My newfound understanding
of the paths some people take
or my gratitude for the friendships formed
With those unlikely gentlemen.
Sitting here now I think
of them, wondering
what they’ll bring with them
on the day they leave
And what they will leave behind
~ excerpt from Undetected, Nick Bryant-Smith
The Project
The Red Room Company returned to the South Coast Correctional Centre near Nowra, NSW, in August of 2016 for our third visit to the centre as part of the Unlocked program. As with our last two visits, Nick Bryant-Smith (also known as SOLO, half of the Sydney hip hop act HorrorShow) joined us to run a series of poetry workshops with the inmates.
The Poet
Nick has been involved with Unlocked for a number of years, performing at the CTDCC in 2013 and being a part of our Unlocked event at the Sydney Writers Festival. His varied background in hip hop, rap, and spoken-word poetry is often an exciting and welcome change to the ideas of poetry that inmates may already have.
Why Unlocked?
Poetry has the power to transform lives and create lasting positive social impact. Through artistic programs like Unlocked, we bring poetry, music, art and translation together to improve literacy and expression for the students with the aim to reduce recidivism.
Print Anthologies
As with all the Unlocked projects, The Red Room Company will be creating a print anthology of the poetry created during the workshops - available through our online store - which will be given to the students for themselves or to give to friends and family.
