This past week, Zoe Schlanger of Newsweek interviewed me about Escuela Caribe. The article, Where American Teens Were Abused in the Name of God, is here. This week, Kidnapped for Christ, an expose about Escuela Caribe, premiered on Showtime. I was interviewed for the documentary, though my interview did not make the final cut. An outtake of…
Escuela Caribe
Kids For Cash
There’s lots of money to be made abusing kids, not just by operators of the teen “treatment” industries, but by those who funnel kids into the system. New documentary Kids for Cash tells the story of how two Pennsylvania judges earned millions of dollars for referring their charges into a privately operated teen treatment facility….
Pilgrimage (Yes, Look Back)
When I called my cousin to plan our trip he said “This isn’t like you. You’re homesick.” “You just think I hate Mississippi,” I teased before agreeing. He was right. Right then I wanted to be in the Delta more than anything in the world. We met up last week in Greenwood. We met up…
New Horizons Youth Ministries Founded by Predator
New Horizons Youth Ministries (parent organization of my reform school, Escuela Caribe) was founded in 1971 by Pastor Gordon Blossom, a former juvenile delinquent who’d served a stint at Michigan’s Floyd Starr Commonwealth Home.* By the time I arrived at Escuela Caribe in January 1990, Pastor Blossom was not active in the “ministry” except during Spiritual Emphasis Week in the Canada branch, Missanabie Woods Academy.* Then he would deliver…
October Status Check
I co-curate the New Town Revue, an Athens, GA music and literature series, which is hosted at Athens’ Avid Bookshop. This last performance, Friday, October 11, featured Jon Davies, Killick Hinds, and Laura Solomon. It was sublime. I volunteered at the Great ARTdoors, a fundraiser for the Hambidge Foundation. They have hosted me for three different residencies; it’s…