Poets & Spoken Word Artists

Listen to all the poems from Calls From Home 2009
Download MP3 (right click)

Thank you to all the poets, writers and creative friends that submitted a work to Thousand Kites for our national radio broadcast “Calls From Home.”

Cold Steel

  Ode to Cook County Jail

Ten years ago when prisoners in our region’s newly opened Supermax facilities wrote us about human rights abuses and racism, we responded as artists .  Soon we witnessed the effect our effort had on our region’s prisons.  Light truly is the best sanitizer.

One of the first poems that came back to us from Wallens Ridge State prison was a gripping poem called “Grave Prison Yard.”  We responded by creating a public performance.

Grave Prison Yard

We are asking you to submit a work on the themes of incarceration, family, the power to endure and anything that would lift the spirits and spark creativity in our thousands of prisoner listeners.  Speak from the heart.

Your work will be added to our website, broadcast on over 200 radio stations as part of Calls from Home and released as part of a CD celebrating our ten years of creativity, radio, and the power of community.

 You can submit your poem, or read a prisoners poem if you have permission, by calling it into our toll-free line and recording it on our answering machine at 877-518-0606.  Don’t worry if you slip up, we will edit all calls. 

Please help spread the word to your friends.  Add a link to this page to your Facebook page or email it to a friend.  Contact us if you have ideas for how to grow the project.