“Prison confines the world in small spaces”

Brigitte Brami. I became a poet at an early age, because I grew up alone due to a very serious genetic disease that I suffer from and am on lifelong treatment for. All I could do was to look at life differently and find an inner escape. Mine was poetry and the beauty it requires. I had to pursue my studies later in life because of my poor health, which greatly disturbed my education. I achieved a DEA (the equivalent of a master’s degree) in performing arts at Paris 3 University, specialising in theatre, then began my doctoral studies in French literature and civilisation at the Sorbonne University. I discovered Jean Genet’s works and my life was never the same again. I became the first assistant for an exhibition on Jean Genet and the Arab world. Of course, I also did a lot of other interesting jobs.

Then came my fall, as the saying goes. I always wondered why there was such a gap between my being charged and my imprisonment. Something did not seem right – there was a contradiction between the judicial truth and my reality.

After two imprisonments at Fleury-Mérogis, one in 2008 and the other in 2013, I finally understood that my family had, without saying a word, made me a scapegoat.

In other words: guilty. Obviously, I did everything to be in, and even deserve, this position. In 2008, I was imprisoned for five and a half months, and in 2013, I was on parole for six months.

Apart from my first book, which is a collection of poems, my books (La prison ruinée, Miracle de Jean Genet, et Corps imaginaires) were all inspired, written or finalised while I was in prison. My history is embedded in that of the old tradition of stubborn poets; poets who ended up in prison for predicting the future. A tradition that goes from François Villon to Jean Genet, via Verlaine, Albertine Sarrazin and others…

BB. I had two completely different experiences. During 2008, I discovered imprisonment and prisoners in particular. I was impressed by the resistance of some of the prisoners who had chosen to refuse everything we were taught, indirectly or not, by our very harsh society, which pits people against each other and ranks them from the very beginning (for example, the award of prizes to children), and enforces inflexible codes.

Left with nothing material and placed in this kind of social gutter, the girls at Fleury-Mérogis held on to their solidarity, complicity and sharing, thus rediscovering human values.

Confinement of the body is the definition of imprisonment. It deprives you of movement, and confines the world to small spaces like cells, visiting rooms, the compound area, etc. It therefore bends prisoners’ bodies, which in return requires a ‘re-dimensioning’ to adapt to the new perimeters. In 2008, there was a certain attitude of “I don’t care” and inventiveness among prisoners, which made it possible for them to take back their bodies and gain some moments of happiness. I remember those walks during which they managed to transform the space into a solarium and would tan their bare chests. When they stood up, they spat out gobs of spit that looked like jewellery, Jean Genet would have said.

In 2013, the prison conditions, just like society, had deteriorated. It was even worse because prisons are like a magnifying glass, revealing the failures in our society. At this time I discovered violence as well as very, very harsh conditions of imprisonment.

BB. Today my solidarity goes out to those who are oppressed, yet stand up and act. I am mainly interested in the fate of women, because they have come a long way. Let’s take a 70 year old woman, for example. In addition to all the ungendered daily horrors and cruelties she may have experienced, it is very likely that she also experienced things like incest, the use of knitting needles to terminate pregnancies, rape, daily humiliations, wage gaps, etc.
Everything that our patriarchal, capitalist, and inhumane society causes and encourages without admitting it. Genet did say that solitude was more important than solidarity.
I think we need both for either of them to be real.