Curt Tofteland, founder and director of the Shakespeare Behind Bars program, will discuss his extensive work teaching prison inmates about Shakespeare, acting and, ultimately, rehabilitation through art as the Oregon Humanities Center’s 2016 Tzedek Lecturer for the Humanities.

His lecture, titled "We Know Who We Are but Not Who We May Be," will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Room 156 Straub Hall.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, or for disability accommodations, contact the Oregon Humanities Center by email at ohc@uoregon.edu or by phone at 541-346-3934.

The lecture will explore the four questions Tofteland poses to the inmates he works with through the Shakespeare Behind Bars program: Who am I? What do I love? How will I live my life knowing I will die? What is my gift to humankind?

The questions often help inmates realize their need for change and redemption, as well as foster conversations about what it means to be human using art and theater.

Tofteland has been an actor, director, producer and playwright for more than 35 years. His Shakespeare Behind Bars program is currently available in prisons in Kentucky and Michigan. He’s also been awarded two Fulbright fellowships to Australia and an award from the Petra Foundation.

Tofteland is a professional poet and essayist and is currently working on his first book, “Behind the Bard-Wire: Reflection, Responsibility, Redemption, and Forgiveness...The Transformative Power of Art, Theatre, and Shakespeare.”

— By Nathaniel Brown, Public Affairs Communications