Two weeks into her 13-month incarceration, Piper Kerman was seated in the mess hall of the federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, eating another desultory meal.
“Knowing less than nothing I began maligning the food,” Piper writes in her memoir “Orange is the New Black.”
As Piper made a joke about going on a hunger strike, a fellow inmate, Pop, overheard her. Pop, a Russian gangster’s wife, just happened to rule the mess hall’s kitchen with an iron fist. Pointing a finger in Piper’s face, Pop warned her, “Listen, honey, I know you just got here so I know that you don’t know what’s what. That kind of shit you’re talking about, hunger strikes, that kind of shit, that’s inciting a riot. They will lock your ass up in SHU [solitary confinement] in a heartbeat. So take a tip from me and watch what you say.”
It’s a scene so rife with metaphor that Jenji Kohan, creator of the popular Netflix Original series, “Orange is the New Black,” based on Piper’s memoir, took it straight out of the book. And discussing the moment with us, Piper said she still felt shame over being so naive. Continue reading “Orange is the New Black: What a Year in Prison Taught (the real) Piper Kerman about Success”