Poetry, Prison, and the Pandemic

At Liberty

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4.8 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2020

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Our guest today is Reginald Dwayne Betts, a poet, memoirist, and legal scholar. Loyal listeners will remember our conversation from March of 2019. The episode was called “A Poet Gives a 360 Degree View of The Criminal Legal System,” and we talked about Dwayne’s journey from a teenage defendant sentenced to 9 years in prison to a Yale Law School graduate and published poet. A lot has happened since we last spoke. Dwayne published a new book of poetry called Felon and had an exhibit at P.S. 1 MoMA with painter Titus Kaphar called Redaction. If that wasn't enough, Dwayne also completed a clerkship with a federal judge and is pursuing a PhD in law at Yale. And of course, this episode is being recorded months into a global pandemic, that poses particular risks for people in detention. Today we’ll discuss the impact COVID-19 is having on incarcerated people, what we should do to support the thousands of people who are getting out of detention as a result of the efforts by the ACLU and others, and how art can help us get through these uncertain times. Listen to our first episode with Reginald Dwayne Betts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-poet-gives-a-360-degree-view-of-the-criminal-justice-system/id1396174920?i=1000432665627.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the ACLU, this is at Liberty.
0:05.0	I'm Emerson Sykes, a staff attorney here at the ACLU and your host.
0:13.8	Today's episode is one I've been looking forward to for quite a while.
0:17.4	Our guest is Reginald Dwayne Betts, a poet, memoirist, and legal scholar. Loyal listeners
0:24.1	will remember our conversation from March of 2019, and I highly recommend that deep cut from
0:29.4	the At Liberty Archive. The episode was called A Poet gives a 360-degree view of the criminal
0:35.6	legal system, and we talked about Duane's journey from a teenage
0:39.3	defendant, sentenced to nine years in prison, to a Yale Law School graduate and published poet.
0:46.7	A lot has happened since we last spoke. Duane published a new book of poetry called felon,
0:51.7	and had an exhibit at PS1 MoMA with painter Titus
0:55.2	Kaffar called Redaction. If that wasn't enough, Duane also completed a clerkship with a federal
1:01.5	judge and is pursuing a PhD in law at Yale. And of course, this episode is being recorded
1:08.2	months into a global pandemic that poses particular risks for people in detention.
1:15.1	Today, we'll discuss the impact COVID-19 as having on incarcerated people,
1:20.1	what we should do to support the thousands of people that are getting out of detention as a result of efforts by the ACLU and others,
1:28.3	and how art can help us get through these uncertain times.
1:32.3	Dwayne, thanks very much for joining us once again.
1:35.3	Welcome back to the podcast.
1:36.3	Yeah, nah, man, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
1:39.3	Well, there's a lot to cover, but I wanted to start with a reading from your book of poetry felon,
1:45.9	which came out late in 2019.
1:47.9	Congratulations.
	...

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