ArtsAloud-OSU What's New
January 2016:
Click here to check out an article about Arts Aloud that was published in Vanguard magazine!
October 2015:
Jodi traveled to Italy in the summer of 2015 where she was invited to teach a class at the Pesaro Prison in Pesaro, Italy. The next day, June 4, 2015, the L'Arte Sprigionata took place. Vito Minoia, Professor and Prison Theatre Director, along with Henricetta Vilella, Pesaro Prison Directress, hold the L'Arte Sprigionata each year at the Pesaro library. The event combines performance represented by both prisoners and community members. Both videos are of community actors reading poetry written by incarcerated students. The music accompaniment on the saxophone is performed by Massimiliano, another prison administrator. Click the videos below to view them.
August 2015:
Check out this great article from brookings.com about how hospitals could help prison recidivism.
May 2015:
Lacy Delaino, former lead ArtsAloud-OSU teacher at the Jess Dunn Correctional Center, will soon be teaching ArtsAloud curriculum in Florida prisons. More soon on that front. We are lucky to welcome Anne Uhlman as the next teacher at the JDCC beginning in August of 2015.
Here are the OSU Theatre students who were chosen to act for the ArtsAloud class at Jess Dunn Correctional Center in April 2015: (left to right) Roslyn Dobberstein, Lacy Delaino (Instructor), Jodi Jinks (Artistic Director), Anne Uhlmann, and Sam Stockard.
December 2014:
ArtsAloud-OSU classes began at the Jess Dunn Correctional Center in July 2014. Two theatre graduate students, Lacy Delaino and Susan Webb, accompanied me to JDCC in Taft, OK each Wednesday to watch ArtsAloud at work, or rather, at ART. On July 31st, a stiltifyingly hot, white afternoon, ten JDCC students performed their stories for 20 or so gray clad men seated in the Chapel's folding chairs.
Give me a pen and I’ll give you my mind
Give me ink and I’ll give my heart
Give me paint and I’ll show you my soul
These were the opening words spoken by Frybread, a tattooed American Indian with a long, slender nose, long, slender fingers, and a black mohawk. He was quick with a smile and could tell a story that you'd never forget.
My brother parked the car ( ) and takes an electric skillet out of his trunk and plugs it in. He fills it with cooking oil, takes the three fish and washes it-- black pepper and salt. Drips it in yellow corn meal and fries them. Plates, root beer, bread, mac‘n cheese. The rest is history. <pause> That was the last time I ate out with my dad.
Mr. Parker wrote this story. He remembered when he last shared a meal with his father, over fifty years ago by a fishing pond. Mr. P. was a preacher who understood the sacredness of Art.
After the successful summer at Jess Dunn, Lacy Delaino accepted the position as lead teacher of ArtsAloud at that facility. Her new and larger class performed on November 11th to an audience of their peers. Two weeks later, a group of 5 OSU Theatre undergraduates entered the Jess Dunn prison and "gave back" the men's play.
Here are the OSU Theatre students who were chosen to act for the ArtsAloud class at Jess Dunn Correctional Center in November 2014: (left to right) Develle Turner, Lacy Delaino (Instructor) Anne Uhlmann, Maddy Cunningham, Cody Finger, Marlina Bruner, Jodi Jinks (Artistic Director)
It is safe to say that all involved--the incarcerated students, the OSU Theatre students, and the audience were moved by the exchanging of theatre. One man in the audience asked the OSU students, "Did it feel dangerous to handle the sacred?" Anne Uhlman's reply suggested that it did indeed. She feared that she would "mess up" one of the authors' stories in spite of wanting to do it justice.
Lizard, a fiery redhead from JDCC offered that, "It was surreal to watch what we'd written played back for us."
For two hours, forty or so people caught a glimpse of another part of life.