Judith Tannenbaum currently serves as training coordinator for WritersCorps in San Francisco. Tannenbaum has taught poetry in a wide variety of settings from primary school classrooms to maximum security prisons. Spoon Jackson is a poet serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in California state prisons. It was through Judith Tannenbalum’s poetry classes in San Quentin State Prison that Spoon discovered the power of words. In addition to his own extensive list of published work, Spoon co-authored a double memoir with Judith, By Heart: Poetry, Prison, and Two Lives.
""Like all good books, By Heart disrupts our assumptions, causes us
to question our preconceptions, and reminds us of a commonly held
humanity that is always the subject of Art, the engine of Love and
should be the only authority of Justice.""
*The Examiner*
""When two poets write a memoir, it has a vividness, substantiality
and eloquence that set it apart. Unlike many contemporary memoirs
which focus on a capital P Problem, "By Heart" includes the
authors' suffering without trying to market it or glamorize it.
Much of "By Heart" is about the way that writers become writers.
Although their backgrounds and life circumstances are immensely
different, both Judith and Spoon are observant, solitary, attentive
to nature and its lack.""
*Head Butler*
""By Heart is a moving encounter between freedom and prison, art,
beauty and desolation, silence and voice ... It is passionate and
tender, raw and realistic ... It is a love story but not love
between people; it is about love for ourselves and our humanity.
This is a book that I would wish for every educator to read.""
*The Book Nook*
""There's a crooked symmetry in this remarkable book: poetry and
teaching rescued Tannenbaum, and prison provided her with the
lifeline of a writing community; poetry also awakened Jackson, but
for him it was a counterforce to prison's destructive power.""
*emerita professor of literature at the College of Purchase, State
University of New York, former chair of the PEN Prison Writing
Program*
""A boy with no one to listen becomes a man in prison for life and
discovers his mind can be free. A woman enters prison to teach and
becomes his first listener. And so begins a twenty-five year
friendship between two gifted writers and poets. The result is By
Heart a book that will anger you, give you hope, and break your
heart.""
*Gloria Steinem*
""A remarkable memoir of two powerful personalities brought
together through poetry and prison. Through Judith's genuineness a
poet awoke and found a way to live a fuller life in spite of
confinement, and through Spoon's honesty and talent many people
will be compelled to contribute to society, even if society has
abandoned them.""
*Library Media Specialist, York Correctional Institution, Niantic,
CT*
""In their remarkable memoir, Spoon Jackson and Judith Tannenbaum
show us how words change lives, how poetry invites you to free your
mind, even in a maximum security prison. By Heart is their
profoundly inspirational story, an engaging and enlightening
examination of two people thrown together in a dark place and how
both journey through darkness and into the light.""
*author of Wilderness and Razor Wire: A Naturalist's Observations
from Prison and other books*
""By Heart is... a fascinating glimpse into a world that is mostly
forgotten by those outside of it.""
*Booksexy Review*
""A portrait of prison and of the pursuit of art. An amazing combo,
a compelling read. . . years later, acting in [Waiting for] Godot
on Broadway, I see how much the San Quentin production has meant to
my view of the play.""
*TONY winning actor, appeared in the Broadway revival of Waiting
for Godot*
""This is a book about poetry, about struggle, about freedom and
incarceration, and most of all about heart. It is a wonderful
read.""
*San Francisco Poet Laureate 2002-2005*
""The collaboration between Judith Tannenbaum and Spoon Jackson
continues the path to freedom through art. By Heart is so
beautifully described, both objectively and emotionally.""
*Publisher/Editor of Grove Press 1951-1985*
""Politics don't work, religion is a bit too eclectic, but ART is
the parachute that could catch and hold us all!""
*Founder/Artistic Director of the Medea Project: Theatre for
Incarcerated Women*
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