Acerca de
Sharing stories.
Turn the Page
Literacy Initiative
About the Program
Turn the Page offers reading, creative writing and journaling opportunities for incarcerated or displaced men and women at the Hamilton Co. Jail and the Silverdale Detention facility. Several transitional housing organizations in the area also have groups including Love's Arms, a home or women who have experienced sexual trafficking, and Mocassin Bend Mental Hospital.. The groups are led by facilitators who hold master's degrees in English or Creative Writing.
​
Facilitator, Andreana Lefton wrote a creative short essay on her experience with working in Hamilton Co. Jail and the impact on participants. The essay was published in Catalpa Magazine in 2020. Read the piece here.
Mission Statement
Crafted by Turn the Page participants.
​
In these groups, we read, write, talk, and listen. We speak, but we don’t interrupt. We offer comfort but not judgment. We learn about reading and comprehension strategies, authors’ pasts, literary movements, ways in which history interacts with literature, and common literary techniques to prepare us for complicated reasoning and advanced learning in future endeavors.
We take the time to think about the things we have done in our lives and reflect on the things we are going to do in the future, but we realize that it is not up to us to evaluate each other’s pasts or put others down. We come to know how others in our group feel and think, and by doing that, we’re able to understand each other better.
We exercise our minds by discussing various aspects of life on the outside and life on the inside and relate our experiences to the things we read. We discuss things that people in the free world should know about jail and prison, and we use what we read to make ourselves more compassionate, more thoughtful, and more prepared for the challenges of the world, and in doing so, we become closer as a group.
​
Get Involved
​
Support Turn the Page by helping us stock our classroom!
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Turn the Page is a rapidly growing program in the Hamilton County area and has potential to expand into new facilities as we train new facilitators. We are seeking dedicated, passionate individuals to become Turn the Page Facilitators. Facilitators undergo a multi-faceted training process before they can lead sessions at the facility.
QUALIFICATIONS:
-
Experience teaching adults and/or experience working with incarcerated learners
-
Background in English, social work, psychology, etc
-
Masters or Ph.D. preferred (but not necessarily required)
TRAINING PROCESS:
-
New Facilitator Training with Turn the Page
-
Volunteer Training at Hamilton County Jail or Silverdale Correctional Facility
-
Debriefing Session
​
For further information, please contact Victoria Bryan (victoria.m.bryan@gmail.com)
​
The Facilitators:
Dr. Victoria Bryan
Lead Facilitator
Dr. Bryan holds a bachelor’s degree in English and American language and literature, a master’s degree in English, and a
Ph.D. in American Literature. Her research and writing has focused on critical prison study, a field interested in
interrogating the role of the prison industrial complex in the U.S. In addition to facilitating this program, she has taught
with the Tennessee Higher Education Initiative, a Nashville-based nonprofit that provides for-credit opportunities for
college education to incarcerated learners. In 2016, she completed Inside-Out training, a program designed to bring freeworld students and incarcerated students into classes together in carceral settings. Her book, Prestige Television and
Prison in the Age of Mass Incarceration, was published with Routledge press in 2019.
Gwen Mullins Alegre
Facilitator
Gwen Mullins Alegre is a certified Narrative 4 facilitator, working writer, and composition teacher at UTC. She is
committed to the concept of connection and empathy as cornerstones for good writing and ethical living. Her work has
been published in books and journals, including Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022, New Ohio Review, Cleaver,
African American Review, Social Justice Anthologies, The Bitter Southerner, PANK, and Green Mountains Review,
among others. Gwen received an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train’s Very Short Fiction Award as well as the Frank
O’Connor Fiction Award from descant. Gwen holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA from the
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Tracye Pool
Facilitator
​Tracye Pool has been an employee of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) since 1991, where she has
taught ACT preparation classes for Continuing Education and a variety of classes for the English Department and
Women’s Studies. In the Spring of 2020, she received the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Lecturer Award. She
has participated in various presentations and readings, including the Conference on College Composition and
Communication, Meacham Writers’ Workshop, and the English Department’s “Lemonade: The Lecture” and “Roses and
Whine Poetry Slam.” She is Past-President of the Chattanooga Council of Teachers of English and the Arts and
Education Council, National Council of Teachers of English Liaison, and former Chair of the Conference on Southern
Literature. She has contributed short stories, articles, and poems to Healthscope Magazine, Adobe Abalone, Confection
Magazine, Apollo's Lyre, National Council of Teachers of English Writer's Gallery, and Trends in Training.
​
Adrienne Kaufman
Past Facilitator
Adrienne Kaufmann is a teacher and writer. She has taught English at both the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Chattanooga State Community College, and she writes literature and composition curriculum for various education companies. Adrienne is passionate about using her qualifications and experience to seek justice in her community. This led her to Turn the Page, where she has been teaching since 2019.
Andréana Lefton
Past Facilitator
Andréana Lefton is a writer, traveler, and teaching artist. She has lived across the U.S., and in the U.K, Europe and Middle East, meeting amazing people and working toward human connection, education, and creativity. She designs and facilitates workshops that blend reflective practices, poetry and the quest for justice. She began teaching with Turn the Page in 2018 and is excited to help the program grow and reach new students.
Kris Whorton
Past Facilitator
Kris Whorton is an English Lecturer at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. A desire to be useful in her community brought her to Hamilton County Jail where she has been teaching inmates Creative Writing since 2018.
Haven Wright
Past Facilitator
Haven Wright is a Psychology Major finishing up her final semester at Cleveland State Community College. After CSCC, she will be pursuing a Masters in Art Therapy. She first learned about Turn the Page through Dr. Bryan’s service learning Composition II class. Over the course of that semester she lead a book drive to encourage donations from the community for Bradley County Jail’s library. After spending a semester studying, helping, and writing to incarcerated individuals she discovered an appreciation and the necessity for this type of work. She is currently designing an art program, with Dr. Bryan, to run alongside Turn the Page. Her goal is to see if art can provide an outlet for those in a high stress environment.