Judith Tannenbaum, By Heart

Start: 10/12/2010 7:30 pm

Judith Tannenbaum reads from her co-authored book, By Heart: Poetry, Prison, and Two Lives

At its core, By Heart is about two stories that speak for human imagination, spirit, and expression.

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Judith Tannenbaum and Spoon Jackson met at San Quentin State Prison in 1985, where Spoon spent part of life sentence without possibility of parole. For over two decades they have conferred, corresponded and sometimes collaborated, producing very different bodies of work resting on the same understanding: that human beings have one foot in darkness, the other in light. Moving stories of their childhoods and adult creative lives reveal both tragedy and beauty.

In this beautifully crafted exploration – part memoir, part essay – Tannenbaum and Jackson consider art, education, prison, possibility, and which children our world nurtures and which it shuns.

"A boy with no one to listen becomes a man in prison for life and discovers his mind can be free. A woman enters prison to teach and becomes his first listener. And so begins a twenty-five year friendship between two gifted writers and poets. The result is By Heart -a book that will anger you, give you hope, and break your heart."--Gloria Steinem