Dwayne Betts Brings One-Man Show, ‘Felon: An American Washi Tale,’ to NU Chicago

Dwayne Betts (Photo Credit: macfound.org). As the story goes, Dwayne Betts didn’t discover poetry in the usual way.& After getting arrested at 16 years old for carjacking, he was sentenced to nine years in prison, charged as an adult despite his age.& While in solitary confinement, someone slid a copy of “The Black Poets” under his cell door. Yes, the anthology edited by the great Dudley Randall opened his world, but what it really did was catalyze a young man who was already writing. More than that, it may have sharpened his resolve and provided Betts with foresight not many in his situation would have, facing hard years behind bars. “When I got sentenced to nine years in prison, I was in a holding cell,” Betts told The Chicago Defender in a recent interview, “And I immediately started thinking about what I was going to be when I went home and I said, ‘I’m going to be a writer.’” Poetry, Freedom and ‘Then Some’ Betts became that and then some—emphasis on “then some.” Add lawyer, educator, prison reform advocate, executive director of a nonprofit, MacArthur Fellow, literary activist, poet, playwright and performer to his bio.& This Friday and Saturday, Chicago...