Seeing the Commonality

On Tuesday, January 19, Dwayne Betts spoke to the Dana Hall community via Zoom for the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation. His performance included original poetry, artwork and stories from his past. Betts was introduced by J. Meares-Garcia ’22, one of the SHADES tri-heads, who called him “an advocate for justice, an inspiration and a really cool person.”

Betts began by sharing his entry into poetry in the summer of 1998. He was in solitary confinement and would hear other inmates sliding books to one another under their jail cells. When he asked for his own book, he was slid a copy of The Black Poets by Dudley Randall. “I was 17,” he recounted. “Why would someone think a 17-year-old wanted to read poetry in prison?”

After being slid a second book of poetry, he realized the author has served time in prison, then became a poet. “It hit me about exactly what was possible,” Betts said, and he began writing poetry while still an inmate. He would go on to write three books of poetry, including the most recently published Felon. However, when it came out in hardcover, it was inaccessible to the very people Betts wanted to have it and read it. He self-published a paperback edition, which he called the “freedom edition,” and printed 20,000 copies. “It’s like my way to sliding books under cells,” he said. “The pages sound like wings being flapped.”

Betts was released on March 4, 2005, which he took as a command from God to “march forth out into the world, leaving all the prison stuff behind.” He earned an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in fine arts, yet he still had trouble getting a job because of his criminal past. “It’s harder to get an apartment, harder to get a job,” Betts said. “It’s harder to get people to stop looking at you like you’ve got prison bars in your eyes.” He decided to become a lawyer and attended Yale Law School. He used his training to represent friends he’d made while incarcerated as well as help families and communities affected by the inequities of the U.S. criminal justice system.

Betts uses poetry to help make his stories reach to the core of his audiences. “Poetry allows you to see the commonality,” he said. “I ask myself, ‘How can I make something emotionally resonate? How can I have some panache to what I’m doing?’ I write to tell stories. I write to learn.”