Since 2013, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges has been teaching classes in drama, literature, philosophy and history in the college-degree program offered by Rutgers University to inmates in the New Jersey prison system. He joins us to discuss his new book, “OUR CLASS: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison,” in which he chronicles his students’ grief and suffering, as well as their personal transformation.
Stephon Whitley, a former student and a successful graduate of Rutgers, was locked up in multiple New Jersey prisons and is now engaged in criminal justice reform work. Stephan will take part in the live discussion.
Cambridge Forum provides free and open discussions about the pertinent issues and ideas confronting us, in the world today.
RESOURCES
Read this article by Stephon Whitley: “The stink, the mice, the yelling. My time in solitary was the ‘most savage moment of my life,’ Rutgers grad recalls.”
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BIO: Stephon Whitley
Stephon Whitley served nearly 20 years in New Jersey state prison, including time in solitary confinement. He is a graduate of the education program where he met and befriended Chris Hedges.
Now Whitley is out of prison and working as an advocate for prison reform.
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BIO: Chris Hedges
Christopher Lynn Hedges is an American journalist, Presbyterian minister, author and television host. He has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, NPR, Dallas Morning News, and The New York Times, where he was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years and reported from more than fifty countries.
