Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

When Words Weave Wings: Just Beyond The Bars, Barbara Bethea

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

Narrative and storytelling creates a formidable foundation for individuals to convey their lived experiences. Utilizing indigenous arts-based research (ABR), poetics as an inquiring and exploratory tool, and an ABR interviewing technique called poetic emergence by the researcher, this study asked two essential questions: What are the lived experiences of individuals in and outside of carceral states? Will these experiences reflect certain aspects of an individual’s life journey? The purpose of this study was to explore the embodied voices and lived experiences of adult Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC), diagnosed with mental health issues who were formerly incarcerated (n=3) …