“I’m not gonna sit and preach to anyone
because I myself have been in and out of these doors 12 times.
I’m just gonna let you know how it is”
“To the Girls at the Audy” by Irene Sanchez (17)
In ten-week creative writing workshops held at Chicago’s Cook County Jail, Irene Sanchez and other participants write poems, stories, and life narratives around a wooden conference table in the small women’s tier library. Under the direction of DePaul University professor Ann Folwell Stanford, several sessions in this particular workshop were devoted to fostering a dialogic writing exchange between the women in the jail and girls held at the county’s temporary juvenile detention center. Pointing to the rigor of prison life, Sanchez’ poem continues, “There’s no more sleeping all through the night,/ and no more sleeping late./ Doors open at 2:30am for breakfast,/ and again at 7:30am to begin the day./ You do what you’re told; never what you want./ Get up, go to bed! When they want” (17).