Pen Pal: Prison Letters from a Free Spirit on Slow Death Row - Couverture souple

Salah-El, Tiyo Attallah

 
9781682193044: Pen Pal: Prison Letters from a Free Spirit on Slow Death Row
Couverture souple
ISBN 10 : 1682193047 ISBN 13 : 9781682193044
Editeur : OR Books, 2020

Synopsis

Tiyo Attallah Salah-El died in 2018 on "Slow Death Row" while serving a life sentence in a Pennsylvania prison. He was a man with a dizzying array of talents and vocations: author, scholar, teacher, musician, and activist: he was the founder of the Coalition for the Abolition of Prisons. He was also, as is apparent from the letters written over a decade and half to his friend Paul Alan Smith that make up this book, an extraordinarily eloquent correspondent.

Tiyo's missives present a vivid picture of the tribulations faced by those incarcerated, especially the nearly 60% who are non-white: habitual racism, arbitrary lockdowns, brutal beatings and hospitalizations, stifling heat and bitter cold. Here too are descriptions of Tiyo's individual struggles with cancer, aging, and the sirens of personal demons.

Tiyo's refusal to succumb to such hardships is evident in dispatches that are generous, philosophical and often laugh-out-loud funny. Through them we learn of his many friendships, including those with the historian Howard Zinn, a range of activist/advocate supporters on the outside, and two fellow people in prison who were leaders of the Black liberation group MOVE.

At a time when the appalling racial bias of America's police and criminal justice system is under the spotlight as never before, Pen Pal is both a vital intervention and moving portrait of someone whose physical confinement could never extinguish an extraordinary free spirit.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l?auteur

Tiyo Attallah Salah-El served a life sentence, primarily in the State Correctional Institute at Dallas in Pennsylvania. He was the founder of the Coalition for the Abolition of Prisons, the author of an autobiography, and a teacher of law and GED classes in prison. He died in prison in 2018. His papers are archived at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
OR Books
Date d'édition
2020
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
1682193047
ISBN 13 
9781682193044
Reliure
Broché
Nombre de pages
256
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible