Since 2013, Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and host of The Chris Hedges Report, has taught college courses in drama, literature, philosophy, and history at East Jersey State Prison (aka “Rahwayâ€) and other New Jersey prisons. In one such course, after reading plays by Amiri Baraka and August Wilson, among others, Hedges’ students wrote a play of their own. The play, ”Caged,” would eventually be published and performed at The Passage Theatre in Trenton, New Jersey, for a month-long run in 2018 to sold-out audiences. In his latest book, “Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison,” Hedges chronicles the journey he and his class embarked on together. Joining Mansa Musa on Rattling the Bars, Hedges speaks about his book and the transformations he witnessed among the men he taught behind prison walls.
Chris Hedges is the former Middle East bureau chief of The New York Times, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and a columnist at ScheerPost. He formerly hosted the program Days of Revolt, produced by TRNN, and currently hosts The Chris Hedges Report. Hedges is the author of several books, including “America: The Farewell Tour”; “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America,” and “Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison.”
Read the transcript of this video: https://therealnews.com/chris-hedges-on-trauma-and-teaching-writing-in-prison
Pre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
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What a shocking world we live in !!!!! Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Did he say he was locked up 48 years? https://youtu.be/PPr0GSe2zhc?t=235
Incredible production. Thanks for bringing Mr. Hedges in. He Is an incredible human being with a heart of gold.
The questions you asked were very balanced. I have learnt a lot about life behind bars in America and how a little kindness and mentoring can make it that much more bearable.
I love Chris hedges! He’s inspired me to take up similar work…⤠that and he’s turned me from atheist. First person in 37 years!
Teaching in a prison – that is a high calling.
Excellent interview Mr Musa, excellent interview skills.
"Prisons are present-day plantations."
U don't have to be behind bars to feel the way prisoners do. The bars and barriers are making us all inmates of somebody's reality.
Chris Edges spoke well of the Muslim prisoners. Muslim prisoners had a conscious, and were political prisoners.
The Bible does not prescribe prison as a punishment for any crime. In a nutshell, the penalties prescribed for crimes in The Torah are either restitution or death, depending upon the crime. I have written a more in depth article on the subject. If you are interested, reply to this message with your email address, and I can send it to you, Yah willing.
A lawyer left with my brother's wife in the middle of the night with my brother's son. My brother sent a message and the lawyer got a court order for no more messages. My brother sent another and the lawyer put him in jail for 6 months (waiting at the jail smiling at him….the lawyer knew that my brother would message since the lawyer had his son, so it was a set up), then the lawyer took his money. My brother did not do drugs (he was a nurse and was tested) but he sent out a message to his son with his will, and then he died of a morphine overdose. Lawyers use the courts to hustle money. A WVU professor taught a class about how most cases are decided by lawyers.
Holy sht. It's absolutely incredible that Chris Hedges was able to elicit these kinds of accounts from his prison students.
Mansa Musa crushed this interview. Looking forward to more work from him.
Excellent interview. It's very good, as well as essential, to have this kind of information.
Excellent interview. Not easy to see the subject matters through the context of the prison system unless one has been in it.
The prison system and crime laws promoted by Joe Biden are a National Shame. This system was designed to separate families and promote criminals who would have a lifetime of inability to find good work because of their records. Their is also a poor rehabilitation environment within most prison systems, as each prison has some differance. Their mite be a good model of a prison, yet we cannot actually identify one only the outcomes one would produce.
An amazing interview.
I love you Chris Hedges and all you say & do. Thank you Mansa Musa for your perceptive thoughts and questions.
I loved "The Wire". I have to admit, I can't imagine Chris Hedges watching it, or any TV for that matter. Too funny!!!
I read that play "Caged" a couple of years ago. It was very good. Much better than I was expecting. Such a sad story, but a very important story and play. I highly recommend everyone read it.
Mr. Hedges goes directly to the defining features of the U.S. It's really nice that he can account for the humanity in one of the most systematically inhumane systems.
Of course they need to silence Chris Hedges. He’s legitimate.
Omg, Mansa Musa, this was an incredible interview 🙌 👠I appreciate you. Thank you
How about doing a story on how an American company like YouTube censors the public in the comments section of every video? Where's the outrage of corporations not allowing us to speak the truth? I thought freedom of speech was an American value, when did that change? When do we hold the faceless authoritarians in Silicon Valley accountable?
We LIVE in a HEDONIST Society that values SELF over every form Humane Societal agreement and to include WORLD ENDING for the fun of being in Last Place before your last breath.
People love to blame Narcissism, because it takes the FOCUS off of the Wealthy/Corp from taking blame by POINTING FINGERS at results of the System they take no credit for creating.
🔥ðŸ‘ðŸ‘
Extremely important Chris is to get students to write about trauma, real experiences. It is for most of us therapy , a breakthrough of communication of trauma. Again, thank you for being the example for all of is, a man with a moral compass. PLEASE RUN FOR PRESIDENT. (CHUCKLES) It is a dream for many of us. THANK YOU.â¤ï¸