Inside-Out Publication

Katie D.

March 7, 2010 - 3:49 PM

It's finally time to sit down and describe a massive project which has consumed my free time and taken over my imagination for the past month and more. I alluded to it in my Thesis blog last week, and now it's time to really walk through and explain what's going on.

First off, if you haven't read my previous Inside-Out blogs, you might want to go back really quick and look through those. This project is intimately connected with that program and with my experiences in Inside-Out classrooms.

So, how to begin? At the beginning, I suppose. I entered my first Inside-Out classroom with a host of fears and insecurities, with preconceived notions and a deep preoccupation with the idea that we, the "outside" students from the University of Oregon, would not be able to communicate with our inside student counterparts, incarcerated at the Oregon State Penitentiary. I left the classroom on the last day with an intense feeling of connection and transformation, with lived proof of the capacity for human connection, even across dramatic social divides. I left with a renewed sense of hope for humanity and faith in the education system. I left rejuvenated and inspired.

Most relevant to this blog, I left that last class meeting freshman year with an anthology of student work that was our final class project. It contained essays written for the class, as well as poetry, short stories, artwork, and open letters from our classmates to the class as a whole. It contained poems I had written and shared with inside students who were also poets. It contained powerful testimony for the connection and transformation that happened in the Inside-Out classroom. In the almost three years since that class, the anthology has been a treasure: proof of the power of written word to stir emotion and memory.

Each of the three UO Inside-Out classes have compiled student work for a final class project. Imagine the power of those combined documents.

Herein lies the inspiration and material for my current project. Our team of coeditors is selecting the best and most evocative of the pieces from those three years of art to compile a creative arts journal. It is entitled Turned Inside-Out, and will hopefully be the first volume of a series of Inside-Out Publications created by alumni of the program.

I have been dreaming up this project since fall term. This spring I received confirmation that the Clark Honors College will generously provide the monetary support for the program. I have two coeditors: Madeline and James. Madeline took the Inside-Out class with me last year, and worked with me during Sister Helen Prejean's visit and for the trip to Portland for Honors College events. James was a part of my first Inside-Out class, and is an inside student still incarcerated at OSP. The three of us are equal partners in this project.

We hope to show the talent of our peers in the Inside-Out classes, and to provide a document addressing the power and potential of the Inside-Out Program. In our formal Project Proposal, we write:

"The magazine, entitled Turned Inside-Out, is intended for multiple audiences and purposes. One major intention is that this publication will exemplify the nature and power of the classes, so Turned may be used as a recruitment tool, both for students and instructors. It will be a powerful addition to program development and funding requests. When partnered with the Inside-Out documentary, it will provide an in-depth record of the impact the Inside-Out Program has on individual students. Inclusion of outstanding academic essays will demonstrate the rigor and import of the classes as well as the impact that coursework and class discussions have on lives of individual students."

We plan to use Turned for recruitment, fund raising, education, research, consciousness-raising, and as a launching point for future creative projects involving Inside-Out alumni from universities and correctional facilities across the country.

I have never done anything like this before. I am honestly learning on the run: researching online, reading other magazines, meeting with faculty and staff members for help, and working on editing and selections skills. I have never felt like this about a project before-even the most exciting and inspirational work I have done before does not compare with Turned. Not only is it a cause I believe in completely, but it is also an outlet for my creative energy and skill in literature and creative work. I am blessed with two fabulous coeditors, who are a joy to work with and a constant source of inspiration. I am learning at breakneck speed, and loving every moment of it.

What we are creating is unique. It is special. It is the result of a program that believes completely in the equality between people, even and around prison walls and social divides. What we learned in our Inside-Out classes is coming home for me now: it is alive in the writing of my peers and will soon be published in a high-quality magazine form, to be disseminated and shared across the country.

This has been an enormous investment of time and energy for me. The three coeditors meet once a week, which means that Madeline and I drive up to Salem to meet with James inside the prison. To facilitate this, we have also been through formal training for Department of Corrections volunteers. We also are meeting with various people on the UO campus, including a meeting with the publicity staff tomorrow afternoon. We have already made it through the selection process, and are beginning to notify the artists and obtain permissions.

This is the defining project of my senior year. It will even be included in my thesis, which is the largest academic project of my college career. Turned Inside-Out is a constant inspiration and challenge for me. It is a joy each step of the way. It will be a solid and enduring example of the best of my college experience: a chance to take what was learned in the classroom and turn it into art and inspiration for the world to enjoy.

If all goes well, Turned Inside-Out will be in print before graduation in June. It'll be a real struggle to pick which event will make me more proud.