You May Be Strong, But I’m Brave
Uncover poems written by incarcerated women at the intersection of HIV/AID activism
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
By Katherine Ann Cheairs. Header: ID Crisis, 2003, Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of MUSEION Foundation
Cultural production in prisons has received more attention over the last few years with an uptake in interest in prison art with the most notable example being the publication of Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration by Nicole Fleetwood and the accompanying exhibition currently on tour in the US.
As more and more people within the US contend with the social and cultural costs of continued confinement falling disproportionately on low income communities of color, it’s important to hear from the voices of those behind prison walls. Poetry written and published by incarcerated people make space for those often unheard from an opportunity to be witnessed by the community outside the prison.
ReneeThe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
Incarcerated women at the intersection of HIV/AIDS activism and gender discrimination in the 1990s wrote poems contextualizing their political, social and existential experience and were published in chap books, newsletters and other publications.
Reaching OutThe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
The poems included here are from the Judy Greenspan Papers at The Center Archive which contains work from women incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, CA and the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, NY.
At WarThe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
Consider At War, written by Cynthia R. while at Bedford Hills. “You may have your sword, but I have my shield. You may be strong, but I’m brave. You may kill this body, but you cannot kill this soul.”
The poem continues to declare a freedom beyond the body and resistance to confinement itself. There is a clarity around the material conditions the writer is inhabiting and yet declaring a connection to a much bigger reality than the one defined for them.
Gateway to ProsperityThe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
Chowchilla: Gateway to Prosperity written by Chrystos speaks to the political and economic issues relating to conditions at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, CA and was published in 1995.
The poem opens with Chyrstos describing the irony of the investment in planting roses on the exterior grounds of the prison while the roses inside (the women inside the prison) are without care.
The politics of the piece is clear in documenting where resources are allocated and demands something better. There is a clear call to action by whoever is reading the poem to not look past those residing in the prison.
CourageThe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
These poems suggest that visibility starts with how the writer sees themselves, then moves out to the other women in the prison and then the public.
IronyThe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
These declarations of self-love coupled with the demand for access to care as a human right serve to decarcerate the voices of the women.
Who SaidThe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
The poems document the shared struggle as well as the strategies for survival not just for themselves but each other.
The land remembers.
The leaves whisper their names.
The blooming flowers listen to their tears of laughter and sorrow.
The trunk of the tree carries their wisdom.
The river speaks.
We must listen.
Excerpt from the poem, Voices at the Gate (2021) written by Katherine Cheairs
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