Rubberroom

by Yago Said Cura

The Rubberroom is a collection of poetry about the reassigment centers that NYC's Department of Education uses to administratively punish teachers that have been arrested or accused of committing a crime.

Yago spent two weeks there in 2004 but was helped along by various people who saw that a wrong was being committed. But, he was extremely lucky; supposedly, there are teachers who have been at these reassignment centers, or Rubberrooms, for years.

Yago's Rubberroom is a cycle of poems written like a play. The plot is driven by acts and scenes and there is one narrator that monologues his way to understanding the motives behind the actions that landed him in the Rubberroom.

Yago's Rubberroom has been passed around public high schools in the Bronx by first year teachers, administrators, and haggard veterans since 2005. In addition, Yago addressed the 2005 and 2006 class of NYC Teaching Fellows at Lehman College, and his story comprises the much larger story titled "Human Resources" that aired on This American Life in February of 2008.

Chapbook

First published January 1, 2006