Virtual
Join Aperture and The Marshall Project for a conversation between artist Nigel Poor and poet Reginald Dwayne Betts, celebrating the launch of the book The San Quentin Project (Aperture, 2021). In 2011, Poor began teaching a history of photography class through the Prison University Project (now called Mount Tamalpais College) at San Quentin State Prison, California. Soon, Poor began incorporating images from thousands of negatives from the prison’s vast archive into her visual studies exercises. From the banal to the brutal, to distinct moments of respite, the pictures in this archive gave those who were involved in the project the opportunity to share their stories and reflections on incarceration. In this discussion, moderated by The Marshall Project’s Lawrence Bartley, Poor and Betts reflect on the importance and impact of both the project and the prison archive.