Orange Is the New Black

Twenty years ago Piper Kerman was a theatre major at Smith College and I was her teacher, advisor, and occasionally her surrogate mom. When I went off to Africa, she went off to a number of even wilder adventures that landed her in federal prison for a year. Now she has written a book about that year, and she came to Portland to give a standing-room-only reading at Powell's Book Store. It was our first time to see each other since 1992, and I was so proud, so proud of what she has done. Her book is a love story, a celebration of the women she met in prison and an exposé of the American Injustice System, of the absurdity of the way our country punishes people who get involved in drugs, and of the deep and hideous inequalities that would have left her to rot in jail for a long, long time...if she hadn't been white, highly educated, and privileged. She writes powerfully, beautifully, and with absolute candor. I wish everybody in the whole world would read her book.

I took my camera with me to her reading and watched with pride as people lined up to get her autograph.