Meet Our Grantee-Partner: Radical Reversal
Mission: Radical Reversal’s mission is to amplify the dialogue concerning incarceration and create justice, racial, and rehabilitation equity through creative outlets inside the carceral state.
Dr. Randall Horton believes in poetry’s ability to transform lives. While incarcerated, he discovered the poem “Skinhead” by Patricia Smith. He credits his experience reading that poem with opening a “gateway of possibilities” to explore the power of poetry during a time when he felt isolated and dehumanized by the carceral system.
After his release, Randall connected with his friend, composer Devin Brajha Waldman, to discuss his experience with incarceration. His reflections led them to create a project that uses poetry and music to create change for people who otherwise have little or no access to the arts and creative expression.
at a Radical Reversal recording studio.
Radical Reversal works within carceral institutions to provide creative outlets inside their facilities with the goal of advancing justice, rehabilitation, and racial equity. The nonprofit organization installs creative spaces for performance and recording with the goal of enhancing the work of their students in the language(s) they already practice. It also facilitates poetry workshops, seminars in music and music production, performances, and readings. Its Radical Reading Series has brought in poets such as Bonita L. Penn, Dr. DaMaris Hill, and Kofi Antwi.
Since receiving a $65,000 Equity in Verse grant for general operating support in fall of 2022, Radical Reversal has taken great strides in advancing its mission. The nonprofit has strengthened its pilot program at the Jefferson County Youth Detention Center (YDC) in Birmingham, Alabama with an acoustic makeover and continued support for their Resident Teaching Artists. In collaboration with the organization Brothers Let’s Talk, Radical Reversal is facilitating poetry workshops inside the YDC led by Salaam Green.
Radical Reversal also installed a recording studio/creative space at Suffolk County House of Corrections in Boston, Massachusetts, and is collaborating with Writers Without Margins, a Poetry Foundation grantee-partner, to conduct poetry and music workshops in the space. It recently completed an installation at MN-Faribault in Faribault, Minnesota, and is partnering with Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop(MPWW), also a Poetry Foundation grantee-partner, to conduct poetry workshops and music classes there.
A new international partnership extends Radical Reversal’s work to Kenya, where Kakuma Sound works with young people at the intersection of poetry and music. This cross-cultural exchange will culminate in an audiovisual project highlighting young people from YDC and the Kakuma Refugee camp.
To further the reach of its mission, Radical Reversal is embarking on the Sound OFF podcast. Broadcasting out of the University of New Haven Radio Station, the podcast will feature Horton, Devin Brajha Waldman, and Writers Without Margins’s Cheryl Buchannan discussing a selected poem written by Radical Reversal students with an in-depth conversation about their poetic work.
The fulfillment of Radical Reversal’s purpose is on display when a student beams while listening to his feature being broadcast on the Sound OFF podcast. It’s the image of hope projected by students as they sit together to read poems and record music in a newly installed creative space. It’s when a Radical Reversal student tells Randall, “Everything I have ever wanted to do in my life is right before me.”