OU Carceral Studies Consortium Hosts “Grey Matter” Film Screening & Panel with CNN Hero Ellen Stackable on Nov. 4th, 2021

The University of Oklahoma Carceral Studies Consortium is pleased to host a special screening of Grey Matter: A Documentary Exploring Female Incarceration in Oklahoma, followed by a panel discussion and special reading of poetry and essays written by people incarcerated in Oklahoma.

The event will take place on Thursday, November, 4th at 7:00 pm in the Heritage Room on the second floor of the Oklahoma Memorial Union on the University of Oklahoma Campus.

From the filmmakers: “Grey Matter explores an advanced writing cohort inside Mabel Bassett — Oklahoma’s largest maximum security prison for women. Oklahoma incarcerates more women than anywhere else in the world; we incarcerate at double the national average and this number is only expected to rise with the current legislation. It’s time to give a voice and hope to the voiceless.”

Panel participants include:

• Ellen Stackable, CNN Hero and founder of Poetic Justice, restorative writing program for incarcerated women
• Timothy Bradford, Nick LoLordo, and Catherine Mintler, lecturers of Expository Writing and members of the Writer’s Guild, a restorative writing program for people incarcerated at the Joseph Harp Correctional Facility in Lexington, Oklahoma. Learn more about the Writer’s Guild book Emergence (2019) here
• Connie Chapple, Associate Professor of Sociology, whose work focuses on families and crime, gender and crime, child abuse and neglect, and the consequences of incarceration for children, youth and adults
• David McLeod, Associate Professor of Social Work, whose work focuses on the intersection of criminal behavior development, gender, and trauma