Community writing partnerships between university and incarcerated students typically focus on developing critical reading and writing skills through shared assignments, peer review exchanges, and group discussion. This article examines a prison-university writing partnership between two semester-long yoga classes, one at a maximum-security women’s prison and one at a competitive university, that privileges building community over building academic skills. The yoga students shared reflective writing on yogarelated topics – from philosophy, to tips and modifications for poses, to personal experience – in a monthly newsletter called “The Om Exchange.” The sound of “om” in yoga
symbolizes the universal “oneness” of all living beings. The purpose of the newsletter was two-fold: to support reflective writing for deeper engagement with class material and to connect with the larger yoga community beyond classroom walls.
A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric