Carolyn Baxter (born 1953)[1] is an African-American poet, playwright, and musician.[2][3][4] Baxter is from
Harlem, New York. She was a participant in the
Black Panthers School Breakfast Program. Baxter was formerly incarcerated at the New York City Correctional Institute for Women at
Rikers Island.[5] Her writings are considered a part of the Prison Art's Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.[6][7]
Biography
Baxter worked for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
NAACP and was a member of the
Black Panthers Party. She also worked for the New York City Board of Education in programs for ex-offenders and adolescent offenders.[8]
Baxter was formerly incarcerated at the New York City Correctional Institute for Women at
Rikers Island.[5] There, she joined the Free Space Writing Project. Her writings are considered a part of the Prison Art's Movement of the 1970s and 1980s.[6][7] Baxter served time with the singer/poet
Marilyn Buck.[9] Baxter attended BARD College after her incarceration.[10]
Brown University did an exhibit titled, Poetry in the Time of Mass Incarceration, which displayed Baxter's writings in the John Hay Library's Willis Reading Room at Brown from September 2015 – January 4, 2016.[11] Her work has been used in studies of the prison industrial complex.[12]
Publications
Books
Prison Solitary and Other Free Government Services (Greenfield Review Press, 1979)
Anthologies
20th Century Prison Writings (Penguin/Putnam, 1998)[13]
The Light from Another Country (Greenfield Review Press, 1984),