Tuesday, Sept. 25
7 p.m.
The Freede Center at OCU University
Located on NW 27th St. between Florida and Kentucky Streets
Bestselling author Piper Kerman, whose memoir Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison was adapted into the hit Netflix original series, will give a free lecture on her life experiences and current work on justice reform.
Kerman’s memoir chronicles the 13 months she spent in the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn. for money laundering charges. She explores the experience of incarceration and the intersection of her life with the lives of the women she met in prison.
Since her release, Kerman has worked to promote prison reform and criminal justice reform. She works with nonprofit organizations and serves on the board of directors of the Women’s Prison Association. She has been called as a witness by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights to testify on solitary confinement and women prisoners as well as by the U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs and Homeland Security Committee to testify about the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Kerman is a graduate of Smith College and currently teaches writing in two state prisons in Ohio.
Kerman received the Justice Trailblazer Award from John Jay College’s Center on Media, Crime and Justice in 2014 and was recognized as a Champion of Justice by the Equal Justice Initiative in 2015.
OCU University’s Lemon Lecture features annual events designed to enrich the academic environment for the university and the surrounding community. The series was created through an endowment gift from Lynette Lemon Wert and Larry H. Lemon in 2010 on behalf of the Lemon family in honor of alumna Martha Jean Lemon. This event is proudly co-sponsored by the Center for Interpersonal Studies through Film & Literature.
The lecture will be followed by a book signing, and copies of her book will be for sale on site by Full Circle Book Store.
