Ellen Stackable works tirelessly to help incarcerated women find and express their voices. In this episode, I talk with her about Poetic Justice, the program she started five years ago to connect with and bring hope to imprisoned women in Oklahoma and beyond by teaching them creative writing.

Ellen Stackable is the Executive Director of Poetic Justice, an organization that teaches creative writing to incarcerated women. She taught English and writing for over eighteen years at Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences, and she has her BSE from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

While pursuing her master’s degree in Liberal Studies at the University of Oklahoma, she became aware of the issue of mass incarceration of women in Oklahoma. As a writing teacher, she knew the power of writing to transform lives, so she wanted to teach writing to incarcerated women. In March of 2014, she helped start Poetic Justice, working with incarcerated women at the Tulsa County Jail.

Poetic Justice classes give a voice to the voiceless and empowers women to change as they engage in self-reflective, therapeutic writing. Poetic Justice now has sixty volunteers who teach classes to incarcerated women every week at the Tulsa County Jail, at every women’s prison in Oklahoma, a rehab in Tijuana, Mexico, and at the San Diego County jail. This last year, Poetic Justice held a day long workshop on empathy called, “The Human Factor” that all wardens, deputy wardens, and chief guards were required to attend.

Ellen was honored with the 2015 YWCA Women of the Year Pinnacle Award.  In addition:

• TulsaCC TedX speaker: 2017 “Unlocking the Voices of Incarcerated Women”
• Tulsa Metropolitan Ministries Point of Light Award: 2018
• Dan Allen Center for Social Justice Outstanding Project Award: 2018
• University of Oklahoma Social Justice Activist in Residence: 2018
• CNN Hero Award Finalist: 2018

But every Tuesday, you can find her at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center, Oklahoma’s largest women’s prison, surrounded by incarcerated women who are becoming poet warriors.

So fill up your mug and join me for a conversation with… Ellen Stackable.

Until next time,