“Locked Away But Not Defeated”

The Chicago-based performance ensemble Matters of the Heart was established in 2009 by three formerly incarcerated women who collectively served more than 50 years in the Illinois state prison system for violent crimes. The ensemble wrote “Locked Up But Not Defeated,” a script based upon their personal experiences of life in a women’s prison. This chapter details how and why their script was revised and performed to de-escalate violence in their communities and communicate their capacity to overcome the stigma and estrangement of incarceration to broader publics.