Put Your Pistol Down and Pick Up a Pen
The Story of a Teacher, a Tagger, and a Twenty-Two-Year Prison Sentence
Put Down Your Pistol and Pick Up a Pen, The Story of a Teacher, a Tagger, and a 22-Year Prison Sentence is a co-authored memoir that follows the unusual friendship of John Rodriguez, a 17-year old tagger, and Dennis Danziger, his high school English teacher. When the teacher realizes that this tagger is a writing savant, he encourages him to pursue a college education. But that spring, John is involved in a bar fight that turns violent and is sentenced to a 22 years in prison. What follows is a story with echoes of Tuesdays with Morrie, with the teacher sending books and assignments to his once star student who finds redemption through his love of literature and literally writes his way out of prison to freedom.
Dennis Danziger is the author of the memoir, Daddy, The Diary of an Expectant Father and the novel, A Short History of a Tall Jew. His essays have appeared on Shondaland, Next Avenue, HuffPo, and The Good Men Project. Before becoming a teacher, he wrote for TV; credits include Taxi, Kate & Allie, and My Sister Sam. He taught English for 24 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Along with his wife, the writer, Amy Friedman, he co-founded POPS the Club, a non-profit which creates safe spaces in high schools.
John Rodriguez discovered his love for writing while serving time in prison. His writings have appeared in The Good Men Project and POPS the Club Anthologies. He currently lives in Los Angeles, where he was born and raised.
