Sat, 09 May 2026 00:51:04 -0400 https://www.prisonpoetryworkshop.org en-us © 2026 Narrative Arts yes United States 27c2e79f-0635-5173-885a-e95588ff36a5 Narrative Arts episodic false Sending radio waves through prison walls we reach an audience with content that may change their life. The Prison Poetry Workshop is the only national radio series linking prisoners to the outside world through the power of poetry. As we listen to these poems we realize they hold a deep significance to our understanding of American culture and its tradition of democratic arts.

]]> Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) prison, poetry, incarcerated, spoken word Narrative Arts https://storage.buzzsprout.com/hs1jblrp5x25am0b3wdhr19nzbkv?.jpg PPW 24: Reginald Dwayne Betts We sat with Reginald Dwayne Betts and listened as he shared his own story of incarceration and his ongoing process of becoming a writer and poet.

]]> We sat with Reginald Dwayne Betts and listened as he shared his own story of incarceration and his ongoing process of becoming a writer and poet.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3363172 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0400 761 1 23 full false PPW 22: Living in the D.: Shaun Moore-Bey Shaun Moore-Bey is a poet, activist, and regular on the Detroit spoken-word circuit. He is working to be a cultural force for his community.

]]> Shaun Moore-Bey is a poet, activist, and regular on the Detroit spoken-word circuit. He is working to be a cultural force for his community.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3363157 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0400 381 1 22 full false PPW 21: Prison Creative Arts Project The Prison Creative Art Project (PCAP) brings together artist from inside and outside the prison walls of Michigan to create a vibrant arts community.  Navigating this process is the team of PCAP facilitators, who have an interesting history. 

]]> The Prison Creative Art Project (PCAP) brings together artist from inside and outside the prison walls of Michigan to create a vibrant arts community.  Navigating this process is the team of PCAP facilitators, who have an interesting history. 

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3363136 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0400 749 1 21 full false PPW 20: Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility Poet Cara Benson leads a powerful writing workshop at the Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility in Saratoga County, New York. We listen in as a group of poets dig deep and create powerful work.

]]> Poet Cara Benson leads a powerful writing workshop at the Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility in Saratoga County, New York. We listen in as a group of poets dig deep and create powerful work.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3363118 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0400 1262 1 20 full false PPW 19: Patrick Mathieu Patrick Mathieu is a New York city based artist who majored in dance at City College of New York and had a successful career as a performer. Then, one day, there was a knock on his door.

Patrick shared his story of incarceration with the Prison Poetry Workshop and his journey both in and out of prison.  Today, Patrick leads creative writing workshops on Rikers Island and at the Fortune Society.

]]> Patrick Mathieu is a New York city based artist who majored in dance at City College of New York and had a successful career as a performer. Then, one day, there was a knock on his door.

Patrick shared his story of incarceration with the Prison Poetry Workshop and his journey both in and out of prison.  Today, Patrick leads creative writing workshops on Rikers Island and at the Fortune Society.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3363109 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0400 540 1 19 full false PPW 17: Workshop with Victoria Sammartino Victoria Sammartino is the Founder and executive director of Voices UnBroken a Bronx-based non-profit organization that facilitates creative writing workshops with young people who are incarcerated/detained or in the foster care system. We asked Victoria to do a writing workshop for us. Check it out.

Prison Poetry Workshop has asked poets from across the country to record a special workshop for our listeners.  Feel free to play this series for incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated youth and adults and ask them to write their own poetry in response and send them to us.  Responses may be posted on the Prison Poetry Workshop website and shared with our listening audience. 

]]> Victoria Sammartino is the Founder and executive director of Voices UnBroken a Bronx-based non-profit organization that facilitates creative writing workshops with young people who are incarcerated/detained or in the foster care system. We asked Victoria to do a writing workshop for us. Check it out.

Prison Poetry Workshop has asked poets from across the country to record a special workshop for our listeners.  Feel free to play this series for incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated youth and adults and ask them to write their own poetry in response and send them to us.  Responses may be posted on the Prison Poetry Workshop website and shared with our listening audience. 

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3363082 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0400 372 1 18 full false PPW 16: Birthing Behind Bars Angie shares her story about giving birth behind bars in New York.

]]> Angie shares her story about giving birth behind bars in New York.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3363073 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0400 645 1 17 full false PPW 15: Etheridge Knight Etheridge Knight (April 19, 1931 – March 10, 1991) was an African-American poet who made his name in 1968 with his debut volume, Poems from Prison.

]]> Etheridge Knight (April 19, 1931 – March 10, 1991) was an African-American poet who made his name in 1968 with his debut volume, Poems from Prison.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3363043 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0400 703 1 16 full false PPW 15: Workshop with Norbert Krapf We asked poet Norbert Krapf to record a workshop for us. Check it out and then put pen to paper!

Prison Poetry Workshop has asked poets from across the country to record a special workshop for our listeners.  Feel free to play this series for incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated youth and adults and ask them to write their own poetry in response and send them to us.  Responses may be posted on the Prison Poetry Workshop website and shared with our listening audience.

]]> We asked poet Norbert Krapf to record a workshop for us. Check it out and then put pen to paper!

Prison Poetry Workshop has asked poets from across the country to record a special workshop for our listeners.  Feel free to play this series for incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated youth and adults and ask them to write their own poetry in response and send them to us.  Responses may be posted on the Prison Poetry Workshop website and shared with our listening audience.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3362980 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0400 266 1 15 full false PPW 14: Lead Belly Lead Belly was born Huddie William Ledbetter near Mooringsport, Louisiana around 1889. We explore Lead Belly's life in and out of prison. Take a listen.

]]> Lead Belly was born Huddie William Ledbetter near Mooringsport, Louisiana around 1889. We explore Lead Belly's life in and out of prison. Take a listen.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3362971 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0400 610 1 14 full false PPW 13: Workshop with Buzz Alexander We asked poet Buzz Alexander of University of Michigan's Prison Creative Art Project to record a poetry workshop for us.

Prison Poetry Workshop has asked poets from across the country to record a special workshop for our listeners.  Feel free to play this series for incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated youth and adults and ask them to write their own poetry in response and send them to us.  Responses may be posted on the Prison Poetry Workshop website and shared with our listening audience. 

Send your response to:
Prison Poetry Workshop
P.O. Box 448
Wilmington, NC 28402

]]> We asked poet Buzz Alexander of University of Michigan's Prison Creative Art Project to record a poetry workshop for us.

Prison Poetry Workshop has asked poets from across the country to record a special workshop for our listeners.  Feel free to play this series for incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated youth and adults and ask them to write their own poetry in response and send them to us.  Responses may be posted on the Prison Poetry Workshop website and shared with our listening audience. 

Send your response to:
Prison Poetry Workshop
P.O. Box 448
Wilmington, NC 28402

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3362935 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0400 300 1 13 full false PPW 12: Lomax’s and Prison Poetry Alan Lomax traveled the south visiting prisons and recording songs and interviews. Lomax was a great collector of folk music of the 20th century and invested his work on recording music that was disappearing from the American cultural landscape.

]]> Alan Lomax traveled the south visiting prisons and recording songs and interviews. Lomax was a great collector of folk music of the 20th century and invested his work on recording music that was disappearing from the American cultural landscape.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3362911 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0400 561 1 12 full false PPW 11: Broadside Press Poet, publisher, editor, and founder of Broadside Press. Dudley Randall was born 14 January 1914 in Washington, D.C., but moved to Detroit in 1920 where he founded the legendary Broadside Press. Broadside helped define the Black Arts movement and published Etheridge Knight’s Poems from Prison in 1968, bring prison poetry to a national audience.

]]> Poet, publisher, editor, and founder of Broadside Press. Dudley Randall was born 14 January 1914 in Washington, D.C., but moved to Detroit in 1920 where he founded the legendary Broadside Press. Broadside helped define the Black Arts movement and published Etheridge Knight’s Poems from Prison in 1968, bring prison poetry to a national audience.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3362839 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0400 822 1 11 full false PPW 10: New Orleans Join the Prison Poetry Workshop as we travel to New Orleans and join a group of prison poets who are taking on Walt Whitman.

]]> Join the Prison Poetry Workshop as we travel to New Orleans and join a group of prison poets who are taking on Walt Whitman.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3350878 Mon, 13 Apr 2020 19:00:00 -0400 451 1 10 full false PPW 09: Workshop with Dwayne Betts We asked poet & writer Dwayne Betts to record a workshop for us. Take a listen. Prison Poetry Workshop has asked poets from across the country to record a special workshop for our listeners. Feel free to play this series for incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated youth and adults and ask them to write their own poetry in response and send them to us. Responses may be posted on the Prison Poetry Workshop website and shared with our listening audience. This is amazing drop-in content for programs that have prison audiences

]]> We asked poet & writer Dwayne Betts to record a workshop for us. Take a listen. Prison Poetry Workshop has asked poets from across the country to record a special workshop for our listeners. Feel free to play this series for incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated youth and adults and ask them to write their own poetry in response and send them to us. Responses may be posted on the Prison Poetry Workshop website and shared with our listening audience. This is amazing drop-in content for programs that have prison audiences

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3350860 Mon, 13 Apr 2020 19:00:00 -0400 343 1 9 full false PPW 08: Randall Horton We interviewed Randall Horton about his experience with incarceration and the process he underwent in becoming a poet.

Randall Horton is the author of The Definition of Place and the Lingua Franca of Ninth Street, both from Main Street Rag. Randall is the recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, the Bea Gonzalez Poetry Award and most recently a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Literature. His creative and critical work has most recently appeared in Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review and The Packingtown Review. Randall is a Cave Canem Fellow, a member of the Affrilachian Poets and a member of The Symphony: The House that Etheridge Built. He has a MFA in Poetry from Chicago State University and a PhD in Creative Writing from SUNY Albany. Randall is Assistant Professor of English at the University of New Haven.

]]> We interviewed Randall Horton about his experience with incarceration and the process he underwent in becoming a poet.

Randall Horton is the author of The Definition of Place and the Lingua Franca of Ninth Street, both from Main Street Rag. Randall is the recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, the Bea Gonzalez Poetry Award and most recently a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Literature. His creative and critical work has most recently appeared in Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review and The Packingtown Review. Randall is a Cave Canem Fellow, a member of the Affrilachian Poets and a member of The Symphony: The House that Etheridge Built. He has a MFA in Poetry from Chicago State University and a PhD in Creative Writing from SUNY Albany. Randall is Assistant Professor of English at the University of New Haven.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3350842 Mon, 13 Apr 2020 19:00:00 -0400 627 1 8 full false PPW 07: Free Minds Book Club Our time with Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop was powerful! D.C. youth who are shipped into the Federal prison system had little contact with home or educational opportunities until Free Minds arrived. We hear their stories and poetry. Check it out.

]]> Our time with Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop was powerful! D.C. youth who are shipped into the Federal prison system had little contact with home or educational opportunities until Free Minds arrived. We hear their stories and poetry. Check it out.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3350821 Mon, 13 Apr 2020 19:00:00 -0400 1159 1 7 full false PPW 06: Judith, Spoon, and Elmo Judith Tannenbaum taught poetry in prisons across the United States and intensively at San Quentin and other California prisons through Arts-in-Corrections.  While working at San Quentin she began a collaboration with Elmo Chatmann and Spoon Jackson that resulted in two books.  Come learn about this unique exchange.

]]> Judith Tannenbaum taught poetry in prisons across the United States and intensively at San Quentin and other California prisons through Arts-in-Corrections.  While working at San Quentin she began a collaboration with Elmo Chatmann and Spoon Jackson that resulted in two books.  Come learn about this unique exchange.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3350803 Mon, 13 Apr 2020 19:00:00 -0400 1088 1 6 full false PPW 05: Patrick Young Story We met dozens of poets behind bars in our nation's prisons and we sat with formerly incarcerated people like Native New Orleanian, Patrick Young, who picked up pen and put it to paper finding their creative muse. Today, Young is an organizer and community educator, but his story is complicated. Join us in listening to it.

]]> We met dozens of poets behind bars in our nation's prisons and we sat with formerly incarcerated people like Native New Orleanian, Patrick Young, who picked up pen and put it to paper finding their creative muse. Today, Young is an organizer and community educator, but his story is complicated. Join us in listening to it.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3350779 Mon, 13 Apr 2020 19:00:00 -0400 316 1 5 full false PPW 04: The Poets of San Quentin We traveled to San Quentin State Prison, California’s oldest prison, to learn about the lasting tradition of arts and spoken word in this well know institution.

]]> We traveled to San Quentin State Prison, California’s oldest prison, to learn about the lasting tradition of arts and spoken word in this well know institution.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3350767 Mon, 13 Apr 2020 19:00:00 -0400 626 1 4 full false PPW 03: Workshop with Kyes Stevens We asked poet Kyes Steven of Auburn University's Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project to record a workshop for us. Take a listen. 

Prison Poetry Workshop has asked poets from across the country to record a special workshop for our listeners.  Feel free to play this series for incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated youth and adults and ask them to write their own poetry in response and send them to us.  Responses may be posted on the Prison Poetry Workshop website and shared with our listening audience.  This is amazing drop-in content for programs that have prison audiences.  

]]> We asked poet Kyes Steven of Auburn University's Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project to record a workshop for us. Take a listen. 

Prison Poetry Workshop has asked poets from across the country to record a special workshop for our listeners.  Feel free to play this series for incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated youth and adults and ask them to write their own poetry in response and send them to us.  Responses may be posted on the Prison Poetry Workshop website and shared with our listening audience.  This is amazing drop-in content for programs that have prison audiences.  

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3350752 Mon, 13 Apr 2020 19:00:00 -0400 330 1 3 full false PPW 02: Luis Rodriguez Writer and Latino activist Luis J. Rodriguez was born in El Paso and grew up in East L.A.  We went to talk Luis Rodriguez simply because he, and his writing, was referenced by so many of the incarcerated writers we met and interviewed along the way to making Prison Poetry Workshop.  The youth in D.C. central had thumbed copies of his best-known work, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. and his name came up at facilities across the country. 

You can learn more about Rodriguez writing at his website and you should certainly visit the Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural in Sylmar, CA.

]]> Writer and Latino activist Luis J. Rodriguez was born in El Paso and grew up in East L.A.  We went to talk Luis Rodriguez simply because he, and his writing, was referenced by so many of the incarcerated writers we met and interviewed along the way to making Prison Poetry Workshop.  The youth in D.C. central had thumbed copies of his best-known work, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. and his name came up at facilities across the country. 

You can learn more about Rodriguez writing at his website and you should certainly visit the Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural in Sylmar, CA.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3350740 Mon, 13 Apr 2020 18:00:00 -0400 663 1 2 full false PPW 01: Alabama Sit in any prison classroom or recreation room and ask: How many writers are in the room? How many people are writing rhymes or poems? Carefully-folded pieces of paper come out of pockets – words written in tightly stylized hand-writing. As we listen to these poems we realize they hold a deep significance to our understanding of American culture and its tradition of democratic arts.

The Prison Poetry Workshop traveled to Alabama and met the Alabama Prison Arts and Education Project, a part of Auburn University, which serves prisons across the state. APAEP believes it's important for the adult prison population to gain an education and access to the arts. Join us as we listen in on their writing workshop.

]]> Sit in any prison classroom or recreation room and ask: How many writers are in the room? How many people are writing rhymes or poems? Carefully-folded pieces of paper come out of pockets – words written in tightly stylized hand-writing. As we listen to these poems we realize they hold a deep significance to our understanding of American culture and its tradition of democratic arts.

The Prison Poetry Workshop traveled to Alabama and met the Alabama Prison Arts and Education Project, a part of Auburn University, which serves prisons across the state. APAEP believes it's important for the adult prison population to gain an education and access to the arts. Join us as we listen in on their writing workshop.

]]> Working Narrative Buzzsprout-3350422 Mon, 13 Apr 2020 18:00:00 -0400 833 1 1 full false