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The poetry world is currently in an uproar over the Feb issue of @poetrymagazine, “The Practice of Freedom,” which is devoted to the work of currently & formerly incarcerated people, their families, & those adjacent to the carceral state. Why is everyone so mad? https://twitter.com/poetrymagazine/status/1356269014713065479
The editors of @poetrymagazine chose to include a poem by Kirk Nesset, who was recently released after serving 6 years in prison for possession & distribution of child pornography. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/155232/one-place-is-as-good-as-the-next
Nesset was in possession of over half a million images of child porn, including images of infant-rape. He stored & shared these images online. There's no evidence he himself produced any child porn or directly molested or raped any children. https://alleghenycampus.com/19000/news/former-professor-kirk-nesset-released-from-federal-prison-after-2015-child-pornography-charges/
He has been accused, but never charged or convicted, of attempted rape of a freshman college student. If true, he has not been held accountable for this. https://twitter.com/seeliepunk/status/1356461463360008192
But for his crime of possessing & distributing child porn - indirectly contributing to & incentivizing the abuse perpetrated by those who took the photos & videos - he served just over 6 years, & now has a lifetime on the sex-offender registry.
A lifetime on the registry is a BIG DEAL. He must report to sex-offender & mental health therapy, his computer usage is monitored, & he’s not permitted to be around children. It will be extremely hard for him to find a place to live, to have a job, to have a healthy social group.
Nesset will live the rest of his life under these draconian restrictions. But the state of Pennsylvania did not sentence him to a lifetime of “not having his poetry published.” The same is true of the many other incarcerated people featured in @poetrymagazine’s Feb issue.
The issue features people guilty of all manner of crimes - including murder. I’m not going to pass judgment here on whether possession of child porn is worse than murder, or whether platforming a murderer through poetry is unconscionable. That’s not the point.
The Feb issue is not about the crimes these poets committed or their victims. It isn't a platform for the guilty to atone for their sins or bear witness to systemic injustices. It is simply & profoundly a space for people whose humanity has been erased to express their humanity.
There are those who say that there are incarcerated voices that are more worthy than Nesset’s to publish, people caught up in the criminal justice system due to systemic racism, grappling with their remorse. In other words, the RIGHT incarcerated people.
But trying to choose the RIGHT incarcerated people - passing further judgment, handing down further sanctions beyond what the state has already done - defeats the powerful & humanizing purpose of the Feb issue.
If the Feb issue of @poetrymagazine is about anything, it’s about allowing people who are guilty of grave wrongs to not be solely and exclusively defined by their crimes. & it’s about us sitting uncomfortably with the humanity of those we feel the impulse to dehumanize.
Publishing their poems & acknowledging their humanity doesn’t erase their crimes, their victims, their accountability, or their punishment. All it does is force us to acknowledge that everyone is more than the worst thing they’ve ever done.
This is something I learned the hard way while forced to share a prison cell with women who had murdered their children. To survive those four years, I had to get along & form social relationships. I played cards, braided hair, & shared stories.
They had done HORRIBLE things - some they were held accountable for & some they were not. They were also often broken people grappling with PTSD, mental illness, & addiction. But they still had feelings, experiences, & human struggles worth expressing & worth hearing.
I wouldn’t wish you to have my experience, being trapped in a cell with such people. But I do hope you can internalize the lesson I learned the hard way. Maybe an issue of @poetrymagazine can start you on that path.
Or listen to what poet @DwayneBetts has to say on this topic. https://twitter.com/dwaynebetts/status/1356822408859185152
Incidentally, I interviewed him a while back for @crimestorymedia about poetry & incarceration. https://crimestory.com/2020/07/20/interview-reginald-dwayne-betts-poet-memoirist-attorney-and-formerly-incarcerated-with-amanda-knox/
