In her legendary essay The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, poet, essayist, activist and black lesbian Audre Lorde emphatically states, “My silences have not protected me. Your silence will not protect you.” Lorde was confronting the reality of the cancer that eventually claimed her life and the fact that she had respected fear more so than she had her own voice. Lorde realized her death was inevitable whether she spoke her truths or not and with this realization came the courage to further respect and honor the act of writing and using that act as a bridge to the gaps that may have separated her from others. Lorde found it necessary to speak and write at the risk of mistranslation or incurring the anger of others. In writing she discovered a precious liberation.
The act of writing is one of resistance. In picking up the pen and documenting their life experiences and the world as it evolves around them, the men of MCI-Norfolk are resisting silencing and the exclusion of themselves from mainstream society. The idea of this project developed more than a year ago and it did not begin with me being an editor but rather a teacher. It was with considerable ignorance of the machinations of prison system that I assumed I would just enter and teach folks to write. After one very productive meeting with prison activist Darrell Jones the idea for The Visiting Room was birthed. Jones educated me on the importance of incarcerated individuals to be heard, read and recognized as members of society. Persons behind bars do not cease being persons because they are locked away. Their lives blossom in a different manner because they are shut away from the everyday as it is perceived by those who are not in prison, but the fact remains their lives blossom in various ways. Incarcerated persons have a right to be heard and recognized, this is the basic manner in which we as humans connect to one another.
- Joyce Angela Jellison The Visiting Room Editor
Submit to WOL/Sudan Reach 99 Bishop Allen Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139
