Kyes Stevens went from her tiny hometown in Alabama to Sarah Lawrence College in New York. For a lot of people it might have been a springboard to a bigger world. But Stevens ended up going back home and making her own world bigger.
Back in 2002 she started teaching poetry to inmates at a state prison, and from that small start she has built the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project, where more than 175 faculty members have provided education to more than 5,000 prisoners across the state. Her guiding principle is simple: No human being should be thrown away.
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Show notes:
- The Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project
- A piece Kyes wrote for the NEA
- Her work in a comic, as created by NPR last year
- Links to some of her poems
Other music in this episode:
First Rebirth, "Prisoner of Infinity"
Additional music courtesty of bensound.com
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SouthBound is a production of WFAE. Our host is Tommy Tomlinson. Our producer is Nick de la Canal. Our audience engagement manager is Joni Deutsch, and our main theme comes from Josh Turner.