A Review of Two Conferences: The Head and the Heart of Arts in Prisons

摘要

This is a comparative review of two conferences held in North America in March of 2018. Carceral Cultures was presented by the Canadian Association of Cultural Studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, from March 1-4. The purpose of the conference was to bring together cultural theorists, practitioners and activists to contemplate the carceral. The Shakespeare in Prisons Conference was presented by the Shakespeare in Prisons Network at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, from March 22-25. The focus of this conference was to bring together artists and theorists who work in the field of arts in corrections, not limited to the works of the Bard. As a sometime practitioner-researcher of Prison Theatre I have found it interesting to compare the two conferences in terms of how each appealed to my head (cognition), and to my heart (affect), in engaging with the politics and aesthetics of arts in prisons. The conferences were divergent in so many ways, and yet now converge in my mind to deepen my understanding of the work that I do, and strengthen my resolve to continue resisting the broken (in)justice system through art-research-activism.