Students in History: Crime and Punishment in the United States taught in Spring 2023 at Columbia River Correctional Institution.
I Think of You
Directed by Rebecca Lingafelter
Dramaturgy by Sterling Cunio
Lead Artist and Scholar Reiko Hillyer
Performed by Roo Welsh, Gerrin Mitchell, Connor Pascale, Isabel McTighe, Evelyn Wohlbier, Negasi Brown, Dylan Hankins
Designed by Jenny Ampersand, Miranda Hardy and Mark Valadez
This performance piece is a project of Spring 2023’s Inside-Out Prison Exchange class, a course on the history of crime and punishment in the United States that integrates incarcerated students with Lewis & Clark undergraduates. It is derived from the students’ own writing, woven with voices from the past, to communicate a brief history of mass incarceration, its impact on our neighbors, and our experience of sharing and learning together.
Thanks to a Creative Heights grant from the Oregon Community Foundation, Rebecca Lingafelter of the Theater Department and Sterling Cunio of Willamette University’s Transformative Justice Initiative were able to join Reiko Hillyer of the History Department in leading the creation of this piece and in sharing this work with a larger audience.
Created in collaboration with students from Lewis & Clark College and Columbia River Correctional Institution, this piece is derived from the students’ own writing, woven with voices from the past, to communicate a brief history of mass incarceration, its impact on our neighbors, and our experience of sharing and learning together.
Ellyn Bye Studio Portland Center Stage
128 NW 11th Ave
Portland, OR
Tickets are FREE. All events are hosted at Portland Center Stage and open to the public.
Created in collaboration with students from Lewis & Clark College and Columbia River Correctional Institution, this piece is derived from the students’ own writing, woven with voices from the past, to communicate a brief history of mass incarceration, its impact on our neighbors, and our experience of sharing and learning together.
Ellyn Bye Studio Portland Center Stage
128 NW 11th Ave
Portland, OR
Tickets are FREE. All events are hosted at Portland Center Stage and open to the public.
This workshop will employ theatre, improvisation, writing and conversation to open up the possibilities of imagining a world without prisons. The workshop is suitable for anyone interested in exploring these themes, and you do not need to have any prior performance experience to join. We hope that you will have seen the production, but it is not required for the workshop.
Bobby Bermea is the co-artistic director of The Beirut Wedding World Theatre Project, a member of Sojourn Theatre, and a long-standing member of Actors Equity Association. Bermea is a writer, director and award-winning actor and has appeared in theatres literally from New York, NY to Honolulu, HI.
Ellyn Bye Studio Portland Center Stage
128 NW 11th Ave
Portland, OR
Tickets are FREE. All events are hosted at Portland Center Stage and open to the public.
Created in collaboration with students from Lewis & Clark College and Columbia River Correctional Institution, this piece is derived from the students’ own writing, woven with voices from the past, to communicate a brief history of mass incarceration, its impact on our neighbors, and our experience of sharing and learning together.
Ellyn Bye Studio Portland Center Stage
128 NW 11th Ave
Portland, OR
Tickets are FREE. All events are hosted at Portland Center Stage and open to the public.
Created in collaboration with students from Lewis & Clark College and Columbia River Correctional Institution, this piece is derived from the students’ own writing, woven with voices from the past, to communicate a brief history of mass incarceration, its impact on our neighbors, and our experience of sharing and learning together.
Ellyn Bye Studio Portland Center Stage
128 NW 11th Ave
Portland, OR
Tickets are FREE. All events are hosted at Portland Center Stage and open to the public.
This workshop will introduce participants to the Inside/Out class model. The workshop will include 15 formerly incarcerated participants and 15 other participants and will engage students in exercises and themes from Professor Hillyer’s Inside/Out Class.
Reiko Hillyer is a social and cultural historian of the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries, with specialties in the American South, African American history, the history of public memory, the built environment, and mass incarceration. Her proudest accomplishment is bringing the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program to Lewis & Clark. Her course, “Crime and Punishment in US History” is taught at Columbia River Correctional Institution (CRCI) in North Portland to an integrated group of Lewis & Clark and incarcerated students.
Ellyn Bye Studio Portland Center Stage
128 NW 11th Ave
Portland, OR
Tickets are FREE. All events are hosted at Portland Center Stage and open to the public.
Special Thanks
We would like to recognize the assistance of the following people in making the Lewis & Clark College Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program at CRCI a success. As with all projects, there are more people involved than are immediately evident. This Inside-Out class could not have happened without: The Oregon Community Foundation Creative Heights initiative that showed faith in this project; Kelly DelFatti and Julia Unangst who helped ensure the success of our grant applications; Elizabeth LaCarney, former Correctional Rehabilitation Manager at CRCI, who has been a tireless advocate for creative connections with the community and has supported this class since its inception; James Hanley, Correctional Rehabilitation Manager at CRCI, who vigorously believes in this program and has gone above and beyond to facilitate it on every level; Brandie Fazal, who recruited the inside students and helped us restore our program after the covid-hiatus; all of the corrections staff, especially Heather Wilks, who did the extra labor required to facilitate our weekly visits; the Lewis & Clark History Department and the Dean’s Office for their support; Judy Finch, Registrar, for setting up the challenging logistics required to register the inside students at Lewis & Clark College; Emily Squires, whose artistic vision and commitment during earlier iterations of this course paved the way for this interdisciplinary project; Sean Conley, Dicky Dahl, Skye Fitzgerald, Timothy Wildgoose, and Eden Wurmfeld, the devoted and talented film crew that has been documenting this journey; and thank you to Rafael, Jonny, Omar, and Ray, who were not with us for the whole semester but whose contributions we will never forget.
Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program
Inside-Out is an educational program with an innovative pedagogical approach tailored to facilitate dialogue across differences. It originated under the leadership of Lori Pompa of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a means of bringing together campus-based college students with incarcerated students for a semester-long course held in a prison, jail, or other correctional setting. With support from Mellon Foundation, Lewis & Clark College is expanding our Inside-Out course offerings by training additional faculty to develop courses and teach at the Columbia River Correctional Institution.
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The People Behind the Project
<section class="profile-box"><h4 class="profile-box_name"><a href="/live/profiles/18345-reiko-hillyer">Reiko Hillyer</a></h4><div class="profile-box_meta"> Associate Professor of History and Department Chair, Director of Ethnic Studies </div><div class="profile-box_meta"> Lead Artist and Scholar </div><div class="quoted-profile_quote"><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reiko is a social and cultural historian of the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries, with specialties in the American South, African American history, the history of public memory, the built environment, and mass incarceration. Her proudest accomplishment is bringing the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program to Lewis & Clark. Her course, “Crime and Punishment in US History” is taught at Columbia River Correctional Institution (CRCI) in North Portland to an integrated group of Lewis & Clark and incarcerated students.</span></p></div><div class="profile-box_image"><span class="lw_item_thumb"><a href="/live/profiles/18345-reiko-hillyer"><picture class="lw_image">
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<section class="profile-box"><h4 class="profile-box_name"><a href="/live/profiles/18346-rebecca-lingafelter">Rebecca Lingafelter</a></h4><div class="profile-box_meta"> Associate Professor of Theater / Department Chair </div><div class="profile-box_meta"> Directed by Rebecca Lingafelter </div><div class="quoted-profile_quote"><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rebecca Lingafelter is a performer, director, producer and teacher living in Portland, OR. She received her MFA from Columbia University. Rebecca is co-artistic director of Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble (www.petensemble.org), and a company member at Third Rail Repertory Theatre. Rebecca teaches acting, directing, devised performance, voice and movement, global contemporary performance, and directs mainstage productions at Lewis & Clark College.</span></p></div><div class="profile-box_image"><span class="lw_item_thumb"><a href="/live/profiles/18346-rebecca-lingafelter"><picture class="lw_image">
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<section class="profile-box"><h4 class="profile-box_name"><a href="/live/profiles/18347-sterling-cunio">Sterling Cunio</a></h4><div class="profile-box_meta"> Program Coordinator, Willamette University Transformative Justice Initiative </div><div class="profile-box_meta"> Dramaturg </div><div class="quoted-profile_quote"><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Both an Oregon Literary Arts Fellow and a PEN America Arts for Social Justice Fellow, Sterling Cunio is a spoken word poet and author who dedicated his life to the service of others while inside the Oregon Department of Corrections where he served nearly 28 years before being released for outstanding reformation. Sterling was a founder of the Restorative Justice Program within Oregon State Penitentiary which focused primarily on reducing harms, building peace and transforming both the street and prison culture using arts, education, community engagement and conflict resolution. Sterling mentored countless others in positive transformation and supported them in becoming change agents as credible messengers living their amends. Since his release he works as the Program Coordinator for Willamette University’s Transformative Justice Initiative helping justice impacted people, and also works as a Story teller for Church at the Park serving Salem’s houseless population.</span></p></div><div class="profile-box_image"><span class="lw_item_thumb"><a href="/live/profiles/18347-sterling-cunio"><picture class="lw_image">
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