UW-L is participating in the La Crosse Big Read event. This event involves not only UW-L students and staff, but the La Crosse community as well. Everyone is reading A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. A book about a man who is sentenced to death. According to  http://www.lacrossereads.com/contact/, this read evokes the question, “Knowing we’re going to die, how should we live?” People in the La Crosse community are discussing this question, reading the book, and attending events where speakers are brought in to talk about issues related to the book.

On Feb. 23 at The U, keynote speaker Deborah Appleman spoke about her experiences teaching within the prison system to a crowd of current readers of the novel A Lesson Before Dying.

Appleman is a professor at Carleton College in Minnesota. However, every week since 2007 she has been teaching courses at the Minnesota Correctional Facility—Stillwater. She teaches courses such as Literary Studies, Creative Writing, Linguistics, Psychology, etc. The prison is high security, “Just think TSA times a thousand,” Appleman explained.

Teaching people who are now “property of the state,” Appleman said, there is a lot of “incarcerated intelligence” which is disheartening to see. One of her students has even published a book of his own from inside the facility. Writing is a very important aspect of the prisoner’s lives. They perform in emotion-filled poetry readings that allow them space to feel at ease for a little while.

Appleman touched on ethical issues of researching the incarcerated and problems in the public schooling system that create a “school to prison pipeline” throughout her speech.

“We become who people think we are unless we interrupt it,” Appleman said. She partially blames the public schooling system for the downfall of prisoners nationwide, and believes that teaching within the prison system is a great opportunity for anyone, but advises that one should be mindful. “You can’t divorce emotion… I don’t hide my emotions [from the prison students] because they deserve to see that their words move people,” Appleman went on to explain that aside from being emotionally mindful, she would never do something such as “talk about the weather with them,” because they cannot enjoy the outside like she can.

Throughout her speech, Appleman shared quotes from A Lesson Before Dying that connected to her real-life experiences in the prison system as a teacher. She explained that reading a novel like this one should “evoke thought on how to make the world a more just place.” This is exactly what the La Crosse Big Read wants their participants to do. The books should allow readers to “advocate for literacy, social justice, and human rights” as stated byhttp://www.lacrossereads.com/contact/.

The next event is on March 3 at the La Crosse Public Library. See web link for details: http://www.lacrossereads.com/event-calendar/