And the way that came up and it wasn’t unique to Shakespeare, it was just any kind of work with maximum-security prisoners at the time. ![]() But when you started in the prisons, you just taught basic literacy to first-time offenders, and you say that back then, you thought that Shakespeare shouldn’t be taught to prisoners in maximum security prisons, that they were beyond rehabilitation.īOGAEV: So why did you end up working with men in solitary confinement? Why take that on?īATES: Okay, well, partly because of that challenging of my own thought and my own belief. And there’s a second reason, I think, that is within the works themselves: That they lend themselves to such open interpretation, where the prisoners, and any readers, really, can relate their own lives to these marvelous characters of Shakespeare.īOGAEV: And these all, you came to believe as you did the work. And that also resonates very much with their peers, and their family members, and even with the prison administration. LAURA BATES: Absolutely, key question-for a number of reasons, why Shakespeare? One of them is that we recognize, and your listeners recognize, and prisoners recognize, that Shakespeare is one of the ultimate works of literature, and they recognize a great, great sense of challenge when they take it on, and a great sense of personal accomplishment when they recognize that they are able to master the master of literature. ![]() So before I ask you how you got into this work, why don’t we talk about that? Why Shakespeare? Why not Hemingway, or the Autobiography of Malcolm X, or Doris Lessing, or The Picture of Dorian Gray? We call this podcast, “How I May Compare This Prison Where I Live Unto the World.” Laura Bates is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev.īARBARA BOGAEV: You know, quite a few people teach in prison, so I was thinking that we wouldn’t be having this conversation on this podcast, if you hadn’t decided to teach Shakespeare to offenders, as opposed to all of the other possible subjects. We brought Professor Bates in to talk about what she taught and what she learned in this most unusual of classrooms. She wrote about her experiences in a book titled Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard. These are, for the most part, prisoners considered so dangerous they were kept apart, even from other prisoners.Įvery week, Professor Bates would drive out to the prison, make her way over to solitary confinement, and sit down between the cells of these men to discuss Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, and Richard II. Beginning in 2003, Laura Bates put that theory to a vigorous test.įor 10 years, Bates, a professor at Indiana State University, taught Shakespeare to a group of inmates considered “the worst of the worst”: men incarcerated in the solitary confinement unit at Indiana’s Wabash Valley correctional facility. We talk a lot about Shakespeare’s huge appeal, how practically anyone can appreciate and draw lessons from his writing, whatever their life situation. I’m Michael Witmore, the Folger’s director. MICHAEL WITMORE: From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. Previous: Anecdotal Shakespeare | Next: Shakespeare in Sign Language We had additional help from Mike Paskash and Casey Zakin at WFIU, Indiana Public Media and Bill Lancz at Marketplace Studios in Los Angeles. Audio of the inmates Laura worked with was provided by Indiana State’s Video Production Manager, Tracy Ford. ![]() It was edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. ![]() All rights reserved. This episode, “How I May Compare This Prison Where I Live Unto the World,” was produced by Richard Paul. Listen on iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, or NPR One.įrom the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Laura Bates is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. These are, for the most part, prisoners considered so dangerous they were kept apart, even from the other prisoners.Įvery week, Professor Bates would drive out to the prison, make her way over to solitary confinement and sit down in a space in between the cells of these men to discuss Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello and Richard II. For ten years, Laura Bates, a professor at Indiana State University, taught Shakespeare to a group of inmates considered the “worst of the worst” – men incarcerated in the solitary confinement unit at Indiana’s Wabash Valley Correctional Facility.
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