There is a river flowing now very fast

[Lisa Heft]

Hi, Brendan dear.
 
(and hi, everyone - the email monster ate many of my incoming and
outgoing messages so I am just catching up after my trip to Halifax) 
 
How very very good to hear your 'voice'.  
 
Brendan, you wrote:
<I am about to depart for a day's 'space-making' in a maximum security
prison with long-term offenders..
I will be present and holding space with individual men - my dream is
that one day there may be more collective open space within such
confinement...
Anyone ever opened space in a prison?>


I have 'opened space' in a way, in a maximum security prison with groups
of men - whomever comes.
 
As some of you may or may not know, at least in many prisons 'the
management' wants to see what appears like 'order' when they look across
the yard, or into a room, or peer down from a guard tower.  Chaos does
not look good to them from their perspective.  And they want to tell at
a glance 'whom is in charge'.  Seeing a bunch of prisoners huddle
together in different corners of the room and even get animated and
sometimes even look upset as they discuss things is not a comfortable
thing for the 'folks in charge'.
 
[The prison I usually work at is in 'lock-down' right now due to
fighting among different factions erupting to affect more prisoners
around them.  So everyone is stuck inside their cells and cannot come
out and interact for their prison jobs or their workshops or anything
right now.  I hope that will change in a week or so as I am hoping to
teach a workshop 'inside' towards the end of this month.]
 
I develop and facilitate workshops where inmates who are peer health
educators learn about HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis, harm reduction,
immunology, virology, peer counseling and public speaking.  Or about how
using drugs affects and furthers disease progression and healthy
choice-making.  Those workshops are not Open Space, though they are
indeed participant-focused and carry the same 'wisdom is in the room'
values.  
 
However, I have set up a circle of chairs on a prison exercise yard --
and whomever comes by sits down, and people come and go, and the group
talks about whatever anyone wants to talk about, and the topics of
conversation shift and change.  It's a deep listening from all the
participants in the circle and a speaking from the heart, with very
little facilitation from me aside from holding space while sitting in
the circle and saying a few affirmations ('that must be hard for you' or
'your daughter is lucky to have you').  It goes like this for a few
hours.
 
Invariably, by the way, the topic gets to grief and loss.  Worry for
family members, worry about younger siblings who are at risk of going to
prison, worry for meeting the education and emotional needs of their
children on the outside, grief for not being able to assist sick family
members or attend funerals and memorials of loved ones.  
 
Brendan, they are lucky to have you as a deep listener and a true
believer for each individual, their heart and their spirit,
 
Lisa
 
___________________________
L i s a   H e f t
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
O p e n i n g  S p a c e
2325 Oregon
Berkeley, California
94705-1106   USA
+01 510 548-8449
 <mailto:lisaheft at openingspace.net> lisaheft at openingspace.net
 <http://www.openingspace.net> www.openingspace.net 
 
 
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