Chris Hedges on trauma & teaching writing in prison

Since 2013, Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and host of The Chris Hedges Report, has taught college courses in drama, literature, philosophy, and history at East Jersey State Prison (aka “Rahway”) and other New Jersey prisons. In one such course, after reading plays by Amiri Baraka and August Wilson, among others, Hedges’ students wrote a play of their own. The play, "Caged," would eventually be published and performed at The Passage Theatre in Trenton, New Jersey, for a month-long run in 2018 to sold-out audiences. In his latest book, "Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison," Hedges chronicles the journey he and his class embarked on together. Joining Mansa Musa on Rattling the Bars, Hedges speaks about his book and the transformations he witnessed among the men he taught behind prison walls.
Chris Hedges is the former Middle East bureau chief of The New York Times, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and a columnist at ScheerPost. He formerly hosted the program Days of Revolt, produced by TRNN, and currently hosts The Chris Hedges Report. Hedges is the author of several books, including "America: The Farewell Tour"; "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America," and "Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison."
Read the transcript of this video: therealnews.com/chris-hedges-...
Pre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
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[@SELKCOMM]

Of course they need to silence Chris Hedges. He’s legitimate.

[@desireegerber]

Omg, Mansa Musa, this was an incredible interview 🙌 👏 I appreciate you. Thank you

[@nopt1118]

Incredible production. Thanks for bringing Mr. Hedges in. He Is an incredible human being with a heart of gold. The questions you asked were very balanced. I have learnt a lot about life behind bars in America and how a little kindness and mentoring can make it that much more bearable.

[@cheri238]

Extremely important Chris is to get students to write about trauma, real experiences. It is for most of us therapy , a breakthrough of communication of trauma. Again, thank you for being the example for all of is, a man with a moral compass. PLEASE RUN FOR PRESIDENT. (CHUCKLES) It is a dream for many of us. THANK YOU.❤️

[@EnzoVecchiaio]

Can you imagine how thoroughly the duopoly would smear Chris?

[@rrickarr]

@@EnzoVecchiaio People can smear Chris all they want, and he rises above it every time!

[@alicerose9140]

I love you Chris Hedges and all you say & do. Thank you Mansa Musa for your perceptive thoughts and questions.

[@alicerose9140]

@@matthewingerson 👍thanks, yes very dodgy! I've reported it.

[@alicerose9140]

@@matthewingerson and yes your reply keeps getting deleted..

[@Labor_Jones]

[@rgzhaffie]

Holy sht. It's absolutely incredible that Chris Hedges was able to elicit these kinds of accounts from his prison students.

[@LotusLady9]

Thank you🌞

[@111Phoenix777]

I read that play "Caged" a couple of years ago. It was very good. Much better than I was expecting. Such a sad story, but a very important story and play. I highly recommend everyone read it.

[@averayugen8462]

any idea where to grab that play now?

[@trevorsmith8950]

Mansa Musa crushed this interview. Looking forward to more work from him.

[@SameAsAnyOtherStranger]

Mr. Hedges goes directly to the defining features of the U.S. It's really nice that he can account for the humanity in one of the most systematically inhumane systems.

[@111Phoenix777]

I loved "The Wire". I have to admit, I can't imagine Chris Hedges watching it, or any TV for that matter. Too funny!!!

[@karinturkington2455]

What a shocking world we live in !!!!! Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

[@mikecorbeil]

Excellent interview. It's very good, as well as essential, to have this kind of information.

[@g.marion5888]

Trauma plays an essential role in mind control, that's why the public was traumatized on purpose over psyops like 9/11 and COVID.

[@churchofthelambofsat]

COVID wasn't a psyop, they just lied to us about how bad it would be to give them time to sell and then rebuy their stocks. ...And then lied again to get us to go back to work.

[@anthonyman8008]

My ex girlfriends and step mom did a number on me. I'm pretty much done

[@g.marion5888]

It's a bioweapon used as a vehicle to bring totalitarianism, while stripping the public of wealth, and destroying the middle class on a global scale. It's been a psychopath's wet dream, and is 100% a psyop.

[@kirabarsmith9353]

And AuthoritarianTube won't show us the replies to this comment. USA! What creepy times we're living in...

[@stevenwilliams9359]

An amazing interview.

[@alvaroLguevara]

Excellent interview Mr Musa, excellent interview skills.

[@MrDan557]

Excellent interview. Not easy to see the subject matters through the context of the prison system unless one has been in it.

[@rrickarr]

Teaching in a prison - that is a high calling.

[@CLEFT3000]

I love Chris hedges! He’s inspired me to take up similar work…❤ that and he’s turned me from atheist. First person in 37 years!

[@shawnwest4350]

🔥👍👍

[@averayugen8462]

U don't have to be behind bars to feel the way prisoners do. The bars and barriers are making us all inmates of somebody's reality.

[@greenspringvalley]

A lawyer left with my brother's wife in the middle of the night with my brother's son. My brother sent a message and the lawyer got a court order for no more messages. My brother sent another and the lawyer put him in jail for 6 months (waiting at the jail smiling at him....the lawyer knew that my brother would message since the lawyer had his son, so it was a set up), then the lawyer took his money. My brother did not do drugs (he was a nurse and was tested) but he sent out a message to his son with his will, and then he died of a morphine overdose. Lawyers use the courts to hustle money. A WVU professor taught a class about how most cases are decided by lawyers.

[@dee5331]

Lawyers are the most corrupt of all US citizens! Over 90% of lawyers, ceo's and politicians have undiagnosed cluster B personality disorders! I highly suggest you research cluster B personality disorders using stick figures as examples. It's 98% nurture and could be greatly reduced in a few generations and the right thing to do for humanity long term. Or just ignore this reply, which most people will

[@NestaVision2007]

You should post the lawyer's name. He was a piece of ...t.

[@greenspringvalley]

@@NestaVision2007 One person hired several lawyers who were working together to harass people who the guy who hired them had some kind of issue with...and that happened after a different multi-million dollar deal, and some of them are organized crime and maybe protected..they were saying things like "we're aloud to lie"...and one lawyer who harassed me was then put over my Mom's estate when she passed away, and they worked with a tech guy and were using spying to meet people ...I thought it was one crazy lawyer here, then a different crazy lawyer there, then a different one somewhere else...but over time realized one person was paying all of them and they were playing for bigger separate money...too complicated to figure out...but it wasn't just one man...Extremely scary... It's not safe to say a name. Hedges actually wrote about this area and referred to it as a "sacrifice zone" which basically means "like a third world country".

[@geoffreynhill2833]

"Prisons are present-day plantations."

[@farhiyaa4880]

Chris Edges spoke well of the Muslim prisoners. Muslim prisoners had a conscious, and were political prisoners.

[@greenspringvalley]

Did he say he was locked up 48 years? kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoHVYXqJmpetnsU