Christian Howes

It is funny that I developed a writing habit.

And recently I've kind of traced that back to when I was in prison and writing letters all the time.

I've seen that that is...

But I would say just naming it and even having permission as men, especially to give a name to these real emotions, you know, and I think that's part of what I admire so much about your work, why I think it's so important what you're doing, you know, creating like an example here.

And you, you know, example for men to be able to talk about fear, shame, guilt, you know, the things that are not commonly associated as like male emotions.

I think that and in prison, this was one of my big questions.

Like, what is the code of a man?

What does it mean to be a man?

And when you're in and we talk about this in the film.

we use art to kind of address this question of, because I think some of these, the answers can't all be spelled out in words literally too.

Sometimes it's poetic, sometimes it's visual, sometimes it's artistic.

But in prison, you know, you learn about the code of a convict, but I've kind of wondered like, what's the difference?

The code of a convict, the code of a man.

I mean, that's really what I wanted to know when I was 20 going into jail, probably, I think around the same time as you, right?

I think you were 19.

I was 20.

But I mean, I was young.

I didn't identify as a grown man at 20.

Right.

I was like, I thought, well, in a couple of years, I'll be a grown man.