A unique Shakespearean collaborative workshop took place inside SQRC’s ARC building on May 19, 2024, involving three distinctive SQRC groups, Shakespeare, The Beat Within, Kid CAT, and students from Urban School of San Francisco.
The morning began with confusion and mixed emotions from all group participants mentioned above, minus the high school students, standing outside the ARC building.
All the Shakespeare group members were wondering what is going on as Sunday mornings from 9a.m – 11 a.m. is designated for the Shakespeare group to utilize and there were Kid CAT and The Beat Within cohorts mixed amongst them.
Of course the same confusion must be transpiring with both Kid CAT and The Beat Within.
Somewhere, the communication wires must also have been crossed or someone didn’t get the memo. Something must be amiss.
Re-imagining San Quentin is creating more self-help groups. As a result, space availability for groups to use decreased.
Conflict in group scheduling to share space can be a very challenging thing for residents to endure as everyone involved in self-help groups are looking forward to their rehabilitative effort.
As residents were standing around the ARC building wondering what to do, down the ramp came a group of teenagers who were escorted by Courtney Rein, Staff Sponsor for The Beat Within, and alongside them were guest visitor, former SQRC resident Phillippe “Kellz” Kelly, and Shakespeare Staff Sponsor Leslie Currier.
Once the visiting group arrived at the ARC building, everyone was eager to have the day begin and gone was the confusion of which group was to use the ARC building.
Leslie began with an introduction of the days event and had everyone was seated in a circle and the visitors were spread out as to not be seated next to one another. This seating arrangement was done intentionally to facilitate a full and rich experience for all the participants.
This experience began with everyone acting out two animated introductions. After this unique introduction came two more sharing, one of what we each liked about being a teenager and the other of what we disliked. There were laughs and smiles all around. Everyone felt silly and began to relax and let go of their apprehensions concerning the men in blue and settled into the workshop. Old and young alike, connected through shared human experiences, only existing in the moment of Shakespeare like environment. For a moment, some participants became statuesque of an internal representation of themselves.
Next up was a group of four event where they had to find one shared commonality and one difference amongst each group. Of course they all had to act them out. As with all fun activities, time flies and before everyone knew it, time was up as the next self-help group was scheduled to use the ARC building at 11 a.m. and the rest of what remained of the days event had to be taken outside. No had a problem with that as mutual respect was on full display for all the groups in a small tiny shared space.
All in all, these four groups learned a great deal about one the other and all are working towards a common goal. The residents were able to create awareness together and continued working on their rehabilitative efforts in becoming the best versions of themselves.
Kid CAT First Step was next on the scheduled program for the ARC building, to be followed up by Kid CAT’s Juvenile Lifer Support Group at .
With everyone sitting in a big circle, First Step staff sponsor and facilitator Frannie began group session with a calm and soothing breathing exercise used for grounding a person’s thoughts to be focused on the present moment.
Once a quick check in was done, the big circle group was dispersed into small groups to go over class homework on Relationship Communication. Group members discussed in detail what a healthy relationship’s communication looked like, which was followed up with an unhealthy version. As members each took turn sharing his/her story, one can’t help but noticed how everyone was touched emotionally and all present in the group were sympathetic to their members plights.
The last half hour was held in the large circle where the group’s lesson module was facilitated by Jorel Nelson on Relationship Communication. Nelson proceeded to engage the group participants in dialogue concerning the importance of healthy communication versus unhealthy ones.
As was the case with the Shakespeare workshop, time flew by and it was time for the next group to take up the ARC building’s space. Closing was in order and everyone checked out with a word describing how they felt at that moment.
“I feel loved,” said Eliazar Guerra.
Unfortunately for Kid CAT’s Juvenile Lifer Support Group, the group sponsors did not show up and the group was sadly canceled.
