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A review by readingwithkt
Felon: Poems by Reginald Dwayne Betts
challenging
emotional
fast-paced
A fantastic collection of poetry centering majorly on the poet's experiences in prison in the USA. I thought this was a fantastic and reasonably varied in terms of style collection of poems.
My favourites were the redacted poems, as they really spoke volumes on the injustices inherent in the US criminal justice system. I also loved the poet's afterword where they describe the project that inspired the poems and the work they are doing.
The organisation is called Civil Rights Corps (CRC) and Reginald Dwayne Betts writes: "Every night, there are 450,000 human beings awaiting trial in U.S. jail cells solely because they cannot make a (bail) payment... Four poems in this collection, "In Alabama", "In Houston", "In California" and "In Missouri" were redacted from legal documents that CRC filed to challenge the incarceration of people because they could not afford to pay bail. These poems use redaction, not as a tool to obfuscate, but as a technique that reveals the tragedy, drama, and injustice of a system that makes people simply a reflection of their bank accounts."
Other bookmarked poems include: "When I Think of Tamir Rice While Driving", "If Absence Was the Source of Silence" and "Confession".
I'm glad to have been introduced to this poet and I'll definitely be reading more from them!
My favourites were the redacted poems, as they really spoke volumes on the injustices inherent in the US criminal justice system. I also loved the poet's afterword where they describe the project that inspired the poems and the work they are doing.
The organisation is called Civil Rights Corps (CRC) and Reginald Dwayne Betts writes: "Every night, there are 450,000 human beings awaiting trial in U.S. jail cells solely because they cannot make a (bail) payment... Four poems in this collection, "In Alabama", "In Houston", "In California" and "In Missouri" were redacted from legal documents that CRC filed to challenge the incarceration of people because they could not afford to pay bail. These poems use redaction, not as a tool to obfuscate, but as a technique that reveals the tragedy, drama, and injustice of a system that makes people simply a reflection of their bank accounts."
Other bookmarked poems include: "When I Think of Tamir Rice While Driving", "If Absence Was the Source of Silence" and "Confession".
I'm glad to have been introduced to this poet and I'll definitely be reading more from them!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence