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Humanities in WI Prisons

A podcast searching for meaning and understanding, from a poetry workshop to a prison newsroom.

WI Humanities & Odyssey Beyond Bars

Students take part in impactful storytelling workshops in three Correctional Facilities.

Summer 2023 Newsletter

In this issue of On Newsletter, we’re thinking about dreams – not the stuff of sleep, but the kind of dreams we construct from our values and our knowledge of ourselves and the world.

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“Odyssey helped me unwrap my gifts and rewrite the story of my life.” - Odyssey Beyond Bars student.

In ‘The Mic and Five Minutes’ episode of our Human Powered podcast, we are in Oak Hill Correctional Facility where Odyssey Beyond Bars works with students to find and shape the ...stories they want to tell about their lives. Storytelling has a way of lowering fences between people and amplifying voices. Prisons can be very dehumanizing places, but we hope that by sharing these stories with people on the outside, we can consider incarceration in our society through a humanities lens. How do humans express themselves creatively and find meaning, even in such dehumanizing circumstances? How can the humanities help people re-imagine the story of their lives – and what can happen when they do?

You can find Human Powered 'Humanity Unlocked' on any of your preferred podcast apps. Or you can listen on this webpage by clicking on the orange ‘play’ button. And be sure to click ➔ to find all sorts of episode extras.
Link: https://bit.ly/3EdBXas

Perhaps you remember reading something that changed your worldview? Or meeting someone who influenced the course of your life? Alejandro Dominguez, an intern with Human Powered, was particularly drawn to Episode 2 of Human Powered 'Humanity Unlocked' because of its focus on education - ...something Alejandro believes is the gateway to a better life for all. We are sharing his personal essay on education and the universal human experience of awe, wonder, and reflection as one is confronted with new ideas. You can read it here.

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S2E2: Reflections by Alejandro Dominguez - Wisconsin Humanities

Perhaps you remember reading a text that changed your worldview or meeting someone who influenced the course of your life. Reflections from Human...

wisconsinhumanities.org

I think it is safe to say that Spooky Season is here! 👻

Check out these photos from last year's Ghost Tour in Racine. 90+ folks showed up to watch scary short films made by local high school students, take a free tour of Racine's most haunted locations, and discuss their own ...spooky experiences with others.

#ThrowbackThursday #SpookySeason #HauntedWisconsin
#GhostTour #PublicHumanities #WisconsinHumanities #CommunityPowered

What is it that makes us human? Since early Homo sapiens started tracking animals and reading the landscape, we have been telling stories. In our new podcast series, 'Humanity Unlocked,' we are going into some very dehumanizing places and finding that stories, and storytelling, are one ...way people are reconnecting with the deepest parts of themselves.

(You can find the episode on any of your preferred podcast apps. Or you can listen on this webpage by clicking on the orange ‘play’ button. And be sure to click ➔ to find all sorts of episode extras.
Link: https://bit.ly/3sxz9SL

'A Mic and Five Minutes,' from Humanity Unlocked. Storytelling like you have never heard before. Check it out!

You can find Human Powered on any of your preferred podcast apps.

"From numbers to stories."

People who are incarcerated are given a number, a number that comes to replace their actual name within the system. In this episode of Human Powered, we hear about how crafting a story, told exactly the way a person wants to, helps people 'feel ...human again.' The storytellers that work with the Odyssey Beyond Bars project encourage students to tell stories about anything that interests them — a first kiss — a childhood dog — a heavy story from childhood…whatever story they want to craft about themselves.

“Every time there are some stories that are funny. There are some that will make you tear up. There are some that are hard to hear, but, but there is that range in every single classroom because people can go any way they want with it. You know, they've got the mic and five minutes.” (Kevin Mullen, Odyssey Beyond Bars instructor.)

You can find the episode on any of your preferred podcast apps. Or you can listen on our website by clicking on the orange ‘play’ button. And be sure to click ➔ to find all sorts of episode extras. LINK IN BIO

#stories #storiesmatter #storiestotell #humanities #teachers #incarceration

“When the man telling his story from prison said he felt human again, it brought tears. It was so powerful.”
- a Madison, WI listener

You can find the episode on any of your preferred podcast apps. Or you can listen on this webpage by clicking on the orange ‘play’ button. ...And be sure to click ➔ to find all sorts of episode extras.

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A mic and five minutes

In this episode, we learn about a UW-Madison English and storytelling class now taught in Wisconsin prisons.

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Did you ever have a school writing assignment that changed how you saw yourself?

This season, Wisconsin Humanity’s podcast is exploring how humans express themselves creatively, and find meaning, even in dehumanizing circumstances. In this episode, we are spending time in a storytelling... workshop at Oak Hill Correctional Facility with the Odyssey Beyond Bars Project.

#podcast #podcasting #podcastlife #writing #writinglife #storytelling #incarceration

What happens when you have a mic and five minutes to tell your story? We believe everyone has a story worth telling. Listen to Human Powered podcast now in YouTube, linked here 👇. Learn what makes Odyssey Beyond Bars storytelling workshops to meaningful for the participants, hear the founder and... director of the program, from a teacher who designed the curriculum, and from a former student who gets a mic and five minutes to share his story at Oak Hill Correctional Facility.

👉Or you can find the episode on any of your preferred podcast apps.

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“A Mic and Five Minutes” | Human Powered - Humanity Unlocked E2

Subscribe to Human Powered now on your favorite podcast app! https://pod.link/1527321744 Real people. Real stories. Humanity unlocked. A podcast ...

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