Inmate speakers’ club seeks to redefine ‘cool’

They say their goal is to “disrupt the culture of criminality” and to “redefine what’s cool.” With that in mind, the MADE MEN Gavel Club held its first event at Raymond Laborde Correctional Center in Cottonport Oct. 27.

The MADE MEN Experience is a stage performance written and directed by inmates Wilbert Coleman and Eyba Brown.

The event also featured motivational speaker Ashanti Witherspoon and his wife, Susan. “Our performances are always aimed at our ultimate goal, which is to cause a vast disruption to the cultures of failure and criminality that keep so many of us prisoners spiraling backwards,” club President Jirrico McKee said. “The crazy part about that objective is that each member of MADE MEN has the audacity to think that we -- a bunch of prisoners -- can actually accomplish it.”

MADE MEN stands for “Making A Difference Every Day Making Education Necessary.” The public speaking club was formed by McKee, Coleman, Carlos Johnson and Christopher Goodwill to help prisoners transform their lives through effective communication.

Stage performances are used to evoke life-changing self-reflection, McKee said.

WITHERSPOON'S LIFE

Witherspoon was an inmate at Angola for 27 years. During his time in prison, he worked in several inmate organizations and in a prison ministry.

“After 20 years, the state allowed me to travel to colleges, schools and other events to give my testimony and help to deter people from a life of crime and turn to God.”

He and his wife live in Baker where they operate the Society of Serving Leaders ministry, which focuses on the homeless and the challenge of re-entry into society. “I have been out of prison for 18 years, and I have been a pastor and associate pastor for several churches, but the biggest joy I get is to go into school to talk to boys and girls or into a prison to talk to those men and women and motivate those people to do more with their lives.

“What I tell them may not lessen the challenges they will face in society, but it may make them psychologically better prepared.” Witherspoon was also active in the prison Toastmasters club at Angola -- which is similar to the MADE MEN club -- and was impressed by the quality of the RLCC inmates’ speaking abilities. “The quality of their speaking was superb,” Witherspoon said. “I told several of them that I wish they could come out right now and help me speak to the young people of this state to help deter them from pursuing a life of crime.”

REDEFINING 'COOL'

Achieving the club’s goal requires members to “redefine what’s cool” to prisoners, he said. “As a club, we herald what’s life-affirming and life-changing,” McKee said. “We believe that positivity should be glamorized because that’s how you change lives -- by redefining cool, by changing perspectives, by making other prisoners see the coolest thing ever is reclaiming you life from ruins.”