i’ve lived here all my life. i’ve visited boyfriends on riker’s island (our short-term jail in queens) from time to time. my dad was an NYPD office for 20 years. many of my friends are writers, poets, teachers. so you would think i might know that the board of education actually opened a high school inside the prison, because there were so many 16-21 year olds without degrees coming in for short-term sentences that the BOE — whatever their other shortcomings might be — felt they had to address this need.
and address it they have! on tuesday, 6/20, i attended the graduation ceremony where about 74 graduates received their GED — one of whom scored so high on his tests that he was given an actual HS diploma from the school he attended before his arrest. do you know that the recidivist rate (the percentage of people who return to prison after release) is less than ONE THIRD among Horizon graduates than among the general population of the prison! that just seems so huge.
i was most privileged to be among the speakers at this ceremony. because i lead volunteer poetry/writing workshops for the kids at Horizon Academy, and because Horizon Academy (surprise, surprise) has practically no funds, my contact — a wonderful teacher there named Marty Flaster (MFlas16725@aol.com) — asked if there was some way they could compensate me for my time and my work. i thought about it, and said, well, how about naming me the Poet Laureate of Riker’s Island? and, after explaining to marty just what the hell a poet laureate is and does, and how having such a title might attract other talented writers to volunteer their time, we thought this was a win/win arrangement. i wrote a short poem, specifically for the program and the graduates, and it was very well received — we had quite a bit of audience participation at the end of it! the nice thing about the poet laureate title (other, obviously, than the fact that i have it for awhile) is that these laureates don’t last forever — none of them do. some are a year. some two. i’m not aware of any going longer than that. so i’m going to publish in my upcoming poetry mailing lists the fact the anyone with hopes of possibly being the next poet laurate at riker’s island prison in NYC should start donating their time and talents NOW. (if you want to join that mailing list, just send a message to
subscribe@poetz.yahoogroups.com
(but don’t do it if you’re not interested in poetry in general!). not only that, but the Citywatch program hosted by Bill DiFazio on WBAI has offered to give an entire one-hour on-air show to Horizon writers and the program in general.
so, here’s a pdf of the poem i wrote for the kids (and they ARE kids — you should see them; the so-called war on drugs in this country really is, as far as i can see, a war on dark-skinned young men. but that’s a story for another day. check it out here:
i welcome your comments and, even more, welcome your willingness to share your talents with the disadvantaged — whether at riker’s or anywhere else — as much as you can. KEEP THE FLAME! PASS THE FLAME! ART — all kinds of art — THAT IS THE FLAME!
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