Podcast
Huberman Lab
This book of poetry by various Black poets inspired Dwayne Betts, who was incarcerated at the time, to see a place for himself in the world outside of prison. It helped him find a new identity as a writer and ultimately led him to a successful career as a scholar and poet.
He actually talks about the fact that you know there was this underground library in the prison system and he didn't know what he could be in the prison what identity he could take on when everyone se...
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This book of poetry by various Black poets inspired Dwayne Betts, who was incarcerated at the time, to see a place for himself in the world outside of prison. It helped him find a new identity as a writer and ultimately led him to a successful career as a scholar and poet.
He actually talks about the fact that you know there was this underground library in the prison system and he didn't know what he could be in the prison what identity he could take on when everyone seemed to be defined by what crime they'd committed right it felt like his imagination was so limited to talk about identity paralysis right I mean like you're denied all your basic freedoms in this environment right so you really don't even have the ability to imagine what more you could be so one day he gets a book called the Black Poets and in the book he read a poem by etharid's night who had also spent time in prison
It's written this incredibly stirring poem about the criminal justice system and he goes by Dwayne but what Dwayne shared with me as he said I was inspired by what I was reading but the most important thing that happened in reading that book and understanding the author's history is that it gave me something to be I saw a place for myself in this world