The Peculiar Patriot

Slought, Penn Social Policy & Practice, and MAPP International Productions are pleased to announce "The Peculiar Patriot," an excerpted reading with poet, performer, and playwright Liza Jessie Peterson, followed by conversation with scholars of mass incarceration and social work including Toorjo (TJ) Ghose and Nancy Franke on Friday, March 25, 2016 from 6:30-8:00pm.

In Peterson's performance, we meet Betsy LaQuanda Ross, a self-proclaimed "peculiar patriot" who makes regular visits to penitentiaries to boost the morale of her incarcerated friends and family. As Ross navigates relationships and love across security checkpoints and barbed wire, she passionately sews a memory quilt for the urban "street soldiers and P.O.W.'s" (prisoners of the war on drugs) who are serving time.

For Peterson, Ross is both a victim and victor of this country's prison system. She represents the millions of men and women who sojourn to penitentiaries on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, year after year), subjecting themselves to long bus rides and humiliating security checks to visit loved ones incarcerated. "The Peculiar Patriot" constructs a narrative about voicelessness and America's fastest growing epidemic/industry—with provocative thought, hilarious dialogue and gripping pathos.

Peterson has shared and expanded upon Betsy's tale in more than 34 prisons and correctional facilities in seven states, beginning with Rikers Island in 2003. Over time, she has evolved a single character's story into a powerful metaphor for a human condition that impacts more than 2.5 million people behind bars, as well as their loved ones and communities. In doing so, she is also fulfilling a promise made to inmates throughout the tour, who have implored her to take their stories "back out into the world."