The infamous Attica prison uprising ended in September 1971. But the dust hadn’t completely settled when Professor Celes Tisdale arrived at the prison to teach a poetry workshop in May 1972.
From sorrow and anger, to hope and revolutionary joy, the writing that came out of it gives us the perspective on this history that matters most: from the incarcerated men themselves.
“If our actions / Cause brothers and sisters to unite / As we die, / In their fighting spirits we live,” penned one survivor named Christopher Sutherland. Many others wrote not just about the impact of the uprising but their inner worlds - their dreams, loved ones, and deepest hopes and fears.
However, as healing and rehabilitative as the poetry was, the prison system frequently thwarted their efforts.
The workshop was temporarily canceled after protests and hunger strikes. One participant had his writing confiscated. Many came to class after routine beatings from guards. Tisdale continued teaching after losing funding, but Attica’s antagonism finally pushed him to end the class in 1974.
Still, Black poetry has historically been both resistance and survival. In the face of distorted and erased Black history, Tisdale’s students gave us a historical archive for future generations to understand what they experienced in their own words.
And they empower us with radical hope for the liberated future we’re still fighting for today.