“Grinding the walls to dust”: feminist media praxis

Abstract

This manuscript examines feminist media praxis as a site of knowledge production by exploring two distinct yet interconnected sites: a critical poetry workshop in a men's prison in Stillwater, Minnesota and a high school social justice theater program in St. Paul Central High School in St. Paul, Minnesota. The author, a feminist filmmaker and scholar, filmed both the prison poets and the high school students, and critically "read" still frames of the video footage, to show how educational practices in public schools and prisons can work to subvert mainstream narratives of the "white teacher" as inner-city savior. This project interweaves feminism, film theory, prison studies, pedagogy, and video-making practices, to produce knowledge that prioritizes both critical inquiry and creative media making. Through praxis, knowledge is produced using art (poetry, performance and video), to work in resistance to Minnesota's school-to-prison pipeline.