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