Culturally, in our modern carceral state, we mostly have one story of the incarcerated, reinforced by texts and images that deal in a concrete way with who inhabits our prisons and why they are there. And those who are incarcerated have a reductive image of themselves, reinforced by labels and the very environment into which they are confined.
Dr. Bruce Levitt's talk explores the way a single story traps the incarcerated individual in a traumatic environment while at the same time, that same story is employed to reinforce the necessity of the carceral state in the public’s mind. Through a very brief gesture to the ontology of space and our reliance on “concrete knowledge” that limits our perceptions, this talk takes a deeper dive into storytelling, transformation and the Phoenix Players Theatre Group at Auburn Correction facility, and, by so doing, suggests ways and methods to create alternative stories about prisons and those who are confined in them. Finally, the talk makes the claim that artistic practices in prisons are fundamental to altering the narrative that most incarcerated individuals internalize during their incarceration.
A professor in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University since 1986, Dr. Levitt has had a distinguished career as a freelance director in New York and regionally. He teaches classes on the carceral system, including Cages and Creativity: The Arts in Incarceration and Prison Theatre. His other courses include a seminar on Hamlet, a Shakespeare survey course: Shakespeare in (Con)text and a course on stand-up comedy: Funny business; the Political, Social & Cultural Importance of Stand-up Comedy. In addition, he has taught various levels of acting classes, solo performance, directing, and new script development. He is one of the faculty coordinators for the Cornell Justice, Education, and Prison (CJEP) minor housed in the Government Department.
