When: Thursday, May 15 @ 7:30 AM to 9:00 AM PT
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Host: Natalie Updike from Shorecrest Preparatory School
Cost: Suggested donation of $10 USD.
While we provide an option to attend this event for free, as a nonprofit we depend on donations and your contribution is greatly appreciated!
In English 12 Honors: Prison Narratives at Shorecrest Preparatory School in St. Petersburg, Florida, students enter a semester-long, senior elective to investigate twentieth- and twenty-first century autobiographies by imprisoned and formerly imprisoned people in the United States–the country with the highest imprisonment rate in the world.
Using the course texts of Leonard Peltier's Prison Writings: My Life is my Sun Dance, Dwayne Betts' A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison, and Assata Shakur's Assata: An Autobiography (including the films Just Mercy and 13th and excerpts from Angela Davis's Are Prisons Obsolete?, Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow, and Malcolm X's Autobiography to name a few), we study subjective experiences within the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC), like solitary confinement, the death penalty, life without the possibility of parole, supermax prisons, literacy within lockup, and differentiated experiences–juveniles, women, LGBTQIA+, and racialized incarceration.
Additionally, seniors develop their personal statements for college admission essays as a way to identify and empower their own narratives through writing. The advancement of student voice in these essays is not intended to connect with the theme of the course (prison writing) but inform the process of self.
This course also offers guest speakers and/or access to regional prison book organizations, particularly the Appalachian Prison Book Project. This non-profit, in particular, does not serve Florida, but the instructor has meaningful contacts within APBP, allowing student connections “beyond the page.”
About Host
Natalie Updike (she/they) celebrates empathy, diverse voices, and autonomy. For over a decade, she has worked with student voice in all styles: rhetoric, literature, creative writing, professional writing and editing, resumes, TESOL, and personal statements. Hailing originally from Indiana, Natalie earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from West Virginia University, an M.A. in literature from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a B.F.A. in creative writing and B.A. in literature from the University of Evansville. Her teaching and writing studio experience at various universities, during Peace Corps Colombia, and her current position as an English instructor, Junior Class Sponsor, and Creative Writing Club faculty sponsor at Shorecrest Preparatory School have all challenged her to keep evolving her teaching methods toward social-emotional learning as well as student engagement and motivation strategies. Each summer, she leads workshops for students regarding college-readiness writing as well as for faculty regarding classroom gamification: engaging and motivating students through active learning and play. Additional to her love for working with students, Natalie continues her membership with the Appalachian Prison Book Project that helps inform her senior elective titled Prison Narratives alongside Dystopian Literature, A.P. Literature and Composition, and American Literature. She currently lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, with her Tortoiseshell Beatrice and Tabby Charlotte. When Natalie is not cuddling her love bugs or being an “English teacher cliché,” she can be found binging the latest show, listening to an audiobook at the beach, or eating baked goods.
