Shaya Ishaq

WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS

Libraries are valuable resources that serve as exceptionally crucial bridges of humanity in the context of prisons. Prison librarians and book-to-prisoner organizations facilitate a dissemination of reading materials to incarcerated people who can access the services of libraries inside. These spaces are important for many reasons, one of which is that literacy plays an important role in people’s reintegration into communities. Prison libraries have the potential to act as a container of resources meant to support the rehabilitation of prisoners. This work speaks to the flow of information within prison libraries, the labour of the custodians of those spaces, and the people who have written about their experiences inside.

Mirroring shelves connected by a bench, situated in front of a mural with the colours: orange, purple and green are front and center – loudly taking up space in the Art Gallery of Burlington’s exhibition How to Read a Vessel. The bench connecting them offers two different points of engagement as a way of acknowledging the dissemination of resources and the continuity of this solidarity between librarians, supporters, and those incarcerated. The shelf houses books and zines written by formerly incarcerated writers, poets, political prisoners, and books that are banned from being available due to censorship (one of the hurdles prison libraries face).

The design of this shelf came to life through dialogue with two very influential people with direct relationships with prison libraries. Reginald Dwayne Betts is a lawyer, poet, and founder of Freedom Reads; an organization that “harnesses the power of literature to counter what prison does to the spirit”.

The other key person was Kirsten Wurmann, a volunteer of the Prison Libraries Committee of the Manitoba Library Association. Both people illuminated the spatial realities of prison and the deeply empathic nature of working within prison libraries. In understanding the ethics of architectural design in prisons and how color can play a psychological role in space, the colours green, orange, and purple are present for intentional purposes. Green alludes to abundance in relation to prison libraries that have been historically and intentionally underfunded. In a talk called On Reading, Prison and the Million Book Project, Betts expresses that “when you aren’t incarcerated, you don’t understand what it means to not have abundance.” What does it mean to challenge the lack of access to work whose presence can change someone’s relationship to the time they are serving?

Moreover, purple, a regal color of nobility, was selected to allow reflection on how dignity matters if rehabilitation is one of the major features and purposes of prison. In 1990, the UN published the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners where it lists as a first point that, “All prisoners shall be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings.” Though it may not be something commonly thought of by the broader public in relation to prisons, it is an important idea to consider. Huey P. Newton, leader of the Black Panther Party, also speaks of the notion of dignity in his essay Prison, Where is Thy Victory? This socialist critique of America’s penal system and its inability to rehabilitate prisoners written in 1969 still holds relevant questions to this day.

Lastly, orange is a deeply energetic color that has the potential to draw us in with a sense of urgency and was used in this instance to bring attention to the systemic overrepresentation of Indigenous populations within prisons and how the legacy of the residential school system connects to the Canadian prison system. I am not trying to speak for this demographic or oversimplify this issue by choosing this color. As a Black, first generation immigrant settler, I am thinking of the ways this work can be of service in acknowledging the significance of this historic event and how it relates to the overrepresentation of Indigenous communities in prisons. It is a way of explicitly situating the topic of prisons in Canada and honoring survivors. I have immense reverence and gratitude for the work of Phyllis Webstad, the executive director and founder of the Orange Shirt Society that supports Indian Residential School Reconciliation by creating awareness around the individual, family, and community intergenerational impacts of the residential school system. The work of spreading awareness and making these connections must be done intentionally in solidarity.

I want to thank Reginald Dwayne Betts and Kirsten Wurmann for their time talking to me about this project and allowing space to think of the transformative potential of libraries within prisons. I would also like to thank Taqralik Partridge and Leelee Oluwatosi Eko Davis for thinking through the poetics and politics of color in relation to this work. I am thankful for the support of Su-Ying Lee for her assistance in the research process.