Prison Reform via Shakespeare

[Music]

[Applause]

lord

we know what we are but not what we may

be

hamlet i’m damian brown

i survived 23 years in california state

prisons

i’m now an artist in residence at marin

shakespeare company

my arrival in this position was an

unlikely one

in 1992 i was sentenced to life in

prison

my mother said to me damien come home

the son i raised

prison life is monotonous so i tried

every self-help group available

thinking for change critical thinking i

attended aanna although i had never

indulged in alcohol of drugs

i saw some men trying to better

themselves while others use the

opportunity to do

less pro-social things it was my opinion

that most self-help groups

were great at teaching to the test of

what the board of parole hearings

expected to hear

however i did not see them creating

substantial changes in behavior

since i had never been a gang member i

strongly resisted joining one

this led to a series of unpleasant

encounters

such as time spent in solitary

confinement

but after several years the gangs deemed

me as unrecruitable due to my

determination to follow my own path

i became known as nation when an elder

prisoner

continuously referred to me as a nation

unto myself

the nickname stuck a couple of decades

into self-refinement i was going to the

water fountain and i saw the flyer

promoting a shakespearean acting class

well shakespeare’s works were not a

popular topic of discussion inside

second this class was obviously for the

benefit of prisoners

and time had taught most of us that

things solely for our benefit were never

allowed to stay for long

so to avoid the common cycle of hope and

despair

i adopted a defensive mechanism of

thinking

if i never embrace it they can never

take it away

resoluting my determination to not give

the guards the pleasure of disappointing

me

i rejected any curiosities about the

class

but what about others who did want to

attend

the paths one walks in prison are often

trails laid by reputable people

if reputable names aren’t on a list

reputable people are reluctant to sign

the list was blank for several days when

i decided as a somewhat reputable person

to sign this led to other men signing

about a month later those of us who

signed received passes to attend

i ignored my past but a friend asked me

if i was going i said no

he’s quite a comedic and persistent guy

so to get him off my nerves i told him i

will walk with you to the class

but i’m not going in we were late

and the door was locked this meant that

we were out of bounds

that was subject to disciplinary action

at that time a guard saw us out of

bounds and quickly moved in our

direction

i was scheduled to go before the border

parole hearings soon

they had the power to set me free or

keep me incarcerated

and an infraction would be a sure denial

of parole

when the guard was about halfway to us

miraculously

the facilitator of the shakespearean

class opened the door

my friend jokingly asked me so are you

not coming in

when i entered the room i was alarmed

there were members of various rival

gangs in the room

and some men in that room had inflicted

great bodily injury on others in that

room in years past

i felt this would never succeed as it

was a very dangerous situation

then there was leslie this small happy

white woman with

a whistle and a panic button talking

about how we were going to put on a

shakespearean performance

encouraging us to be silly laugh

in other words be vulnerable at one

point she asked us to make bird sounds

now imagine

asking a room full of gangsters to do

that well i didn’t have

much to lose as the other guys as i was

not a gang member

so i made the bird sound

our doubts are traitors and make us lose

the good we oft might win

by fearing to attempt measure for

measure

everyone laughed at me but something

happened in that moment

looking around the circle the men saw

the light of their enemies eyes

laughing with them and at that point a

human connection was made

you can tell when it happened because

they immediately stopped laughing

and looked away but it was the first

in the armor

as i was leaving class i heard men

saying i’m not going back in there

because they had felt something they

hadn’t felt in a long time and it was

uncomfortable

they had experienced the vulnerability

of displaying happiness

in the presence of those considered

enemies

this act went against the purpose of a

carefully constructed mask

forged over time as a survival mechanism

but after a week of prison monotony

the need to escape that dismal existence

brought us back

leslie had us do more exercises that

made us laugh

expressed big emotions and then she had

us take different partners which meant

that now rivals were expected to work

together

as for the play we perform a clever

choice was made

macbeth every man in that room

found his way into prison because of

some vice

found in the words of that play and few

things open hearts and minds more than

being able to see oneself

in the footprints of another man’s path

after we read the story

such questions were asked what themes in

this play resonates with your life

have you experienced similar challenges

and these men most of whom would never

open themselves up to a prison

psychiatrist

started to reflect and perhaps for the

first time in some

and they started to chime out i can

relate to the betrayal

my girlfriend said if i didn’t do

something i was weak

i was greedy i was hungry

and we started to see in these men the

vulnerability that they had spent

decades trying to protect

later a pact was made what happens in

shakespeare

stays in shakespeare now this was a very

dangerous agreement to make

as individual gang members cannot make

secret pacts with rival gangs

could easily be a death sentence but we

have seen too much of one another’s true

selves to

with conviction hold up the facade of

believing

i hate you you are my enemy then it got

more complicated

the date of performance was quickly

approaching and we knew that we needed

more than the two and a half

hours a week to rehearse so collectively

we decided

to go outside on the yard and rehearse

but all would be able to see

the only catch was everyone had to

attend

no one could stay in the buildings and

sit it out

the first to be alarmed were the guards

they came over and they searched us

after a little while longer they

searched us again

when they were confident that we had no

weapons they called for a little backup

stood against the walls and waited to

see what would happen

then it was the gangs they circled the

yard with shark-like intention

the first faction to approach was sent

by a well-established gang leader

known for his boldness and brutality in

years past

the henchmen approached the actor that

was a member of their game

and they asked him what are you doing

before he could respond the entire

ensemble of actors stood beside him

and said we are rehearsing for our

shakespearean play

this is a very tense moment those men

knew the potential violence of the men

they were accosting

many of them had perhaps been recruited

and trained by the same men

the actors were ready to fight i often

think of this moment

as the silver lining around the dark

cloud of violence

these men had found something so

profound and so exciting

and so hopeful that they were willing if

needs be to resort to violence

to make possible their pursuit of a more

pro-social existence

and those who challenge them knew this

as well

remarkably the gang members withdrew

and we resumed our rehearsal but that

evening those

men knew they could no would never

return to their former gang lifestyles

and i could easily sense the excitement

and anxiety that accompanies one who

begins a new

life-altering journey

there is a time in the affairs of men

which

taken at the flood leads on to fortune

julius caesar the night of our

performance about 150 of our fellow

inmates

were among those in attendance some is

sworn they’d heckle us

but when the place started they were

transported into our shakespearean world

and lost sight

of the men they thought they knew

when we bowed there was a standing

ovation

during the q a a member of the audience

stood

it was the same gang leader who had

initially sent the henchman to acosta’s

he was crying he said

i can’t believe you guys pulled that off

this is possibly one of the best days i

ever spent in prison

a few months later i paroled and as some

men do i came back inside to give a talk

to help encourage some of the men who

had been left behind

when i did all ethnicities were present

i never seen this before usually when a

black man paroles and comes back in the

audience is top heavy with black men

a white man white men etc i asked a

friend why

was all ethnicities in attendance and he

said to me nation it’s been this way

ever since that shakespeare program came

when i first left prison my first job

was as a high-risk case manager at the

sheriff’s department

i told my young clients there were two

things i wanted them to be aware of

one i am not an officer two

everything i do on your behalf will

serve to help keep you alive

to help keep you free i’m now a

full-time actor and teaching artist

sharing shakespeare and life lessons to

both marginalized

and affluent youth some of the same

transformations that i witnessed amongst

adults in the institutions with this

program i’m witnessing

amongst the youth in their institutions

i see the boost in self-esteem

that comes when you give young people

the freedom to explore

options without ridiculing them or

telling them that they’re wrong

i see this growth and confidence give

them buy-in

to enter more positive programming

i’ve watched them spend less and less

time with the negative influences that

it shaped them

in exchange for the more positive

influences that are now reshaping them

i watch their very vocabulary expand as

i relate to them the words of my mother

who advise me

to be able to speak and be understood

whether your audience is in the white

house or a crack house

so much of my mother’s wisdom guides me

in serving the youth

i was ushered off to prison with her

command echoing in my soul

damien come home the son i raised

the pursuit of that command guided me

through my darkest days in prison

and now serve to guide me in helping

others

finally i am certain that i am the son

my mother raised

as i utilize her wisdom coupled with the

relevant works of shakespeare

i am seeing young lives change for the

better

i believe in the power of shakespeare to

change lives

i hope you do too

you