Abstract:

Art-based work in disadvantaged communities employs a variety of strategies based on the assumption that education with and about the arts is beneficial to the human wellbeing. The concept of aesthetic education as employed by feminist philosopher Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in her 2012 book An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization goes back to the German author and scholar Friedrich Schiller who argued in a series of letters in 1795 that the aesthetic education of humans is crucial to a healthy orientation in the world. Schiller himself, known for his poetry and drama, did firmly believe, as typical for his time, in the unity of science and art. Departing from his influential essay, I will look at the use of poetry in art workshops in prisons – in Germany and the United States to think about the role poetry plays not only as a form of creative expression but as a form of healing. However, my aim is not to underline a misguided focus on emotions and personal narratives in the creation and consumption of poetry but to highlight the educational potential of poetry as a method (rather than aesthetic outcome) in the sense of the American poet Muriel Rukeyser who perceives poetry as the art of survival in times of crisis (The Life of Poetry, 1949).

Keywords:

Poetry, Prison, aesthetic education, Schiller, art therapy.