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Transcript

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Matt the Cat
How's it going everyone? And welcome back to Creative Conversations: Healing from Within Through the Arts podcast. It's me, your host, Matt the Cat, and our co-host today, adding some flavor of the mix is Will. Will, how are you doing?

Will
You know me. Ill spill the real deal, every day above dirt, another chance to make it work, from the inside looking out, just trying to see what it's about. What's happening?

Matt the Cat
I have missed hearing that, bro. You have no idea. With us today we have a very unique visiting guest. Actually, a whole group of them today. I'm going to do my best to start off Joy Belle. How are you doing today?

Joy Belle
I am great, how are you?

Matt the Cat
I'm doing awesome. Thank you. Next we have Kareemah Hanifa. How are you doing today?

Kareemah
I am well, how are you?

Matt the Cat
Blessed. Blessed. And last but not least, Doctor Oser. Did I say that? Correct.

Dr. Oser
You did, you did. Thank you. I am doing well as well. Thank you.

Matt the Cat
Awesome. So welcome. What brings you ladies out to our unique institution?

Joy Belle
I’ll go first -- it's hard with three of us. So we are here attending the National Coalition-- No, National Conference of Higher Ed in Prison. So we all work in various lanes within prison education programs. And so we're here at Grafton today on a tour.

Kareemah
I would, I guess, for lack of a better word, I would say that I'll just piggyback what she just said. And that is exactly why we are here today. And we are just honored and blessed to be here.

Dr. Oser
I agree. I'm here to to learn. I'm from Texas, so I'm hoping to get some more experience and find out what's working and what's not, not working, and try not to reinvent the wheel.

Will
Don't mess with Texas.

Joy Belle
They say.

Will
I’ve always wanted to. I swear I’ve always wanted to.

Dr. Oser
Yeah, that's what they say.

Matt the Cat
Me too.

Will
So I know you guys have been enjoying yourselves thus far here, but we also know that you guys were in the Cleveland area at the actual conference. Can you tell us about some of that, and how was that experience? Before we bring our audience back into our facility?

Joy Belle
So I actually so I'm here from Denver, Colorado. And so yesterday was very much a travel day. And so I've never been to Cleveland before. I'd never been to Ohio before.

Will
Welcome, welcome.

Joy Belle
So it's just been really-- it's a beautiful city and it's just been a lot of-- the convention space is massive. So just sort of getting the bearings of where we are and what all of that look like has been interesting.

Will
Okay. Okay. Beautiful. How about you?

Kareemah
So let's see. I am from Atlanta, Georgia. This is not my first time in the state of Ohio. I actually was-- attended the adult female juvenile... I think it's called the Organization Conference in Cincinnati earlier this year. I do believe it was. I flew in on yesterday and I had an opportunity, actually, to visit the Siegel house, which is the man who invented the Superman story. I was also able to go out on the lake and get some photos. Yes, I move around like a tourist. Yes yes, yes. So I was able to check in this morning, and I just look forward to the rest of the conference. For me, as someone who is system impacted, it is always about learning about what other states are doing, what is working, what does not, and figuring out ways to better the student experience. For all of the students in the Chillon Project in the state of Georgia that are currently incarcerated and who are coming home, just figuring out, you know, what other places are doing to make sure that their students are successful, and just kind of tweaking that experience and making sure that every one of my students is having the best experience possible.

Will
Shout out to them because sincerely, from us all, we want for our other IPs what we want for ourselves. So and that's the freedom and the opportunity to have the responsibility that comes with freedom. So thank you.

Dr. Oser
Oh, for the conference I had a travel day yesterday too. We kind of we shrugged it out for 12 hours straight. And once we got here last night, me and my partners, we crashed. We woke up about 12:30 a.m. and we're like, whoops. So yeah, but I'm excited to be here. This is my second year attending this conference, and I know I'm going to learn some amazing things I already have.

Matt the Cat
That's awesome. What has stood out the most so far with your visit here to Grafton?

Kareemah
I would definitely say for me, the music room, which is in that corner over there, though, I'm thinking they can't see us. Maybe they can.

Will
New Day Studio shout out!

Kareemah
Yes, yes, definitely the studio. One of my experiences has-- was to learn to play the guitar while I was incarcerated, and I was so dedicated that I took a piece of cardboard, drew my strings and took box tape and laminated it. I would take it back to the dorm, and I would use this piece of cardboard to remember where each string was, so that my teacher would be proud of me when I came back. To practice. And so just seeing being in the space and seeing the guitars on the wall. And seeing the, you know, the sound room beside the room that we're sitting in has just brought so much, so many memories back. And the woman who taught me to play guitar was incarcerated for 26 years, and she was released like two weeks ago, and I was able to see her on Monday of last week, which was truly a blessing to like, see her on this side and just thank her for her due diligence.

Will
Awesome. Amazingly, our advisor and myself, we were having a conversation just yesterday and we were talking about soul work and this vision collage project, and it's about going through and see what your life was like in the past. And I was just telling him when I was a child, I had grabbed one of those little wooden picket fences off my grandmother's little garden, and I took that stick and I put nails in it. I made a little cardboard guitar. Simulated. Then I took the rubber bands and tied them all together, and I was playing. I always wanted to play guitar. I was influenced by Prince, Rick James and Rudy from the Fat Albert and the gang. But I say that to say is that I too, didn't learn how to play guitar till this incarceration. And shout out to Mr. Brown because Mr. Brown was the one who taught me bar chords and jazz chords and everything. So it's amazing what you do and how your imagination just, you know, inspires you to create until you are able to actually have it in your hand. They say that when you use utilize the tools that are put before you, more efficient and better tools will come at your disposal. And that's what happens. So I totally related to that. So thank you.

Kareemah
Cool.

Joy Belle
I think I'm a little jealous on one level. So I was incarcerated in Colorado and we did not have a music room. We did not have an arts program. That's not fair-- it came later. But so it's just sort of interesting now to walk back into facilities where people are recognizing the healing power of writing and art and music and all the, you know, art in whatever form you practice it. And so it's just really beautiful to actually come in and see facilities that are so supportive of making sure part of that healing journey is affecting people, no matter what their art path is.

Dr. Oser
Agree completely. Completely agree. So I really enjoyed your skit earlier. The drama skit was fantastic. I was a choir person, so I love show choir and musicals and stuff growing up. And so I get a little teary eyed. And it's not because it's bad, it's because I'm emotional and sharing what y'all are feeling when you're acting. I'm also jealous because none of my units can support this type of programing, but it's in my future, it's in my vision and it will happen. I'm like this gentleman over here. I don't say no, and I will-- if you say no to me, I'm going to ask another way until I get my answer.

Will
Yeah, and I'm glad that we were able to be a-- to inspire, to be a launch pad, to let you know, like sometimes you got to see it and to come in here and for you guys to see us and us to be able to have that type of latitude and this type of environment, to step up as IPs, to facilitate for the institution and hopefully the system to see like, hey, we can start within. A lot of times we are the self-contained unit. We have the experience, we've honed our skills, and only thing we may be missing is just some fresh water to run into our pond from the outside community. And that's reciprocity, because they'll learn just as much from us as we from them.

Matt the Cat
Thank you, Will. That is definitely profound. I have some good news and have some bad news. So I'll hit us with the bad news first. We're running out of time. But the good news is, we're at the portion that we like to call the color game. So it's basically a word association game. I'm going to throw a word out there, and if any one of you three can tell me what color you see when you hear the word and why. Why you see or feel that color. So I'm going to throw a probably a very safe word out there. Education.

Joy Belle
I've got gold.

Will
Why gold?

Joy Belle
Because for me-- Okay, not only is it shiny and sparkly because you might tell I like that ...

Will
Bedazzled glasses frames, audience, bedazzled glasses frames!

Joy Belle
But there's something like that, for me at least, gold is about chasing excellence. And I think the beautiful thing about education, no matter what part of education you're interested in, you're reaching for the gold of something better and improving your life by chasing that.

Dr. Oser
I, too, thought of golden yellow. I was thinking the same exact thing. So we’re on the same track.

Kareemah
It's strange that you guys said gold. I was thinking, like, green in yellow or even like a combination. And I think that that that color came up because there are like, things, repeated things in my life. And before I got my associates, I never had an opportunity to walk across the stage to graduate because I was incarcerated from 15 to 41. And when I was in elementary school, I attended Sister Clara Muhammad schools, which was yellow and green. And when I graduated from Life University, our colors are also yellow.

Joy Belle
So that makes sense.

Kareemah
Yeah, that's what I see. That's what I see when I think about education.

Matt the Cat
That is beautiful. We are at that bad news portion. But most importantly, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you ladies here today. Actually everybody that has visited our facility. But what do you have for our listeners out there today?

Kareemah
So I want to share a quote, but I would like to share one other quote, which is Helen Prejean which is, “We are all so much more than the worst thing that we've ever done.”

Will
Oh, yes.

Kareemah
That's the first quote. And then I'll close out by saying everybody has a story. It's all about finding the voice to tell it.

Will
You better believe it.

Matt the Cat
Absolutely.

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