This reflection was written by Dr. Elea Proctor, an assistant professor in the Department of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University.
OPEEP has several embedded learning communities at different prison facilities, including LoCI, where faculty members meet biweekly with incarcerated learners.
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This past fall semester, I developed a new ritual. Every other Monday night, I picked up my two year-old daughter from daycare, drove her home and dropped her off with my husband, rushed to shovel some food into my mouth, and then turned back around to head out the door.
“Where are you going, Mommy?” she’d ask, one eye on the TV, where a Disney princess was usually singing.
“I’m going to the prison,” I’d answer, adding, “Remember? It’s Monday night.”
“Why are you going there, Mommy?"
“I’m going to work, honey. We’re going to read books.”
“What are you reading, Mommy?”
We were reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, but I’d say, “Adult books.”
Then, before she could ask another follow-up question: “Come give Mommy a hug. I love you. I’ll check on you when I get home.”
Becoming a parent has shaped how I experience many parts of my life, including my participation in OPEEP and the learning community at LCI. It’s also something I’ve bonded over with other members of the learning community. I am currently the only woman in the group, as LCI is a men’s prison, and in the moments before our sessions begin or during icebreaker activities, several of the men have spoken about their children: how much they miss them, and how much they look forward to seeing them again.
Those conversations connect naturally to Butler’s Parable of the Sower, a novel deeply concerned with childhood, responsibility, and survival across generations. Our discussions often move between the text itself and our lived experiences, which is one of the most powerful and enriching parts of my experience with OPEEP so far. I’d make the hour-long drive home without music, letting the conversation from the learning community replay. When I got home, I’d slip into my daughter’s darkened room on socked feet, pull her discarded blanket back over her, and kiss her head. I’d think about books, and community, and the ways reading can bring different lives in conversation with one another.
When you find something that matters to you—as this learning community does to me—it gives new meaning to small moments and shapes your thinking in unexpected ways. I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to participate in the new learning community at LCI through OPEEP. I’ve missed our meetings over the winter holidays, and I look forward to making that Monday night drive again this semester
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