Ask Tommy Trantino to describe himself, and he may simply respond, “endless.” Ask him the same question on another day, and the answer will be different. For Trantino, it’s complicated. Officially, he writes, draws, and paints. But he also loves to make people laugh, and his mission is to do as much good as possible. Incarcerated for nearly 40 years in New Jersey, the New York City native was placed on death row in 1963 before his sentence was commuted to life once the death penalty became illegal in the early 1970s. During those years in Trenton State Prison’s Death House, Trantino was inspired to start painting, and eventually found his way to writing. Among several attempts to get him released, his supporters collected some of his work for a book, published by Knopf in 1974 as Lock the Lock. Long out of print, Lock the Lock is a constellation of Trantino’s artistry, but it is also an introduction for how he experienced the world on death row. Nearly half a century later, the same rings true. Trantino’s zest for life and goodwill guides his creative process much in the same way that his defiance and activism led him to survive incarceration.

In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, Jess Abolafia, program assistant, and Malcolm Tariq, senior manager of editorial projects—both of PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program—speak with Trantino about his time organizing inside prison, how he started making art, and the production of Lock the Lock. In her accompanying introduction to the podcast, Abolafia gives more context on Trantino’s background and describes how their first meeting led to an ongoing creative partnership.

A few years ago, Tracy D. Schlapp and Danny J. Wilson were inspired by Johnny Cash’s album, At Folsom Prison (1968), to stage concerts of Cash's music in prisons around Oregon. Schlapp and Wilson's performances blossomed into Bridgeworks Oregon, a Portland-based nonprofit with the mission of using art, music and cultural awareness to bridge societal divisions throughout the state. In May 2019, the organization assembled a storytelling group, Ground Beneath Us, at Oregon State Penitentiary. The group of men wrote about life inside by responding to questions posed by local middle and high school students. The work from those writing sessions grew into the recently released anthology, Prisons Have a Long Memory: Life Inside Oregon’s Oldest Prison, featuring poetry, essays, and memoir.

In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, Moira Marquis, senior manager of the Freewrite Project for PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program, asks Schlapp and Wilson about the history of Bridgeworks Oregon, their experiences learning how to advocate for incarcerated people, and their process for working between the walls for the anthology. In her accompanying review of the book, Marquis reflects on the intensity of the collected pieces, and the importance of providing reflective spaces that acknowledge and engage the emotional tolls of life for people who are denied so many rights in the carceral system in the United States.

For over 50 years, the Southern California Library has made history a practice. Housing an extensive collection of histories of community resistance in Los Angeles and beyond, the library also serves as a community organization. Though he grew up not too far from the library, anthropologist Damien M. Sojoyner only learned it existed as an adult. When asked to help develop programs and teach a summer course for youth in the area, Sojoyner met Marley, a high school student whose vocal opinions caught the ethnographer’s attention. Through Marley, Sojoyner learned and observed how Marley and the young people in the area were caring for their community, resisting policing and patrolling of their neighborhood, and confronting the injustices of the criminal justice system. Sojoyner’s recent book, Joy and Pain: A Story of Black Life and Liberation in Five Albums (University of California Press, 2022), documents Damien’s conversations with Marley across five “albums” centered on housing, education, health care, social services, and juvenile detention. In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, Malcolm Tariq, senior manager of editorial projects for PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing, asks Sojoyner about his approach to ethnography, the ethics of constructing someone else’s narratives, and the history of resistance in gang culture.

The New York Women's House of Detention was a fixture of Greenwich Village from 1932 to 1974. For public historian Hugh Ryan, its position as a cultural center is proof that jails and prisons were not always peripheral to the development of communities in the United States. In fact, they were sometimes considered in the urban planning of cities and neighborhoods. Ryan discovered the Women's House of Detention (also known as The House of D) on a walking tour, where he also learned of its unfamiliar history as a queer landmark. His curiosity unearthed a plethora of evidence verifying this claim, largely drawn from social worker documentation of the queer experiences of justice-involved youth and working-class people throughout the twentieth century.

In his recent book, The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison (Bold Type Books, 2022), Ryan asserts: "The House of D helped make Greenwich Village queer, and the Village, in return, helped define queerness for America. No other prison has played such a significant role in our history, particularly for working-class women and transmasculine people." Ryan also demonstrates how people housed at the institution, such as notable activists Angela Davis and Afeni Shakur, informed each other about the intersections of Black and queer liberation movements.

In this episode, Malcolm Tariq, senior manager of editorial projects for PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing, asks Ryan about being a student of abolition, the ethics of constructing narratives from archives, and how people in the House of Detention participated in the resistance efforts at nearby Stonewall in 1969.

Hugh Ryan is a writer and curator, and most recently, the author of The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison, which New York Magazine called one of the best books of 2022. His first book, When Brooklyn Was Queer, won a 2020 New York City Book Award, was a New York Times Editors' Choice in 2019, and was a finalist for the Randy Shilts and Lambda Literary Awards. He was honored with the 2020 Allan Berube Prize from the American Historical Association. Since 2019, he has worked with the NYC Dept. of Education to develop LGBTQ+ inclusive educational materials and trainings.

Malcolm Tariq is a poet and playwright from Savannah, Georgia. He is the author of Heed the Hollow (Graywolf, 2020), winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and the 2020 Georgia Author of the Year Award in Poetry, and Extended Play (Gertrude Press, 2017). He was a 2016-2017 playwriting apprentice at Horizon Theatre Company and a 2020-2021 resident playwright with Liberation Theatre Company. A graduate of Emory University, Malcolm holds a PhD in English from the University of Michigan. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he is the senior manager of editorial projects for Prison and Justice Writing at PEN America.

In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, Malcolm Tariq, senior manager of editorial projects for PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing, speaks with Celes Tisdale about the recent reissue of his anthology, When the Smoke Cleared: Attica Prison Poems and Journal (Duke University Press, 2022), originally published as Betcha' Ain't: Attica Poems (Broadside Press, 1974). Tisdale talks about his approach to teaching poetry, the process of editing the volume, and the importance of remembering the 1971 uprising through poems. He 1also shares gems of his life as a stage actor and television host, including a heartwarming story on meeting Muhammad Ali.

With When They Tell You To Be Good (Tin House, 2022), Prince Shakur delivers a political coming of age memoir on growing up as a queer child in a Jamaican family, and his development as a radical organizer, traveler, and writer. As he spends pivotal years in his twenties traveling and participating in movements such as Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock, Shakur carries the experiences of growing up with a father murdered early in his life, and an incarcerated stepfather. In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, Nicole Shawan Junior, deputy director of PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing, speaks with Shakur about the process of writing and editing his book, outlaw masculinity, and how incarceration interrupts family dynamics.

In The Life Inside: A Memoir of Prison, Family and Philosophy (Picador, 2022), Andy West writes about his experiences teaching philosophy in prisons in the United Kingdom. A touching memoir of hope and healing, The Life Inside chronicles how West asks his students challenging questions about life that also get him to reconsider the deep-seeded traumas and guilt he's been carrying for years. In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, PEN America Postgraduate Fellow Sophia Ramirez talks with West about incarceration in the UK, what led him to write the book, and his approach to writing about and for people who are incarcerated.

In Bending the Arc: My Journey from Prison to Politics (Seal Books, 2021), Keeda J. Haynes pulls back the veil on what happens in the criminal legal system. In a series of events, Haynes went from working as a correctional officer in a local jail to serving time in federal prison for a crime she did not commit. Having later completed law school and served as a public defender, Haynes has the unique perspective of experiencing the system from several personal viewpoints, including that of running for Congress. In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, PEN America Postgraduate Fellow Emma Stammen talks with Haynes about what inspired her to share this compelling story, working in the legal system after her incarceration, and the experience of revisiting her time in prison 18 years later.

Marlon Peterson’s Bird Uncaged: An Abolitionist’s Freedom Song (Bold Type Books, 2021) is a poignant look at what it means to transform one’s life by taking accountability. Tracing Peterson’s life from his childhood in Brooklyn to his journey to becoming a writer after 10 years of incarceration, the memoir grapples with the devastating impacts of interpersonal and systemic violence. At its core, the book is one of vulnerability, love, and hope.

PEN America Postgraduate Fellow Emma Stammen talks with Peterson about what inspired him to write, and how his understanding of abolition transcends the physical prison space.

PEN America Prison and Justice Writing Postgraduate Fellow Sophia Ramirez interviews legal scholar, sociologist, and social justice advocate Dorothy E. Roberts about her new book, Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World, which peels back the benevolent façade of the child welfare system, revealing the cruel and oppressive structures within. Roberts calls for the abolition of the system, advocating for community-based responses. Ramirez and Roberts discuss the child welfare system’s racist origins, carceral logic, and the destruction it deals to Black families and minority communities.