Writing Our Way Out

After the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protests against police brutality in Richmond targetted the monuments to the Confederacy. Most were spray-painted with anti-racist messages. Some were toppled. And others were officially removed, drawing large and diverse crowds eager to be set free from the prison of white supremacy. What will happen next? Will this challenge to the public narrative about the past change the racial injustice we face in the present? 

When co-author Kelvin Belton was just a kid discovering his talent for basketball, he wanted to go to the NBA. But no one in his world even knew how to get him into college. They knew how to sell drugs, so Kelvin watched and learned from them instead. And he excelled at that game.

Calvin Duncan faced similar personal struggles when he was young and discovering his talent for basketball. But he did get to college--to Virginia Commonwealth University, earning a place in VCU Basketball Hall of Fame, and a draft pick for the Chicago Bulls. What made it possible for Calvin to succeed in the game?

What can we do to help the young Kelvins and young Calvins of today learn how to make it in life?

What does it mean to have good character? When Owen learned that his brother, Mikey, had overdosed on heroin and was in the hospital, he blamed himself for being the one who first got Mikey high. And he beat himself up for the time in his life when he was getting high. Then he remembered what he did to stop using and what he needed to do to help Mikey.

How do you plot the kind of change that can really stick? When Robb discovered booze as a 12-year old, all of his problems went away: the abandonment by his mother, the anxiety about his racial identity, the relentless physical and mental abuse from his father and step-mother. Years later, he hit his rock bottom. That’s when everything changed.

How do you deal with troubling memories while living in the moment and building for the future? After being sexually abused by older boys, Ronald learned how to use sex to manipulate older boys, and after watching the grown-ups abuse substances, he learned how to get high, too. Eventually, he learned how to see another version of himself.

How do you recover from the psychological wounds caused by physical abuse?  Dean knew he was going to get a beating that day. But when his mother came at him with a pair of scissors and began stabbing him, the pain went much deeper than the blade.  

Is it possible to write your way into a better life? G wrote his way out of the feelings of abandonment and anger that led him into the criminal justice system. But when he came home from prison, he struggled to turn the corner.

Is it possible to unlearn definitions of manhood that hold a man back in life? Andre took his first hit of heroin with his father when he was only 12. It made him feel like he was becoming a man. The older he got, the more he could see what he had really become.

Is there any healing from the trauma of racism? When Naji was just a little boy, his white friend’s mother hurled the N word at him. It landed right in his life story. But that was only the beginning of his struggle to see himself without seeing his color in a negative light.  

Welcome to Writing Our Way Out, the Podcast. This is the show about writing your way toward the true core of life. This show is based on the writing workshops that Prof. David Coogan has been teaching at the Richmond City Jail for close to fifteen years now, often with college students from Virginia Commonwealth University.

On this episode, we preview how the show works and what to expect from Writing Our Way Out: The Podcast.