Shakespeare and Juvenile Justice
This innovative and intrepid program, now in its tenth year, sends our TSC teaching-artists into residence with incarcerated youth in Shelby County facilities. We are currently serving the juveniles at the Youth Justice and Education Center, and we have previously served youths at Jail East, The Hope Academy at Shelby County Juvenile Detention Center, and 201 Poplar. We have served over 650 youths, many of whom were awaiting trial for serious adult crimes and are facing the very real possibility of long imprisonment. Students are invited to use Shakespeare as a means to express themselves. Annually, we record participants’ boosts in literacy, kindness, generosity, a blossoming hope for life outside of prison, and a genuine love for Shakespeare’s stories.
TSC instructors are consistent with the program for the entire year, giving the teenagers a familiar presence of adults who are creative, supportive, and who anticipate their eventual freedom and re-integration.
Poetic Justice
For the third year, we served youths incarcerated at Shelby County detention centers with a four-week summer program titled Poetic Justice funded, in part, by the Tennessee Arts Commission. A collaborative effort between TSC and Shelby County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), Poetic Justice seeks to help juveniles find their voices and express themselves through poetry, and provide them with an opportunity to process their emotions and connect meaningfully with their peers.
Our hope is that the Summer Camp offers its young participants an alternative experience with poetry: one that is encouraging and accessible, embracing freedom and self-reflection.
For most of the participants, Poetic Justice is the only programming they received during the summer. Poetic Justice, in part, owes its thanks to a six-year relationship that we have cultivated with staff and administrators at both Jail East and Memphis’ Juvenile Court.
Due to anonymity concerns for these minors, they were not permitted to perform their works publicly. Participants shared their works and performed in front of their peers, TSC staff, and SCSO staff at a private reading. Their poetry was collected into a literary chapbook to allow their words to be read and their efforts to be witnessed within the community, while maintaining anonymity. The poets chose their own pen names and selected which pieces to include in the chapbook.
You can read Poetic Justice 2024: Works by Incarcerated Youth in Memphis below!
You can listen to the recording of the work written by the 2023 Poetic Justice participants here and you can see the work of the 2022 participants performed here.
For more information about these programs, or to find out how you can support them, contact Sarah Hankins; sarahhankins@tnshakespeare.org, (901) 759-0604.