Today on our show, we bring you a story by Christopher Blackwell. Chris is 42 and serving a 45-year prison sentence in Washington. Chris’s story came to us through writer and Chris’s mentor, Jamie Beth Cohen.

This episode is about taking a small moment and bringing big meaning. Through details and emotion, Chris tells us so much about himself and his surroundings. When birds nest on the windowsill of the prison, all the men gather round. Their usual differences melt away. When the birds fly away, our narrator understands their lust for freedom.

Christopher Blackwell co-founded Look 2 Justice, an organization that provides civic education to system-impacted communities and actively works to pass sentence and policy reform legislation. He is currently writing a book about solitary confinement. His writing has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Huffington Post, and many other outlets. He is a contributing writer at Jewish Currents, a contributing editor at The Appeal, and works closely with the prison writing program Empowerment Avenue. You can follow him on X @chriswblackwell.

Chris’s story was originally published in The Appeal, which is a nonprofit news organization that envisions a world in which systems of support and care, not punishment, create public safety. 

Writing Class Radio is hosted by Allison Langer and Andrea Askowitz. Audio production by Matt Cundill, Evan Surminski, Chloe Emond-Lane, and Aiden Glassey at the Sound Off Media Company. Theme music is by Justina Shandler.

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There’s no better way to understand ourselves and each other, than by writing and sharing our stories. Everyone has a story. What’s yours?