"I can't breathe . . . I can't breathe . . ." Songwriter Bruce "Sincere"
Dixon's furious words echo over a low, mournful hum. The inspiration is
a grimly familiar phrase. They were the last words of Eric Garner,
as NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo held him in a chokehold on a July
afternoon in 2014. They have become, unforgivably, even more resonant
over the past two weeks, in the wake of the similar death of George Floyd. But when Dixon envisioned his track, it was a commentary not just on Garner's and Oscar Grant's deaths but an unjust and corrupt system that he knows well, as he serves out a 25-years-to-life sentence in New Folsom Prison.
"The Prison Music Project: Long Time Gone" began its life a decade ago, when singer and songwriter Zoe Boekbinder visited New Folsom Prison for what was intended to be a one-time performance. Over the next several years, Boekbinder continued performing, collaborating, and leading workshops there. Now, working with Ani DiFranco and Righteous Babe Records, Boekbinder's long-ago visit has become an album that combines the words of nine incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals like Dixon with the skills and resources of talent from the music world. Profits from the album will benefit communities impacted by mass incarceration, but this isn't an endeavor with ideals above its execution. It's a powerful — and eminently listenable — collection. Because of the constraints of the prison system, most of the artists could not be recorded in their own voices, creating one of the most hypnotically singular-sounding releases of the year so far.
Speaking to Salon via phone recently, Nathen "Nuruddin" Jackson-Brown, one of the album's contributing lyricists, spoke of the power of creativity in confinement. "I got a chance to learn to funnel stuff," he said. "I can funnel my anger into my ink and put it on paper. I can funnel my hurt, my feeling of loneliness being locked in a box with nobody on the outside… instead of bottling up and exploding in anger and/or violence in that environment I was trapped in." Now, Jackson-Brown is working share his experiences with others, and, as he says, "help them understand we are more than just a someone who committed a crime."
Read more at: "The American apartheid is coming to a head": Ani DiFranco on oppression and "Prison Music Project" | Salon.com
"The Prison Music Project: Long Time Gone" began its life a decade ago, when singer and songwriter Zoe Boekbinder visited New Folsom Prison for what was intended to be a one-time performance. Over the next several years, Boekbinder continued performing, collaborating, and leading workshops there. Now, working with Ani DiFranco and Righteous Babe Records, Boekbinder's long-ago visit has become an album that combines the words of nine incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals like Dixon with the skills and resources of talent from the music world. Profits from the album will benefit communities impacted by mass incarceration, but this isn't an endeavor with ideals above its execution. It's a powerful — and eminently listenable — collection. Because of the constraints of the prison system, most of the artists could not be recorded in their own voices, creating one of the most hypnotically singular-sounding releases of the year so far.
Speaking to Salon via phone recently, Nathen "Nuruddin" Jackson-Brown, one of the album's contributing lyricists, spoke of the power of creativity in confinement. "I got a chance to learn to funnel stuff," he said. "I can funnel my anger into my ink and put it on paper. I can funnel my hurt, my feeling of loneliness being locked in a box with nobody on the outside… instead of bottling up and exploding in anger and/or violence in that environment I was trapped in." Now, Jackson-Brown is working share his experiences with others, and, as he says, "help them understand we are more than just a someone who committed a crime."
Read more at: "The American apartheid is coming to a head": Ani DiFranco on oppression and "Prison Music Project" | Salon.com
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