An Artographic New Spoken Word Poetry Programme Portraying Two Young Offenders' Artistic Ways
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“MY VOICE RISES ON THE MIC” AN ARTOGRAPHIC NEW SPOKEN WORD POETRY PROGRAMME PORTRAYING TWO YOUNG OFFENDERS’ ARTISTIC WAYS OF BEING IN A MACEDONIAN PRISON University of Cambridge Faculty of Education This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Afrodita Nikolova Submitted: March, 29th, 2019 Wolfson College DEDICATION For the power of poetry to open up my life & for the humanity, resilience, creativity of Luani and Jess & all children & artists who survive against all odds living artistically; because, as my creative writing teacher, poet Sean Thomas Dougherty wrote: “a poem is not a university, but a universe. As soon as one writes it down, a poem changes. It is a spiral shifting slow above us, a cosmos inside us, like the constellations, like the staircase of our bodies. You can never kill the poem. [You can never] erase the poem” The Second O of Sorrow, (Dougherty, page 27, 2018). DECLARATION This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. STATEMENT OF LENGTH This dissertation does not exceed 80,000 words, excluding the title page, content pages, captions, footnotes, boxes, references, bibliography, appendices, and acknowledgements. ABSTRACT “My Voice Rises on the Mic”: an Artographic New Spoken Word Poetry Programme Portraying Two Young Offenders’ Artistic Ways of Being in a Macedonian Prison A vibrant live performance, spoken word poetry has enhanced people’s lives worldwide. Yet, it continues to be underrepresented among arts programmes in prison. Research interest in the arts resurfaced with the narrative and desistance criminological turn to study how the stories offenders tell about their lives can support a crime-free life, through subjective, social and judicial rehabilitation. In this context, I enquired into the potential contributions of a new spoken word poetry programme in offenders’ lives in a Macedonian prison. Particularly, I investigated the programme development and its perceived impact. The former focused on the artistic responses and life experiences elicited for the duration of the programme, while the latter examined the meanings they held in two young offenders’ lives. The artographic design of the three-month programme, which was developed and implemented together with artists, young offenders and prison staff, enabled me to conduct arts-based multi-method data collection throughout three stages. The data included 18 life story interviews with six young offenders with a visual elicitation tool; 23 participant observations of workshops and rehearsals including arts-based evaluative tools; and, participants’ 32 self-authored poems. The programme’s final performance event in the prison, with an audience of over 40 people, connected prison residents, artists, criminal justice and local NGO representatives. The study reports findings from the programme’s contributions in two Albanian young offenders’ lives based on 8 individual life story interviews with 2 visual river journeys and 1 painting, 23 participant observations, and 7 participant poems. The analysis with artographic portraiture integrated poetic and visual inquiry with the five key tenets of the method of portraiture: voice, relationship, themes, place, and aesthetic whole of narrative. Artographic collaboration with a child psychotherapeutic counsellor enabled to me to cultivate embodied reflexive empathy in the analysis of sensitive data. The study found the programme has the potential to support young offenders’ artistic ways of being. Specifically, the programme’s sites of artistic practice, emergent pedagogy, and the performance community made possible for young offenders to 1) empower themselves through poetic voice as creative agency in resistance to social exclusion 2) develop ways of being alternative to their history of trauma and perceived criminal immutability 3) have their artistic way of being validated by artists, educators, the prison staff. I concluded that young offenders’ artistic way of being through the artographic programme could potentially inform their rehabilitation within the interdependent subjective and social dimensions, relevant to Macedonian national resocialisation policy. This means that arts researchers, arts and prison practitioners should centre arts in prison work on the creative practices. To do so, there is a need to: 1) develop an evidence- base and theorisation of the nature of artists’ creative practices, which would account for the legitimacy of arts-based methodologies in prison; and, 2) to frame contributions of the arts to the criminal justice system in a language meaningful to all stakeholders. Afrodita Nikolova ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am grateful to all the people, encounters, opportunities that helped shape this work. I am thankful to my supervisor professor Pam Burnard who championed my commitment to the work from beginning to end and opened up the immeasurable creative possibilities of doing arts-based research; my advisor Dr David Whitley who opened up the imaginative ways of reading poetry; Dr Caroline Lanskey for bolstering my first-time navigation of arts research in the prison context: the joy and ethical responsibilities of working with imprisoned young people. Also thankful to: Dr Ruth Armstrong and Dr Amy Ludlow for enabling me to witness and learn from their wholehearted and participatory prison research and education in England; to Fiona Peacock for opening up the power of embodied ways of knowing and extending empathy through a therapeutic lens; to my Wolfson College PhD mentor Dr James Westbrook for supporting my scholarly growth, and my tutor Dr Shadia Taha for her formative support when the road was bumpy. Thankful to Dr Helen Johnson and Dr Hilary Cremin for guiding me to see the core essence of my work. Thank you to my colleagues, friends near and far, all love, you know who you are. Thank you to all the poets who shared their artistic practice with me at the World Poetry Slam Cup in Paris, 2015, especially Porsha Olayiwola whose wonderful artistic creativity helped me see poetry as bearing witness to personal and collective truths. Thank you to the young men, prison staff, and artists who took part in the programme and study, it takes a community of people to see spoken word poetry manifest in powerful and life-affirming ways. Especially grateful to the two participants whose poetic courage and openness helped me see that poetry is a human endeavour and an in-credible way of being alive. Afrodita Nikolova TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract List of appendices List of tables List of figures List of boxes PART ONE: THE SEEING SENSE OF POETRY CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 5 1.1 The Story Behind the Study 6 1.1.2 Reflecting on Performing as Poet/Educator/Re-searcher 8 1.1.3 Grounding the Study: Configuring the Thesis 9 CHAPTER 2: TRACING ARTS PRACTICES IN PRISON: THE POTENTIAL OF EMERGENT SPOKEN WORD POETRIES 13 2.1 A Revitalised Movement: The Arts in the Criminal Justice System 13 2.1.1 A Tapestry of Art Forms: Collating and Discussing the Research Evidence 15 2.1.2 A Landscape of Different Arts Practices in Prison 17 2.1.3 What Matters Behinds the Scenes of Arts Practices 21 2.1.4 Policy Currents for Arts Practices 23 2.2 The Spoken Arts: Slamming and Performing Poetries 24 2.2.1 From Poetry Slam to Spoken Word Poetry 24 2.2.2 Poetry Slam: A Transnational Movement Travelling to Macedonia 26 2.2.3 Key Terminology in Poetry Slam 29 2.2.4 Slam and Spoken Word Poetry: The Academy and Creative Industry 32 2.2.5 From Youth Slams to Spoken Word Poetry Programmes 36 2.2.6 Staying with the Injuries of Poetry Slam and Spoken Word 38 2.2.7 Spoken Word Poetry Programmes in Prison: A New Practice? 39 CHAPTER 3: YOUNG OFFENDERS’ LIVES – THE POSSIBILITES OF SPOKEN WORD POETRY’S CREATIVITY IN PRISON 41 3.1 Prison Systems: Approaches to Justice and Crime 41 3.1.1 Framing Macedonian Prisons and Young Offenders 41 3.1.1.2 Resocialisation Directives: Treatment and Education 44 3.1.1.3 Macedonian Policy and National Strategy 46 3.2 Youth Justice System: Young Offenders 48 3.2.1 Portrayal of Young Offenders 49 3.2.2 Approaches in Youth Justice 50 3.2.3 Creative Lens: Narrative Criminology, Desistances, Restorative Approaches 51 3.3 Narrative Stop: The Importance of Programmes in Young Offenders’ Lives 56 PART TWO: PERFORMING ARTOGRAPHIC METHODOLOGY, METHODS, DESIGN, PROGRAMME WITH PRISON COMMUNITY CHAPTER 4: PERFORMING ARTOGRAPHIC METHODOLOGY 59 4.1 Inquiring into PERforming: Artographic Ontology and Epistemology 60 4.1.1 Visual River Journey: Poetic Being as Artographic Self 61 4.2 PERforming Ethical Artographic Practice 65 4.2.1 PERforming Relationally: Cultivating Reflexive Embodied Empathy 69 4.3 PERforming through the Arts-Based Research Paradigm 71 4.3.1 PERforming as Poet, Educator, Researcher: Emergent Feminist Positionality 74 CHAPTER 5: PERFORMING AN ARTOGRAPHIC RESEARCH DESIGN: