Dec 07 2021 56 mins
I'm so pleased to share today's interview with you, featuring Karrie Auger and Nancy Van Styvendale, all about the Inspired Minds: All Nations Creative Writing Program, which is facilitated in prisons in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
In addition to talking about how they've approached Gregory Scofield's poem "Heart Food" in Inspired Minds classes, Karrie and Nancy get into: relationship as the core of Inspired Minds and their facilitation of creative writing classes; the material conditions of prison programming; the Inspired Minds philosophy, which includes welcoming diversions, informal chat, and laughter; responding to texts through the senses, licking tables (!!), and more. Listen above or on most podcasting apps!
- Gregory Scofield's poem "Heart Food" comes from his collection I Knew Two Métis Women
- "'Against Improvement,' Toward Relations: Meditations on a Prison Writing Program" by Nancy Van Styvendale
- Karrie refers to the poem "âcimowina" by Marilyn Dumont in A Really Good Brown Girl
- Sherry Farrell-Racette's faculty page, including citations for her work on memory, objects, and more
- Richard Wagamese's Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations
- "Prisons are built on our backs" by Cory Charles Cardinal
- The Prison Abolition Issue of briarpatch magazine
- Inmates 4 Humane Conditions / Beyond Prison Walls Canada / noprisons.ca
If you're interested in getting your hands on a Teachin' Books tidbits zine as part of my ongoing fundraiser to ensure I can keep providing honoraria for students and precariously or under-employed folks who come chat on the podcast, e-transfer to [email protected] or paypal.me/jambermcd or just drop me a line wherever you can find me :) The zines are pay-what-you-can, and I'll need your mailing address to get the zine to you.
The podcast music is by Dyalla Swain and the graphics are by @muskrathands.
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*Today's episode art comes to you from the inside of my makeshift podcast-recording blanket fort. Welcome!
**The transcript for this episode, once available, will be here.**