Back in November, Myles Bullen and Robert Bernheim presented this document of their 15-week program at the Maine State Prison and lead a powerful group writing exercise and sharing circle here at SPACE. We’re honored to archive the film in perpetuity on the Reader.
“Survivor Stories: Incarcerated Voices – Poems and Stories from the Maine State Prison” is a film by Myles Bullen and Sarah Violette. It documents a pioneering 15-week artist-in-residence pilot program designed by the University of Maine at Augusta for inmates at the Maine State Prison. The goal of the program was to help these inmates address and begin to heal harm caused by felony criminal behavior through the power of writing and storytelling. “Survivor Stories” brings stories, both historical and personal, out of the shadows, teaching and applying creative writing as a path forward for the prison community. Throughout the transformative 15-week program, the inmates worked to recognize their and others’ trauma, build morals, and foster courage towards expression-based healing, using the core principles of restorative justice and the legacies and lessons of the Nazi Holocaust in Professor Robert Bernheim‘s history class.
