Dell’Arte International Prison Arts Theatre Program Update!
Hello Dell’Arte subscribers! We’ve had an eventful spring at Dell’Arte, and we wanted to share with you some updates about our Prison Arts Theatre Program…
Dell’Arte has continued it’s work at Pelican Bay State Prison in 2023 through funding from the California Arts Council’s Arts in Corrections Program. After long-standing support from the William James Association, Dell’Arte applied directly as a coordinating organization to the CAC and was selected to implement theatre programming and continue working with people currently incarcerated at Pelican Bay. Working with the Community Resource Managers Office lead by Robert Losacco, our Teaching Artists traveled to Pelican Bay to teach weekly workshops with participants on both A and D yard this winter and spring.
We are excited to announce that Samantha Williams-Gray joined the program this year as a Teaching Artist, bringing with her in-depth experience as a movement educator and artist and applying her experience with Indigenous psychology and wisdom to the program curriculum. We are so very lucky to have Sam on board! Janessa Johnsrude is continuing her work as Program Director and a Teaching Artist and is excited to see how the program develops as we bring in more artists and create more exchange opportunities for our participants inside! Sam and Janessa are focusing their work with participants on self-awareness through a creative lens, trauma-informed and body-based artistic exploration in writing and movement, performance and collaboration, and play.
In April and May, Dell’Arte faculty member Espaço Oliveira Mendes, traveled to Pelican Bay to teach classes in Capoeira. Using berimbaus, tambourines, and the agogo, participants made music and filled the spaces with dance/sick moves during the time together. Check out these live drawings of the class with our D-facility group by multi-talented artist by Anonymous Magone, one of our participants.
The fascinating history and philosophy of Capoeira was explored in the classes and the conversations had around peaceful engagement, non-violence, anger, partnership and play went deep.
“This program gave me insight into who I am and who I could be.”
Paul Latanzio,2023 Program Participant
On April 25, 2023 Faculty and students from Dell’Arte joined with participants from our Prison Arts Program for a day of artistic exchange. We played, showed work, clowned around, and shared about our practices as artists. Participants on each yard prepared original pieces to show. The piece on A Yard was filled with poetry and was a masterful example of collaboration - it explored choices we make in our youth and what paths we walk. The piece on D yard had audience members busting a gut- it was a variety show packed with funny skits featuring fashion pirates, lonesome bananas, and original commercials.
“You let us be us. That is something I will never forget.”
- Derek Adam, 2023 Program Participant
Images courtesy of Robert Losacco , Pelican Bay State Prison CRM
Prison walls are thick and the stigmas that incarcerated people face can feel impenetrable - both during and after incarceration. These exchanges help us to simply connect as the beautiful humans we are, celebrate that, and see each other as such. It is our hope that this ripples out to you today to consider how we all can look past our stigmas and biases to see one another - human to human - with compassion and heart!
"This class has helped me socially and has given me the tools to express myself the way I never knew I could"
- Michael Williams, 2023 Program Participant.
Both Williams-Gray and Johnsrude joined teaching artists from around the state this spring in a training series through Arts in Corrections and Justice for My Sister called “Trauma-informed Storytelling”. The workshops saw participants through sessions to expand the use of trauma-informed facilitation, nonviolent communication, and strategies in their teaching practices to encourage students to reframe their personal experiences of trauma into narratives of resiliency and healing, while centering their voice and choice in a culturally-relevant way. We are grateful for the opportunity to continue to develop our practices and support our teaching artists at Dell’Arte as we learn so much from our friends in the field.
Check out Volume II of our Prison Arts Program Zine featuring explorations in playwriting, inspired writings, and artwork from our program participants in 2022/2023! It takes a lot of courage to share work that is this vulnerable and open up - especially when living in an environment that is not conducive to freedom of expression. We are proud of the work our participants share and create openly both in class and outside of it. Please support them by having a gander at our Zine!
And finally, congratulations to all of our 2023 spring program graduates! 24 individuals graduated from Dell’Arte’s Prison Arts Program this spring and we celebrated the day by celebrating each other, circling up to big up the members of our program collectively. We welcome them to Dell’Arte’s alumni network. We had such an incredible time working together this spring and look forward to our fall program, beginning in August 2023.
“We can be free spirits, we can express inner creativity and it raises our emotions. Personally I’ve been able to express myself more dynamically outside of class to friends and family.”
-Anonymous Magone, 2023 Program Participant
Thank you to the California Arts Council, CDCR, and the Community Resource Manager’s office for supporting our work.
