Spit and Spaghetti #13

[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!

Melanie Faith

Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.

Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.

The Society of Professional Journalists

In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.

I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.

Maxine Greene

Philosopher and Education Scholar

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Pitches from Wind and Wall

BMI — Kluge Fellowship

“Artists and scientists are activists. They look at the world as changeable and they look upon themselves as instruments for change. They understand that the slice of world they occupy is only a fragment but that the fragment is intrinsically connected to the whole. They know that action matters.” ― Anne Bogart, What’s the Story: Essays About Art, Theater and Storytelling

I currently live across the street from a renovated brick factory in Atlanta. The original owner of the brick factory, B. Mifflin Hood, led the fight against convict leasing in Georgia in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This project will define and analyze convict leasing, explore the struggle to end the practice, and discuss its relationship to current public funding of private prisons — which includes significant investments in prison labor. At heart, this project examines the ways in which the lessons of past progress can inform and guide current social justice work.

This project will utilize a breadth of research methods to explore the life of B. Mifflin Hood. It will draw from history, sociology, law, philosophy, and political science. It will look closely at convict leasing and the struggle to end the practice. It will discuss convict leasing’s relationship to current public funding of prison labor. It will analyze today’s prison labor situation and offer a path forward based on past legal, political, and social progress through Hood’s example. It will offer a story — going forward — of history’s relevance to our current circumstance, of leadership toward social justice, and of humanity and moral clarity during difficult times.

Bread the entire BMI—Kluge Fellowship proposal here

Research Revival Fund

Describe your project in one sentence, in your own language.

This case study of B. Mifflin Hood will explore the historical, political, and cultural implications convict leasing.

Describe your project in one sentence, for those who don’t share your expertise, cultural background, or interests.

This project will investigate convict leasing and discuss its relationship to prison labor today through the story of B. Mifflin Hood.

What research are you reviving?

I am building upon the extensive research on the 19th and 20th century South (including post- Reconstruction, Progressivism, and the Civil Rights Movement), the legal journey from the 13th Amendment to today, and the relationship between slavery, convict leasing, and prison labor. The work will introduce B. Mifflin Hood (which can be understood as a case study of the complexity and possibility of social progress) to a wider audience.

Read the entire Research Revival Fund Proposal here.

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