Poetry Jan 12 Poet Reginald Dwayne Betts on America’s ‘lost generation’ Reginald Dwayne Betts grew up an honor student with hopes for college, but went to prison at 16 for carjacking, his first run-in with the law. Reading, and poetry in particular, became a comfort and gave him a new identity. By artsdesk
Poetry Jan 11 This Chicago program connects incarcerated youth to poetry Free Write Jail Arts and Literacy aims to help troubled youths in Chicago’s Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center address their personal issues by writing poetry about their circumstances and upbringing. Jeffrey Brown talks with poet Reginald Dwayne Betts, who… By artsdesk
Poetry Jan 11 Poet Reginald Dwayne Betts returns to the city that nearly broke him Betts' new book touches on the way he believes institutions -- schools, the police, the judicial system -- helped create a lost generation of young black men. By Frank Carlson