Time Out of Joint

Seattle, Washington, 98122

Last updated on April 8, 2025
Grant awarded by
Library of Congress
Region
National
Organization Type
Non-profit Organization
Congressional District(s)
7
Fiscal Year Of First Grant
FY 2023 [10/01/22 - 09/30/23]
Contributing Organization(s)
Organization description

Time Out of Joint is an innovative, BiPoc-led educational project that provides exciting workshops led by educated former prisoners and artist-activists aided by Ph.D. scholars.

Our goal is to help students engage with Shakespeare as they re-imagine their sense of community and as they embrace people of many backgrounds. TOOJ is committed to embracing all people and fostering cross-cultural conversations. We address racism and inequity through dialogue, listening, and critical thinking.

TOOJ workshops are free to any high school or college classroom in the United States.

Our project employs formerly incarcerated people as educators.  Many of these educators earned BA or MA degrees in prison.  In addition, they bring years of experience from all levels of society.  Each of our teachers is a person who has experienced the trauma of the streets, the impact of deviant behavior, and being in prison — and has emerged from these experiences as kind, compassionate, and extraordinary citizens. These men (and soon, women) are well-read, articulate, and loving. They are educated and have read many works by Shakespeare.

We believe that the United States misses great opportunities to make use of the life experiences/educations of the formerly incarcerated. Employing former prisoners in leadership roles benefits students through unique opportunities for dialogue, and the former prisoners themselves, their families, and their communities. The benefits to the men are partly financial (because they are paid for teaching), but importantly, work to build self-esteem, fight stereotypes, and provide a sense of purpose. This is powerful and moving work.

Project description

We are members of the Lewis-Houghton Initiative cohort.  Our work takes place in several areas. These include:

  • Classroom teaching
    • our classroom approach is based on a technique of ‘paired texts’.  We choose a scene from Shakespeare, a written piece by one of our teammates and primary sources from LOC.gov and launch critical thinking conversations about civic engagement, literature and more. Topics can include personal transformation, the power of education, creative writing, Shakespeare, forgiveness and many others.
  • Production of our podcast
  • Creation of new lesson plans
TPS project focus
  • Curriculum
  • Teaching Materials
  • Workshops
Content focus
  • Art
  • Civics
  • Cultural Studies
  • English Language Arts
  • Equity and Inclusion
  • History
  • Law
  • Literacy
  • Civil Rights
Audience
  • Administrators
  • Classroom teachers
  • Students
  • Teacher candidates/Student teachers
  • Writers
Level(s)
  • 9 - 12
Population focus
  • African Americans
  • Asian Americans
  • English language learners
  • Hispanic/Latinx
  • Incarcerated
  • Jewish Americans
  • Learners with disabilities
  • LGBTQIA+
  • Low income
  • Men and boys
  • Muslim Americans
  • Native American/Indigenous
  • Rural
  • Urban
  • Women and girls
Organization Contact
Steve Rowland
[email protected]
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