Culture Shock

Over the past 10 months or so, our involvement with the Post-Prison Education Program has been mind-expanding in so many ways. Through reading, lectures, and personal talks with former prisoners, we have become aware of the terrible injustices inflicted by this country's penal system on the millions of American citizens who are ensnared in it. We have also become acquainted with many amazing people we would otherwise never have met, people of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds not to be found in the white-bread suburban world to which have become accustomed. We have shared our culture with them and, in return, have been privileged to be invited to learn more about theirs.

On Thursday evening, we attended a Seattle Symphony concert with several Post-Prison and University of Washington Honors Program students who, through the class being taught by Claudia, Honors 231 B: In Your Name: A Service-Learning Experience in Seattle's Criminal Justice System, have become well acquainted. The Symphony performed a premiere of a piece by the 30-year-old composer Nico Muhly entitled "So Far, So Good," followed by Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, and Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 performed by Marc-André Hamelin. Muhly's piece was enjoyable enough, but the other music we heard ranks among the greatest artistic achievements of Western Civilization. Everyone had a wonderful time.

Two of the Post-Prison students present at the concert invited us to an event the following evening at the University of Washington Ethnic Cultural Center presented by the Pasifik Voices Program. We heard original poetry describing the Pacific Islander experience in the Northwest. We heard music composed and performed by Pacific Islanders expressing pride in their culture and, in some instances, a wistful longing for their home islands. There was hula dancing and, in the final performance of the evening, we were treated to traditional Pacific Islander dance featuring young men from Kagaka Lua Entertainment who wowed the audience with their energy, joy, and skill. Kagaka Lua is the brainchild of two Post-Prison students who also run the organization and were kind enough to invite us to the performance and to treat us as honored guests.





(Above: our friend Jun in action)

(Below: Kagua Lua)

All in all, one hell of a good time.