Class

[read part one here]

Because the study tour was pre-planned, it was inevitable that these very different cities would thread together in predictable ways: “Fall and Recovery.” However, as I and the other writers on the tour discovered, there were other themes that arose, all related to issues that extended beyond specific regions of the United States. Here, I identify the three most predominant.

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Change

Prison writing is an ambiguous term, one that lends itself to the image of a tattered prisoner huddled in the corner of a dank cell in a forgotten prison in a small American town, writing on a soiled notepad and well-cordoned off from the rest of society. But this perhaps romantic notion of the writer while imprisoned quickly gave way Friday night to the harsh realities of writing as one of the last remaining links to sanity for the incarcerated in a system which practices and inflicts anything but.

Audio interview with Bill Fletcher Jr., a longtime labor and international activist and the former President and chief executive officer of TransAfrica Forum, a national non-profit organization organizing, educating and advocating for policies in favor of the people's of Africa, the Carribbean and Latin America.