Prison

WHAT I LEARNED, AND DIDN’T, SINGING IN A WOMEN’S PRISON

My women’s choir sang once at a women’s prison. The choir members were conservative, liberal, and apolitical, Catholic, Jewish, Orthodox, and atheist, old, young, gay and straight, yet they all felt they were contributing something meaningful to the inmates’ lives.

Singing in the Women's Prison

My choir, Cantigas, sang on Thursday at the Edna McMahan Women’s Prison in Clinton, New Jersey. Thirty women took the day to participate. Security was tight. We had to fill out forms weeks before the event so we could be checked out, and lists could be given to the prison staff. Before getting on theContinue reading “Singing in the Women's Prison”