of high school and young adulthood. This comes to a head when Violetta gets drunk and gets behind the wheel of a car, killing her younger sister. As a minor, Violetta is presented with two options: to undergo sentencing and serve time in detention, or participate in The Trials to prove her remorse and willingness to learn from her mistakes. While Violetta is away, her star-athlete brother, Vince, faces his own obstacles with the pressures of school, relationships, and drug use while dealing with the recent family crisis. Individually, the two learn about the expansiveness of accountability and forgiveness.

In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, Malcolm Tariq, senior manager of editorial projects, speaks with Baker on restorative justice, her experience researching the criminal justice system, and writing for young adults.

Jennifer Baker is a publishing professional of 20 years, the creator/host of the Minorities in Publishing podcast, and a faculty member of the MFA program in Creative Nonfiction at Bay Path University and a writing consultant at Baruch College. Formerly a contributing editor to Electric Literature, she received a 2017 NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship and a Queens Council on the Arts New Work Grant for Nonfiction Literature. Her essay "What We Aren't (or the Ongoing Divide)" was listed as a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2018. In 2019, she was named Publishers Weekly Superstar for her contributions to inclusion and representation in publishing. Jennifer is also the editor of the all PoC-short story anthology Everyday People: The Color of Life (Atria Books, 2018) and the author of the forthcoming YA novel Forgive Me Not (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2023). She has volunteered with organizations such as We Need Diverse Books and I, Too Arts Collective, and spoken widely on topics of inclusion, the craft of writing/editing, podcasting, and the inner-workings of the publishing industry. Her fiction, nonfiction, and criticism has appeared in various print and online publications. Her website is: Jennifernbaker.com.

In January 2023, people incarcerated throughout the state of Texas organized a collective hunger strike to demand better living conditions. A couple years prior, Canada native Damascus James had relocated to Texas from New York City, and began to write letters to incarcerated people in the state in order to develop connections with isolated communities. From his initial correspondence with one writer, James got connected with several people, including many who had been placed in solitary confinement for years. The letters he received multiplied as word spread within the prison systems, with people reaching out to share their experiences with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and other personal stories. From these letters, James developed TEXAS LETTERS, an anthology series of letters penned by individuals in Texas living in solitary confinement. 

In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, Malcolm Tariq, senior manager of editorial projects, speaks with James about his inspiration to start the project, his process of compiling the first volume of the series, and what he has learned from developing friendships with one of the nation’s most vulnerable populations.

Ask Tommy Trantino to describe himself, and he may simply respond, “endless.” Ask him the same question on another day, and the answer will be different. For Trantino, it’s complicated. Officially, he writes, draws, and paints. But he also loves to make people laugh, and his mission is to do as much good as possible. Incarcerated for nearly 40 years in New Jersey, the New York City native was placed on death row in 1963 before his sentence was commuted to life once the death penalty became illegal in the early 1970s. During those years in Trenton State Prison’s Death House, Trantino was inspired to start painting, and eventually found his way to writing. Among several attempts to get him released, his supporters collected some of his work for a book, published by Knopf in 1974 as Lock the Lock. Long out of print, Lock the Lock is a constellation of Trantino’s artistry, but it is also an introduction for how he experienced the world on death row. Nearly half a century later, the same rings true. Trantino’s zest for life and goodwill guides his creative process much in the same way that his defiance and activism led him to survive incarceration.

In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, Jess Abolafia, program assistant, and Malcolm Tariq, senior manager of editorial projects—both of PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program—speak with Trantino about his time organizing inside prison, how he started making art, and the production of Lock the Lock. In her accompanying introduction to the podcast, Abolafia gives more context on Trantino’s background and describes how their first meeting led to an ongoing creative partnership.

A few years ago, Tracy D. Schlapp and Danny J. Wilson were inspired by Johnny Cash’s album, At Folsom Prison (1968), to stage concerts of Cash's music in prisons around Oregon. Schlapp and Wilson's performances blossomed into Bridgeworks Oregon, a Portland-based nonprofit with the mission of using art, music and cultural awareness to bridge societal divisions throughout the state. In May 2019, the organization assembled a storytelling group, Ground Beneath Us, at Oregon State Penitentiary. The group of men wrote about life inside by responding to questions posed by local middle and high school students. The work from those writing sessions grew into the recently released anthology, Prisons Have a Long Memory: Life Inside Oregon’s Oldest Prison, featuring poetry, essays, and memoir.

In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, Moira Marquis, senior manager of the Freewrite Project for PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program, asks Schlapp and Wilson about the history of Bridgeworks Oregon, their experiences learning how to advocate for incarcerated people, and their process for working between the walls for the anthology. In her accompanying review of the book, Marquis reflects on the intensity of the collected pieces, and the importance of providing reflective spaces that acknowledge and engage the emotional tolls of life for people who are denied so many rights in the carceral system in the United States.

For over 50 years, the Southern California Library has made history a practice. Housing an extensive collection of histories of community resistance in Los Angeles and beyond, the library also serves as a community organization. Though he grew up not too far from the library, anthropologist Damien M. Sojoyner only learned it existed as an adult. When asked to help develop programs and teach a summer course for youth in the area, Sojoyner met Marley, a high school student whose vocal opinions caught the ethnographer’s attention. Through Marley, Sojoyner learned and observed how Marley and the young people in the area were caring for their community, resisting policing and patrolling of their neighborhood, and confronting the injustices of the criminal justice system. Sojoyner’s recent book, Joy and Pain: A Story of Black Life and Liberation in Five Albums (University of California Press, 2022), documents Damien’s conversations with Marley across five “albums” centered on housing, education, health care, social services, and juvenile detention.

The New York Women's House of Detention was a fixture of Greenwich Village from 1932 to 1974. For public historian Hugh Ryan, its position as a cultural center is proof that jails and prisons were not always peripheral to the development of communities in the United States. In fact, they were sometimes considered in the urban planning of cities and neighborhoods. Ryan discovered the Women's House of Detention (also known as The House of D) on a walking tour, where he also learned of its unfamiliar history as a queer landmark. His curiosity unearthed a plethora of evidence verifying this claim, largely drawn from social worker documentation of the queer experiences of justice-involved youth and working-class people throughout the twentieth century.

In his recent book, The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison (Bold Type Books, 2022), Ryan asserts: "The House of D helped make Greenwich Village queer, and the Village, in return, helped define queerness for America. No other prison has played such a significant role in our history, particularly for working-class women and transmasculine people." Ryan also demonstrates how people housed at the institution, such as notable activists Angela Davis and Afeni Shakur, informed each other about the intersections of Black and queer liberation movements.

In this episode, Malcolm Tariq, senior manager of editorial projects for PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing, asks Ryan about being a student of abolition, the ethics of constructing narratives from archives, and how people in the House of Detention participated in the resistance efforts at nearby Stonewall in 1969.

Hugh Ryan is a writer and curator, and most recently, the author of The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison, which New York Magazine called one of the best books of 2022. His first book, When Brooklyn Was Queer, won a 2020 New York City Book Award, was a New York Times Editors' Choice in 2019, and was a finalist for the Randy Shilts and Lambda Literary Awards. He was honored with the 2020 Allan Berube Prize from the American Historical Association. Since 2019, he has worked with the NYC Dept. of Education to develop LGBTQ+ inclusive educational materials and trainings.

Malcolm Tariq is a poet and playwright from Savannah, Georgia. He is the author of Heed the Hollow (Graywolf, 2020), winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and the 2020 Georgia Author of the Year Award in Poetry, and Extended Play (Gertrude Press, 2017). He was a 2016-2017 playwriting apprentice at Horizon Theatre Company and a 2020-2021 resident playwright with Liberation Theatre Company. A graduate of Emory University, Malcolm holds a PhD in English from the University of Michigan. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he is the senior manager of editorial projects for Prison and Justice Writing at PEN America.