Prison Chronicles & High School
Prison Chronicles was introduced in a High School and we want to share what came out of it.... also, we're disappearing for a month.
Prison Chronicles is a platform to share the creative collaborations between Inmate #J0XXX1 (Samuel) and his pen pal Magida.
Thank you EVERYONE who contributed to the KFC dinner. Not only did we have enough for Samuel and Alex, we had an additional amount to donate to the Boys and Girls Club in Los Angeles. Samuel was so emotionally moved that you guys came together for him like this. Maybe you all even brought a few tears out of him… but you didn’t hear that from me 🤪
I emailed everyone who donated, but if you didn’t receive my message, please send me your address so I can send out some Thank You postcards with Samuel’s art on it! I’ve already stuck a handful in the mail, but we would like to send more!
Prison Chronicles & High School
When Prison Chronicles first launched last year, a friend of mine introduced it to their Grade 10 English Class. Each week they would read a publication and the teacher would ask a series of questions (writing prompts) that the students would then respond to in different styles of writing; fictional and non-fictional creative writing, journal entries, through letters to Samuel, poetry or visually through digital art and traditional film photography.
I wanted to share with you some of the works that came out of it. I decided a video was the easiest way to absorb this information, watch with sound and email me if you’d like to see a PDF of the final version!
If you are a teacher, councilor or work with the community and would like to use Prison Chronicles in your class, please get in contact with me at: prisonchroniclesproject@gmail.com.
We would love to continue exploring Prison Chronicles in this sort of way. Whether it be through reading our publications and practicing creative writing, poetry, zine making, story telling or photo workshops - Prison Chronicles would love to work with young people- especially those who may need a helping hand. I’m available to speak and host workshops, and Samuel is also available for phone conversations, panel discussions etc. on the dangers of guns, violence, drugs, gangs etc.
A few of my favourite pieces done by the students:
Title: Hands With Stories
My group’s photo is inspired by a quote from Prison Chronicles 26, where Magida writes: “Everyone’s hands here are so beautiful and hold so many stories”. The concept behind our piece is two pairs of hands both holding entirely different stories; hands can hold many stories and we wanted to showcase that in our photo.
Dear Samuel,
I was informed to keep my name hidden, but here’s what you need to know about me. I’m a 16 year old girl from (redacted), I grew up with my mum, dad and brother, and I dance. What I know about you is that you are resilient, brave, and talented. You have undergone many obstacles and horridities in your life that I could never imagine going through, yet you are still standing strong and making a difference in the world. In fact, my favourite time of the week in english is Wednesday because we get to read “Prison Chronicles”. I want to go into criminology and psychology which makes your case especially intriguing to me.
Thank you for taking the time to watch, listen and read.
Prison Chronicles will be taking the next month or so off, and we’ll see you at the end of September.
Keep in touch….xx Magida & Samuel