Our First Class

Our first session with the women was amazing. We introduced the project and all of the parts. The women were so excited about the partnership with the UI archive. They were also excited about the exhibition. It was important to reassure them that the painting portion of the class is achievable with the aid of our "secret process" to transfer photographs. I was given permission today to bring in a camera and take pictures of the women for the self-portraits. So next week we will prepare the surface of our canvas with an underpainting and then the following week we can transfer some images. The women all picked out at least one memoir from the archive to explore. They also used the idea of a time line to start working in their journal. They all approached this particular idea differently. Some drew a timeline, some chose to write about a point in their life. I will take some photos of the journals next week and share them on our blog. I also found out I can email the women via "O" mail. "O" stands for offender mail. Next week Rebecca and hopefully Riley will introduce ways to think about memoirs.
It was great to be back at the prison and touch base with some of the women I have known for many years. I am always renewed in my commitment to working in prisons with women when I return after a long absence. I have not been there since the summer. I also dropped off 1000.00 worth of yarn for the Blankets of Hope project. The women knit blankets for every girl at IJH and attach a handwritten letter that accompanies the blanket. The girls get the blankets on valentine's day. It is amazing. This is our second year. I have to start looking for a way to raise another 1000.00 pretty soon so we can continue the project.

Our First Meeting

Well last night was a night of crossed fingers and lots of looks towards the clouds. The weather held out for us but unfortunately our leading lady at the prison was in a car accident the previous week so our plan to have a group orientation fell through. Instead we landed in a Teaspoons a cozy little coffee shop on Linn Street. Lisa, Rebecca, Jefri, Wendy, Riley all snuggled next to the fire and had a serious brainstorming session. Just listening to the group really expanded my notions of what our first project could be. The group has so much talent. Jefri has experience working with substance abuse treatment and incarcerated men, Rebecca has been teaching writing to the women at ICIW for over a year, Wendy is the queen or logic and organization and a great artist and teacher to boot-she has also worked at ICIW already, Lisa is a visionary theatre artist with a plan for our second project, an original theatre production, and Riley is a seasoned writer and great collaborator. He also works at one of the leading bookstores in the mid west with one of our favorite supporters Paul Ingram.
We planned the first two weeks for our project:

Week 1
introduce the project Women in Exile-give all of the women a copy of the project narrative.
Talk about the research component of this class and give out IRB forms.
next
Give out journals and talk about the purpose of the journals.
They will eventually be part of the women's archive at the University of Iowa. We want to encourage program participants to write in them but also to realize that these will be available to the general public.
therefore we don't want them to mention their victim
we want them to focus on their lives before prison and to feel free to write about the "everydayness" of their current and past lives.
I hope they feel free to add pictures, collage, drawings, etc to the journal.
I will bring my journals to share. If any of you keep journals that you are willing to share maybe you could bring them.


Perhaps our first assignment that we can start in class could be a lifeline where you map out your life by years and events.
That could cover the first few pages of the journal.
We can ask them to draw a line across the top of the first five pages
then fill it in
each set of pages could be a decade.

We also can ask them to bring images of themselves that they want to paint. I will also demonstrate the artograph so they will be reassured that they can actually easily transfer an image to the canvas.
We will also ask the women to look over the list of memoirs available via the Iowa WOmen's archive for homework and identify three that they might be interested in exploring.

Week 2
AT the beginning of class we can create an underpainting-quick cover the canvas with a thin layer of paint to hide all the white so they will be ready for the picture transfer next week.
Next we can share the pictures that the women brought and talk about them for a bit
the writing prompt for an 8 minute writing ex. can be look at one of the pictures you brought and describe the moment. Why is it important? What do you think about when you see the image? What is the "story" of the image? (See bird by bird)
We have two volunteers, Riley and Rebecca who are going to share a bit about different ways that memoirs can be structured
we can go around the circle and reflect on creating a life line
(All volunteers who will be present that night if you could also make a life line to share)
Then we can go over the Iowa Women's Archive Memoir list and talk about the choices that the women made in terms of who they want to study
For homework: Write more about the photograph that you want to use for your painting.

We will probably try to have another planning meeting in the next few weeks, perhaps at WRAC!