Poetry from Behind the Walls

“As artists, we have to change the narrative.” Spoon Jackson’s voice comes through the phone like an old record, vaguely scratchy and deep. He’s calling from the California prison where he’s been incarcerated for the last 47 years. The narrative he’s talking about is the story the United States tells about the people we punish with this isolation — that they’re irrevocably dangerous and we’re safer because we throw them away. Jackson’s poetry, and now music, push back against this facile understanding asking us to complicate ideas of harm and healing…

Read the full article at The Indypenedent