February 7, 2020
Award-winning author Mitchell Jackson visited Muhlenberg College’s Inside/Out prison exchange program to discuss his experiences with the writing process.
In creating moments of community building outside the prison, events like these allow for interpersonal dialogue about lived experiences without being confined by cold cement walls or being shadowed by correction officers. Students and faculty had the opportunity to meet Mitchell Jackson, listen to his life story of “predictable outcomes”, and share perspectives on incarceration, rehabilitation, and creativity within the correctional system. Jackson urged students to find authentic reason to write; being incarcerated does not prohibit anyone from being a scholar, despite what we’ve been socialized to think. To understand the systems under which Americans live, it is crucial to read past scholars’ work that articulate the dominating institutions that were made for white people by white people.
