America Is the Prison: Arts and Politics in Prison in the 1970s

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments This book shows, among other things, that without the participants, volunteers, and employees of prison arts and education programs, the cultural life of prisons would be far bleaker. Many people and organizations doing this work today generously opened their programs, institutions, and ideas to me during the period I worked on this book, including incarcerated people and correctional staff at the Manhattan Detention Complex (“The Tombs”), San Quentin Correctional Facility, Eastern Correctional Facility in Napanoch, New York, and Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Wallkill, New York. Several people kindly hosted my visits, including Tom McCarthy of the New York Correction History Society; Aïda de Arteaga, director of Arts-inCorrections at San Quentin; Laurie Brooks of the William James Association in Santa Cruz, California; and Max Kenner of the Bard Prison Initiative at New York’s Eastern Correctional Facility. I also want to acknowledge the impact of the PEN American Center’s Prison Writing Committee on my developing sense of the history and politics of prison cultural work; I especially wish to thank Bell Gale Chevigny, Jackson Taylor, Claudia Menza, and Sarah White. All went far beyond what I could have reasonably expected in including me in their efforts and sharing their experience and thoughts with me. My work with Susan Blase, head librarian at New York’s Shawangunk Correctional Facility; Karanja Keita Carroll of the State University of New York at New Paltz; and John Vanderlippe of the New School for Social Research to connect college professors with prisoners is a source of great satisfaction and inspiration. For research assistance on Jack Henry Abbott, many thanks go to Charlotta Äsell. Her own research on programming at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility provided a wonderful model of engaged scholarship .The Susan Turner Research Fund at Vassar College funded Charlotta ’s efforts. Brian Lehrer provided helpful research assistance on x Acknowledgments Cell Block Theatre. The dean’s office of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at SUNY New Paltz funded Brian’s assistance. San Jose State University provided summer funding during the period when this book was first conceptualized. Erik Anderson, of the Naropa University Archive Project, tracked down and provided a recording of a Miguel Piñero poetry reading from the 1970s. Ellen Belcher of Special Collections at the Lloyd Sealy Library at the City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice provided access to key materials on Theatre for the Forgotten. Documentary filmmaker Peter Rosen spoke to me at length about his experience making the film Sesame Street Goes to Prison. He generously handed over his file and donated the use of a photograph for the book. Arnold Shapiro provided reflections on the controversy over Scared Straight! and donated the use of images from his film. For additional help with images, thanks to Joe Silvestri of Fox 5 New York, Sandy Quinn of the Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation, the Museum of the Moving Image, and LeRoy Clarke, whose response to Attica serves as the cover image for this book. SUNY New Paltz provided a range of resources to enable completion of this book. I am grateful to Jim Schiffer, Gerald Benjamin, and Gwen Havranek of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Kristin Charles-Scaringi of the Office of Public Affairs. I am fortunate to have colleagues who are enthusiastic and talented scholars, teachers , and critics. Susan Ingalls Lewis and Andy Evans provided feedback on several chapters. Joel Lefkowitz and Reynolds Scott-Childress introduced me to recordings of the various versions of “George Jackson .” David Krikun provided access to his collection of political writings from the 1960s and 1970s. Academic audiences at the American Studies Association, the California American Studies Association, SUNY Albany, and SUNY New Paltz helped me shape my general ideas into sharper arguments. I received additional feedback on portions of this book from Lisa Gail Collins, Margo Crawford, Lisa McGirr,Colin Palmer,ChristopherWilson , and Curtis Marez. H. Bruce Franklin and an anonymous reviewer for the University of North Carolina Press went well beyond peer review, suggesting fruitful avenues for further research and analysis. Acknowledgments xi Sian Hunter, Beth Lassiter, and Alex Martin of the University of North Carolina Press offered ongoing support for this book. Conversations and debates with my friends and family kept this project moving forward through its long incubation. I am grateful for the support, encouragement, and patience of Mizue Aizeki, Matt Bernstein, Gabe Bernstein...