Louisville Area

Our first program at the James Baker Hall Foundation initiated in early 2024 was a grant to support the “Write-To Recover” (WTR) program developed by Bobbi Buchanan of Bullitt County. We were introduced to Bobbi by her sister, oft decorated poet Cecilia, a good friend of Jim and Mary Ann’s. For more than a decade Bobbi has been organizing therapeutic writing workshops in the Bullitt County Detention Center.

Working with incarcerated populations requires a specialized skill set. Through the years of conducting workshops, Bobbi has written a manual to be used to train others. Each year she has edited and published a chapbook of poetry written by the inmates, both male and female. She has seen inmates use writing as a tool to turn their lives around. Crystal Miller, a former inmate who Bobbi has mentored as a poet both in prison and out, spoke at the Foundation’s inaugural event last May 2024. Her story is hard to hear, the places oxycontin addiction took her are hard to imagine. Crystal’s two children were in attendance that evening and so proud of their mother. More than one hundred were in attendance that evening, many with tears flowing as they heard first-hand how writing poetry saved Crystal’s life.

The therapeutic potential of art and literature is profound and well documented throughout history. It was exactly this, the healing that can be brought forth in a person through making art, that formed the arena where Jim’s poetry was delivered. It was through this process that he uncovered the truth that saved his soul. He titled his final collected poetry volume “The Total Light Process,” an interpretation of the ancient character 明 meaning clarity or illumination used by Ezra Pound to allude to the understanding that comes from making art, having used the complete spectrum of light and arrived to the truth.

“Write to Recover” has a demonstrated impact reducing recidivism and has been adopted as a component of the Kentucky State Department of Corrections “SAP” (Substance Abuse Program) in Bullitt County because of Bobbi’s work.

The Salt River Local Arts Cooperative (SLAC) is a community group of interested artists formed within a year of our initiating programs in Bullitt County with the specific purpose of establishing a community arts center. While writing, or any individual art form, is often a solitary endeavor, it does not happen without community. We know that artists need to be with each other, to share their work with each other. Jim loved to teach and loved the process of and energy he got from interactions with other artists. Jim also had people who would read his literary works, poetry and fiction and autobiographies and, his wife Mary Ann was first among them.

SLAC now holds its regular meetings each month on the third Saturday at From the Ground Up Books and Resources 160 Frank E. Simon Way, Shepherdsville KY 40165. The program’s readings are from local authors and a section Open Mic. A writing workshop is led each month by a published SLAC member. SLAC will host the Foundations Kentucky Writer-on-the -Road on July 23 which will feature Wesley Houp and his award winning first poetry collection , Strung Out Along the Naked Branch.

If you would like more information on the Salt River Local Arts Collaborative, contact Bobbi Buchanan at [email protected]