On Monday, April 28th, Free Minds was honored to welcome author Kelis Rowe to visit our Women’s Book Club (WBC) at the DC Jail. Rowe, hailing all the way from Austin, Texas, is the author of Finding Jupiter, a novel that combines poetry and prose to weave a love story between two Black teenagers in Memphis, Tennessee. Our Women’s Book Club members selected Rowe’s novel to read earlier this year, so we were thrilled to host her.
The group met in the DC Public Library branch inside of the jail. The members’ jaws dropped and eyes opened wide when they realized they were meeting the actual author of the book they’d just read and loved. Rowe brought art supplies and taught the women how to create “blackout poetry,” an art form that reveals hidden meaning by blacking out selected words from a text, while leaving other words visible. In Finding Jupiter, the main character, Ray, makes sense of the world and expresses herself by creating blackout poems from the pages of The Great Gatsby and Their Eyes Were Watching God. Rowe handed out pages of Finding Jupiter mounted on decorative paper for WBC members to use as their canvases, and provided some examples of other blackout poems to inspire them. The women got very creative as they designed their poems, creating many colorful displays. One woman, Tori, selected words in nonsequential order for her blackout poem, using colored lines to guide the reader. There were lots of smiles and positive, playful conversation. One member, Vanessa, got so immersed in the activity, she said she completely forgot she was in jail.
As the women worked, Rowe took questions from them. Many are aspiring authors themselves, and wanted to know what inspired her to write a book. Rowe explained that writing Finding Jupiter allowed her to create the Young Adult fiction that she didn’t see in the market–—fiction that centered around people who looked like her, who had experiences that she could relate to. She told them, “If you have a story to tell, tell it,” and advised them to always be writing, since “you never know when the opportunity to share your writing will come up.”
Members were invited to read their completed poems aloud to the group. All who volunteered were met with enthusiastic snaps and applause. As the session drew to a close, Rowe took time to sign copies of her book for each participant. One woman was so thrilled with her autographed book, she said she planned to keep it forever in a glass display box, when she got home.
Kelis Rowe’s visit had a lasting impact on everyone involved. Pondering the session afterwards, Roweowe shared that it was one of the top two highlights of her career so far as an author (the other being the first time she saw her book in published form!). NC, a Women’s Book Club member, said: “Her visit was amazing. She showed us an innovative way to combine poetry, literature and art. It was interesting how many of us were able to find very personal stories within the pages we were given.”
Free Minds wants to extend a huge thank you to Kelis Rowe, the DC Department of Corrections, and to the DC Public Library staff at the DC Jail Branch for making this visit possible.
Images courtesy of the DC Department of Corrections.