In 2017, the state of Arkansas executed four people over a period of eight days. They were the first to receive capital punishment in Arkansas in over a decade, and their executions renewed a national debate over the role the death penalty plays in our society.
Two of them had participated in a creative writing and storytelling class led by the Prison Story Project for men on death row at Varner, a SuperMax Prison in the Arkansas Delta. Their stories are among those that became a scripted performance titled On the Row, a powerful exploration of the lives of prisoners before and after their convictions. Initial performances of On the Row in and around the prison have created a rare bridge for the accounts of those inside to reach the outside world.
As the Prison Story Project’s Educational Advocacy Director and Writer-in-Residence, Geffrey Davis will use the Fellowship to bring On the Row to six Arkansas counties that are home to major prisons or have otherwise been deeply affected by the realities of mass incarceration. At each stop on the tour, the Prison Story Project will stage readings for students during the day and for the general public in the evening. Performances will be followed by rich discussions, giving audiences—many of whom have had their own direct and varied experiences with the prison system—an opportunity to consider difficult questions surrounding incarceration, criminality, and capital punishment. By harnessing the power of storytelling, On the Row will bring communities together to consider how the criminal justice system affects individuals and society on a human level.
Geffrey Davis is an assistant professor of English at the University of Arkansas. An accomplished poet, he is the author of the collections Night Angler and Revising the Storm. Davis’s honors include the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, and fellowships from Bread Loaf and Cave Canem. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, PBS NewsHour, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. A graduate of Oregon State University and Penn State University, Davis also teaches with the Rainier Writing Workshop, Pacific Lutheran’s low-residency MFA program, and serves as poetry editor for Iron Horse Literary Review.
Project: On the Row: The Prison Story Project
