Reading, writing and redemption

One in four Australians will be touched by the criminal justice system in their lifetime, whether as an offender, a victim, or a family member. But what if education, specifically the arts and humanities, could break the cycle?

For over a decade, Jedidiah Evans has run workshops in NSW prisons, bringing poetry, philosophy, and creative writing to incarcerated men and women. His research shows that meaningful education builds communities on the inside and networks on the outside. And crucially, it reduces the likelihood of people returning. This is restorative justice in action, one poem at a time.

Bio

Jedidiah Evans is a Lecturer in English and Writing at the University of Sydney who has spent the past decade running creative workshops with incarcerated men and women across NSW. He is associate editor of Paper Chained, a publication that distributes the art and writing of incarcerated people freely to Australian prisons. His current research focuses on the transformative value of arts education for incarcerated women and the role of humanistic inquiry in restorative justice. He's been inside a lot of prisons, and has a lot to say about what he found.

Event

Thursday 7 May, 6:30 – 7:15 PM @Rose of Australia, 1 Swanson St, Erskineville NSW 2043

The other talk at this location is Using AI to build better lives at 8:00 – 8:45 PM