David Sher’s ComebackTown speaks for the people of Birmingham and Alabama.

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Today’s guest columnist is Jennifer L. Greer.

Think about the worst thing you have ever done. Does it define you?

Do not. And it doesn't define Daoud Boone, a military veterinarian, college drama major, aspiring poet/playwright, and an Alabama man sentenced to life imprisonment-without parole.

In the prison, they called it "no life," Boone told me truthfully through an electronic tablet at the Limestone Correctional Institution.

"But it doesn't matter if they tell someone he can't fly," he added. "Because it does not depend on them. It is his choice."

fly? Of course, Boone is comparing freedom, not flying in a jet plane.

Nevertheless, I still cannot imagine how a 39-year-old proud black man would feel remotely free after 14 years in the Alabama prison system, which has been under federal scrutiny for 50 years and is currently facing cruel and inhumane charges from the U.S. Department of Justice. conditions of.

I said that whatever he did-or didn't do-was to get there.

The only way to be free

But I understand now, because I read Boone's timely new play "Men's Training", in which he introduced the concept of flying to symbolize all the potential a person has, anyone, as long as he/she/they believe in themselves.

"Writing is a therapy for me, a coping tool, and the only way for me to truly gain freedom," Boone said, adding that he took a creative writing course in prison and is now handwriting in a spiral notebook.

On November 29th, a class at Birmingham Southern College (BSC) will perform his sad, funny and provocative unpublished drama in a stage reading in a course called "The Theater’s Call to Action." This reading is part of the groundbreaking exhibition "Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration" held by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Abroms-Engel School of Visual Arts (AEIVA). The exhibition will last until 12. On the 11th.

Like other works in "Marking Time," Boone's drama is significant because it witnesses the systematic violence and racism of prison life. But more urgently, "men's training" proves the vitality of those who choose to grow and thrive there, even though the modern prison state invests more in punishment than rehabilitation.

Alan Litsey, BSC writer, playwright and chair/professor of the Department of Drama, said: “'Men Training' is a wonderful, interesting and thought-provoking journey through the world of imprisonment that presents a very realistic experience to our culture. To challenge, he created the "Theatre's Call to Action" course.

"It eliminates the typical stereotypes of the incarcerated. The play looks at how we define who we are from the inside and survive in the culture of the institution, and the central character shapes how to overcome obstacles in life to become the most we can be. good person."

One choice: degradation or growth?

Boone writes for himself and other people in prison. "We have crazy time here. We are either encouraged to degenerate or grow and change. Most of the people I know who change are done by themselves. Most of the rehabilitation centers are gone. It sounds crazy, but this is what Reality."

Litsey met Boone through Hoover's Pat VanderMeer, who runs a book club in prison and helps inmates write newsletters about prison life. Before the pandemic, the retired magazine director Van der Meer worked as a volunteer at Donaldson Correctional Institution in Bessemer, where Boone was detained. "One day, he gave me this manuscript and said'whatever you want,'" she recalled.

Impressed by the show, Van der Meer established a connection with the art and criminal justice reform community in Birmingham. Eventually, she established contact with John Fields, senior director of AEVIA, who believed it had a place in "Marking Time", and BSC's Litsey, who thought it was suitable for his service learning drama course.

"Man's Training" is a single-act play with 9 short scenes and 32 characters. It tells the story of an 18-year-old young black Trayvon who was sentenced to "life imprisonment" for crimes committed by a teenager. He grew up in a group of lively prisoners, full of temptation and wisdom. Like Trayvon, several are named after the black male shooting victims of the past decade, even though their roles are unique.

"After shooting a black man for the third or fourth time, I discussed the matter with these people and decided that I had to make a work about what was happening and how we thought about it," Boone recalled. A central theme of the play involves double standards in criminal justice, such as powerful politicians who "take a tough attitude towards crime" but demand leniency when they break the law.

BSC students not only study Boone's drama, they are also immersed in the theme of mass incarceration in the United States, where more people are imprisoned than any other country in the world. This semester they read works like Michel Alexander's "New Jim Crow: Mass Imprisonment in the Age of Color Blindness".

For stage performances, Gia Warren, a junior who majored in art production and performance, chose one of three co-directing jobs, which involved multiple phone conversations with Boone on how to best present the show. "We are very happy to support his work and we want to respect his vision," she said, emphasizing that she and her peers are both learners and collaborators.

Warren said she was attracted to "male training" because she thought it raised some key issues, including the loss of empathy and humanity. "Putting people in a box and taking away their identities is so simple, and soon you will forget that they are real people."

This fall, when Alabama politicians prepare to spend billions of dollars to expand rather than reform our state’s broken prison system, I wonder: Can art inform politics?

Yes, because artists will ask different questions. Are we a moral society? Should non-violent prisoners, including the elderly, be forced to die in prison? Is solitary confinement torture? Do teenagers, addicts and mental patients really belong to prison?

So, don't tell someone like Daoud Boone that he can't fly.

Jennifer L. Greer is a freelance journalist and retired university lecturer living in Birmingham, Alabama. area.

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David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown. He was the chairperson of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), the New Birmingham Initiative (REV Birmingham) and the Urban Action Partnership (CAP).

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