By Heart: Poetry, Prison, and Two Lives
This two-person memoir delves deeply into art, education, prison, possibility, and which children our world nurtures and which it shuns.
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Two California poets plumb the telling depths of their creative lives and souls across prison bars. VOYA By Heart details two lives transformed by a shared experience, two memoirs in alternate chapters. Judith Tannenbaum and Spoon Jackson come from very different backgrounds: she, the daughter of a college professor, and he, one of fifteen children in a poor black family. In the 1980s, Tannenbaum started teaching poetry in San Quentin prison. Jackson was taking classes and reading widely, but living in self-imposed silence. Tannenbaum's poetry class was revelatory for him, for poetry gave him a way to express his evolving thoughts. In these parallel memoirs, Jackson is open and affecting. He recalls a boy growing up in a world of violence, killing a man when he was twenty and sentenced to life-without-parole. In prison, he began to grow into a very different person. His talent as a poet has brought him considerable recognition, but he is still incarcerated at New Folsom maximum-security prison. Tannenbaum is more guarded about her life, her loves, and her family. Post—San Quentin, she found a focus: writers' workshops, and she has written another book about her earlier experiences at San Quentin. The Shawshank Redemption movie was based on the idea that personal rehabilitation is possible—here, we have real-life evidence. But despite its undoubted power, it is hard to know where this book will find an audience in high schools. At best, students will learn more about our enormous prison system, and the "realness" of prisoners like Spoon Jackson, who struggle to find beauty and meaning in their lives. Reviewer: Rayna Patton
Preface xiiiAcknowledgments xvii1 This Near-Stranger's Words 12 In Silence 93 Mirrors 194 Nowhere but Barstow and Prison 315 By Heart 436 Diving 577 Artistic Imperialism 678 The Poet 799 Way Out in the Bay 8710 Godot 9911 Cure for Cancer 11712 Banished 12913 Write Reckless 13914 Annotation 15115 Power or Prison 16716 The Circle 181Resources 193About the Authors 197
\ VOYA - Rayna Patton\ By Heart details two lives transformed by a shared experience, two memoirs in alternate chapters. Judith Tannenbaum and Spoon Jackson come from very different backgrounds: she, the daughter of a college professor, and he, one of fifteen children in a poor black family. In the 1980s, Tannenbaum started teaching poetry in San Quentin prison. Jackson was taking classes and reading widely, but living in self-imposed silence. Tannenbaum's poetry class was revelatory for him, for poetry gave him a way to express his evolving thoughts. In these parallel memoirs, Jackson is open and affecting. He recalls a boy growing up in a world of violence, killing a man when he was twenty and sentenced to life-without-parole. In prison, he began to grow into a very different person. His talent as a poet has brought him considerable recognition, but he is still incarcerated at New Folsom maximum-security prison. Tannenbaum is more guarded about her life, her loves, and her family. Post—San Quentin, she found a focus: writers' workshops, and she has written another book about her earlier experiences at San Quentin. The Shawshank Redemption movie was based on the idea that personal rehabilitation is possible—here, we have real-life evidence. But despite its undoubted power, it is hard to know where this book will find an audience in high schools. At best, students will learn more about our enormous prison system, and the "realness" of prisoners like Spoon Jackson, who struggle to find beauty and meaning in their lives. Reviewer: Rayna Patton\ \
