Brenda Birungi Lady Unchained: Creating a platform for prison poetry
“My life ended and began with a prison sentence, those metal doors awoke the faith in me” Sitting in her front room, with a group of like-minded friends, Lady Unchained and her friends would have debates and discussions about the problems they faced and write about how they made them feel. This inspired her to set up Unchained Poetry, a platform for artists with experience of the criminal justice system. She now hosts Unchained Nights in partnership with Artsadmin at Toybee Stations, a night of inspirational storytelling, through poetry and music, performed by artists with lived experience of the justice system. She also co-hosts for National Prison Radio’s show We Are StraightLine, a show about Getting out of prison and Staying out of prison and has just featured in a new podcast Secret Life of Prisons. Lady Unchained’s mission is to prove that there is life after prison. Through poetry she tells her own personal story and the untold stories that are often left untold, because of shame or labels. In this podcast she perforoms a selection of her poems. Join in the conversation online using #BeingtheStory