Poetry that frees the soul
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0:03 - 0:07It's said that to be a poet
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0:07 - 0:11you have to descend to hell once.
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0:12 - 0:16The first time I entered the prison,
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0:16 - 0:20I was not surprised by the noise
of the padlocks, -
0:20 - 0:24the closing doors, or the bars,
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0:24 - 0:28or anything of all the things
I had imagined. -
0:28 - 0:34Maybe because the prison
is in a quite open space. -
0:34 - 0:36You can see the sky.
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0:36 - 0:39Seagulls fly through the sky
and you think you are next to the sea. -
0:39 - 0:42That you are really close to the beach.
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0:42 - 0:48But in fact, the gulls go to the dump
near the prison looking for food. -
0:49 - 0:55I continued walking in and I suddenly saw
inmates moving across the corridors. -
0:56 - 1:00It was as if I stepped back and thought
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1:00 - 1:04that I could have perfectly been
one of them. -
1:04 - 1:10If I had another story,
another context, another luck. -
1:10 - 1:16Because nobody, nobody,
can choose where to be born. -
1:18 - 1:22In 2009 I was invited to join a project
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1:22 - 1:28the San Martín National University
has in the Unit 48, -
1:28 - 1:31to coordinate a writing workshop.
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1:31 - 1:38The prison service ceded some land
at the end of the prison. -
1:38 - 1:43Right there they constructed
the building of the University Center. -
1:44 - 1:47The first time I met with the prisoners,
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1:47 - 1:50I asked them why they were asking
for a writing workshop -
1:50 - 1:54and they told me they wanted
to put on paper -
1:54 - 1:58all that they couldn't say and do.
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1:59 - 2:04There I decided that I wanted poetry
to enter the prison. -
2:05 - 2:09Then I told them
why we don't work with poetry, -
2:09 - 2:11if they knew what poetry was.
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2:11 - 2:16Nobody had a clue
about what poetry really was. -
2:19 - 2:20Besides, they explained to me
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2:20 - 2:24that the workshop was not only
for graduated inmates, -
2:24 - 2:28but also for all the common inmates.
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2:28 - 2:32And then I said
that to start this workshop, -
2:32 - 2:36I needed some tool that we all have.
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2:36 - 2:39And that tool was language.
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2:39 - 2:45So, we had language, we had the workshop.
We could have poetry. -
2:45 - 2:51But what I didn't consider
was the inequality also in prison. -
2:51 - 2:56Many of them that didn't even have
a complete primary education. -
2:56 - 3:01Many couldn't use cursive,
but hardly print. -
3:03 - 3:07They didn't write fluently either.
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3:07 - 3:12So, we started looking for short poems.
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3:12 - 3:15Short, but powerful indeed.
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3:15 - 3:19And started to read, and read,
one author and another author -
3:19 - 3:24and by reading those short poems,
they all began to realize -
3:24 - 3:28that what the poetic language did
was to break a certain logic -
3:28 - 3:30and it created another system.
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3:30 - 3:34Breaking the logic of language is
also breaking the logic of the system -
3:34 - 3:38they are used to respond to.
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3:39 - 3:42So a new system appeared,
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3:42 - 3:47new rules that made them
understand really fast, -
3:47 - 3:49really fast,
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3:49 - 3:51that with the poetic language
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3:51 - 3:56they would absolutely say
what they wanted. -
4:00 - 4:05It's said that to be a poet
you have to descend to hell once. -
4:05 - 4:10And they have plenty of hell.
Plenty of hell. -
4:10 - 4:15One of them once said:
"In prison you never sleep. -
4:15 - 4:20You can never sleep in jail.
You can never close your eyelids." -
4:20 - 4:27And so, like I’m doing now,
I gave them a moment of silence. -
4:27 - 4:31And then, I said,
“This is what poetry is, guys. -
4:32 - 4:37The prison universe is here,
in your hands. -
4:37 - 4:40Everything you say
about how you never sleep, -
4:40 - 4:43exudes fear, all of the unwritten.
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4:43 - 4:46All that is poetry."
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4:47 - 4:52So we started appropriating that hell.
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4:52 - 4:55And we plunged ourselves
into the seventh circle. -
4:55 - 4:59In that seventh circle of hell,
our own and so beloved circle, -
4:59 - 5:03they learned
that walls could be invisible, -
5:03 - 5:06windows could yell
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5:06 - 5:09and that we could hide inside the shadows.
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5:12 - 5:15The first year the workshop
had finished, -
5:15 - 5:18we organized a little closing party
as they are done. -
5:18 - 5:24When a job is done with so much love,
you want to celebrate and have a party. -
5:24 - 5:29We called family, friends,
the university authorities. -
5:29 - 5:33The only thing they had to do
was reading a poem, -
5:33 - 5:39receiving their diploma, applause
and that was our simple party. -
5:40 - 5:45The only thing I want to leave you with
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5:47 - 5:49is the moment those men,
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5:49 - 5:53at times huge when they stand by me,
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5:53 - 5:59or very young boys,
but with an enormous pride, -
5:59 - 6:05they held their paper and trembled
like kids and sweated -
6:05 - 6:11and read their poems with their
voices completely broken. -
6:12 - 6:16That moment made me think a lot
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6:16 - 6:20that surely most of them were applauded
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6:20 - 6:26for the first time
for something they had done. -
6:29 - 6:32In prison there are things
that can't be done. -
6:32 - 6:37In prison you can't dream,
in prison you can't cry. -
6:37 - 6:42There are words that are virtually
forbidden, like the word time, -
6:42 - 6:47the word future, the word wish.
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6:47 - 6:52But we dared to dream and to dream a lot
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6:52 - 6:57because we decided
that they were going to write a book. -
6:57 - 7:02Not only did they write a book
but they also bound it. -
7:02 - 7:05That was by the end of 2010.
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7:05 - 7:09We doubled the bet
and wrote another book. -
7:09 - 7:11And bound another book.
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7:11 - 7:14That was a short time ago,
by the end of last year. -
7:16 - 7:20What I see week after week
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7:20 - 7:25is how they are turning
into different people, -
7:25 - 7:27how they are being transformed.
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7:27 - 7:31How words empower them
with a dignity they hadn't heard of, -
7:31 - 7:33they couldn't even imagine.
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7:33 - 7:38They had no idea such dignity
could come from them. -
7:39 - 7:45At the workshop, in that beloved hell
we have, we all give. -
7:45 - 7:51We open our hands and hearts and give
what we have, what we can. All of us. -
7:51 - 7:53All of us equally.
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7:53 - 7:57Thus you feel that at least
in a small way -
7:57 - 8:01you are repairing
that huge social fracture -
8:01 - 8:07which makes it so that for many of them
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8:07 - 8:10prison is their only destination.
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8:12 - 8:18I remember a verse
of a tremendous poet, a great poet, -
8:19 - 8:24of the Unit 48 of our
workshop, Nicolás Dorado: -
8:28 - 8:35"I have to get an infinite thread
to sew up this huge wound." -
8:35 - 8:41Poetry does that. It sews up
the wounds of exclusion. -
8:41 - 8:46It opens doors.
Poetry works as a mirror. -
8:46 - 8:50It creates a mirror, which is the poem.
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8:50 - 8:54They recognize themselves,
they look at themselves in the poem -
8:54 - 8:59and write from who they are
and they are from what they write. -
8:59 - 9:02In order to write,
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9:02 - 9:06they need to appropriate
the moment of writing -
9:06 - 9:09which is a moment
of extraordinary freedom. -
9:09 - 9:12They have to get into their heads,
search for that bit of freedom -
9:12 - 9:17that can never be taken away
when they write -
9:17 - 9:21and that is also useful
to realize that freedom is possible -
9:21 - 9:23even inside the jail,
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9:23 - 9:28and that the only bars we have
in our wonderful space -
9:28 - 9:30is the word bars,
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9:30 - 9:34and that all of us in our inferno
burn with happiness -
9:34 - 9:38when we light the wick of the word.
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9:38 - 9:41(Applause)
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10:06 - 10:12I told you a lot about prison,
a lot about my experience -
10:12 - 10:16every week and how I enjoy it
and transform myself with them. -
10:16 - 10:20But you don't know how much I'd like it
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10:20 - 10:25if you could feel, live, experience,
even for a few seconds, -
10:25 - 10:29what I enjoy every week
and what makes me who I am. -
10:32 - 10:35(Applause)
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10:41 - 10:45Martín Bustamante:
The heart chews tears of time -
10:45 - 10:48Blind by that light
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10:48 - 10:52Hides the speed of existence
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10:52 - 10:53Where the images row
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10:53 - 10:57It fights, it hangs on.
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10:57 - 11:01The heart cracks under the sad gazes
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11:01 - 11:04Rides through storms that spread fire
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11:04 - 11:07Lifts chests lowered by shame,
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11:07 - 11:11Knows that it's not just reading
and going on, -
11:11 - 11:14It also wishes to see the infinite blue.
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11:14 - 11:18The heart sits down to think about things,
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11:18 - 11:21Fights for avoiding commonplaces,
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11:21 - 11:24Tries to love without hurting,
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11:24 - 11:28Breathes the sun giving courage to itself,
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11:28 - 11:32Surrenders, travels to the reason.
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11:32 - 11:35The heart fights among swamps,
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11:35 - 11:39Goes along the edge of the underworld,
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11:39 - 11:43Falls weakly and doesn't yield
to the easy way -
11:43 - 11:46While irregular steps of intoxication
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11:46 - 11:47Wake,
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11:47 - 11:49Wake the stillness.
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11:49 - 11:51I'm Martín Bustamante,
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11:52 - 11:55I am a prisoner in Unit 48 of San Martín,
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11:55 - 11:58today is my day of temporary release.
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11:58 - 12:02Poetry and literature changed my life.
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12:02 - 12:03Thank you very much!
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12:03 - 12:04Cristina Domenech: Thank you!
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12:04 - 12:07(Applause)
- Title:
- Poetry that frees the soul
- Speaker:
- Cristina Domenech
- Description:
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“It’s said that to be a poet, you have to go to hell and back.” Cristina Domenech teaches writing at an Argentinian prison, and she tells the moving story of helping incarcerated people express themselves, understand themselves — and glory in the freedom of language. Watch for a powerful reading from one of her students, an inmate, in front of an audience of 10,000. In Spanish with subtitles.
- Video Language:
- Spanish
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 12:37
Sebastian Betti edited English subtitles for Cristina Domenech | ||
Helene Batt edited English subtitles for Cristina Domenech | ||
Helene Batt approved English subtitles for Cristina Domenech | ||
Helene Batt accepted English subtitles for Cristina Domenech | ||
Helene Batt edited English subtitles for Cristina Domenech | ||
Helene Batt edited English subtitles for Cristina Domenech | ||
Helene Batt edited English subtitles for Cristina Domenech | ||
Helene Batt edited English subtitles for Cristina Domenech |