WEBVTT

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Thank you so very much.

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Dwayne, wonderful to see you.

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Reginald Dwayne Betts
barely knows me,

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but he has absolutely
changed my life.

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He didn't know me at all when I
walked into a Tucson restaurant

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three and a half
years ago, two months

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removed from doing a 10-year
stretch in the Arizona

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Department of Corrections.

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And I shook his hand,
sat down with him

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and a bunch of other folks
with MFAs and other letters

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after their names, and just
started talking about my time

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in prison, about
race and politics

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in prison, about
an essay I wrote

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from inside, about tattoos.

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And an hour later,
he told me to apply

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for a MacDowell fellowship.

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MacDowell, this place
in New Hampshire

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where Toni Morrison, and Alice
Walker, and James Baldwin

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had gone to write, a place
I'd never even heard of.

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So I applied, and they took me.

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And Dwayne will not take credit,
but without his advocacy,

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either direct or indirect,
they wouldn't have taken me.

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And when the Art
for Justice Fund

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gave the Poetry Center
a half million dollars

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to use poetry to help
change the system,

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Dwayne, by this time several
months removed from that one

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dinner one night in
Tucson, spoke for me again.

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Three years later, we
have a monthly workshop

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called "Free Time"
that Diana referenced.

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It brings together local
writers and artists

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and pairs them with incarcerated
writers all over the country,

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building a bridge
through the US Mail,

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from the inside to the
outside, creating space

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for incarcerated writers
to have their voices heard.

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And who leads that workshop?

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Me, because Dwayne
advocated for me.

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To a couple hundred incarcerated
writers every month,

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giving them hope in a
place so desperate for it

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because Dwayne advocated for
it, he advocated for them,

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he advocated for me.

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I'm just another
dude who did time.

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Just another formerly
incarcerated person

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who wanted his voice heard.

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Another fan, to be honest,
who Dwayne barely knows.

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So, on behalf of all
the incarcerated writers

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our workshop reaches
every month, on behalf

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of every other incarcerated
person who barely knows you,

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Dwayne, but who no doubt
you have advocated for,

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how many are there?

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Who knows how many?

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I just want to say thank
you for changing our lives,

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for changing my life.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Please welcome Dwayne Betts.