Articles of Interest

Maintaining Humanity: An Interview with Grady Hillman About Arts-in-Corrections By Steven Durland
Grady Hillman is a poet and writer who first became involved with arts-in-corrections when he did a creative-writing residency in the Texas prison system in 1981. Since then he has worked in more than 50 correctional facilities in Florida, California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Idaho, Oklahoma, Texas, Peru and Ireland, and has become a nationally recognized correctional arts programmer. In 1991, he co-founded the Southwest Correctional Arts Network (SCAN). Read the interview

Art helps inmates with reality in Shakespeare Behind Bars program
"Empathy must be learned," Tofteland* said, "and Shakespeare turns out to be a great teacher. When presented well, his plays have an unfailing appeal regardless of the audience. And few dramatists probe the human condition so perceptively," he added, "and in a way that hits home especially with the prisoner-actors who try to portray his characters."  Read complete story

*Curt L. Tofteland is Shakespeare Behind Bars' artistic director and founder.

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