“Landscapes of Violence in One Big Self,”
by Sylvia McNamara, Yale College Class of 2015
written for Dr. Dolores Hayden’s class:
Poets’ Landscapes (AMST 381a/ARCH 351a), Spring 2014
From the introduction: “To those of us living on the outside of the razor wire perimeters that separate American prisons from the outside world, the lives unfolding within those borders are often invisible. One Big Self, a collaborative work by poet C.D. Wright and photographer Deborah Luster, seeks to shed light on the characters and experiences of such inmates. Luster’s empathetic portraits of Louisiana prisoners and Wright’s poetic evocation of their joys, fears, routines, and desires place a mirror before the outside world, challenging assumptions about the moral separateness of those we have cast aside.”
Read “Landscapes of Violence” by Sylvia McNamara Y’15
View images from One Big Self
Beinecke materials consulted include: One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana,