Reading Between the Bars: A Report Release Event

Join PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing on October 26th between 6 and 9pm at the EFA Project Space as we release our report, “Reading Between the Bars: An In-Depth Look at Prison Censorship.” Carceral censorship is the most pervasive form of information suppression in the United States. Single US states’ Department of Corrections prohibit more books than are banned in the entire rest of the country’s schools and libraries combined. This report release will feature music by currently incarcerated musicians on Die Jim Crow Records including Spoon Jackson, The Masses, Territorial and B Alexis. Producers from Die Jim Crow will discuss the censorship these artists face and Moira Marquis, senior manager of The Freewrite Project and co-author of the report, will discuss the significant findings. Attendees will also have a chance to engage in the exhibit “Return to Sender” which features a mock prison mailroom, censored authors gallery and many other installations that reveal the extent of prison censorship.

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DIE JIM CROW RECORDS IS THE FIRST RECORD LABEL IN THE UNITED STATES FOR PRISON-IMPACTED MUSICIANS. OUR MISSION IS TO DISMANTLE STEREOTYPES AROUND RACE AND PRISON IN AMERICA BY AMPLIFYING THE VOICES OF OUR ARTISTS.

The Masses are a collective of over ten rappers and musicians centralized in an undisclosed US prison. They are the voice of the voiceless, and as wards of the state, their identities remain anonymous per state law. Over menacing strings and haunting synths, The Masses are bringing the energy of a thousand soldiers with “Da Movement.” So salute and “let it sink in til we in sync…”

Hailing from Conway, South Carolina, B. Alexis has been incarcerated since age 17, serving a 30-year sentence for murder in the South Carolina Department of Corrections. Through soulful samples and live instrumentation, B. Alexis takes us on the journey of a fast, desperate, callous young Black girl trying to land firmly in the faith, principles, and morals she abandoned when her innocence was stripped away from her.

Territorial’s TLAXIHUIQUI (pronounced Tla-She-Wiki) was recorded with seven incarcerated musicians at Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City, Colorado. A prog-Americana album interweaving Indigenous Nahuatl chant, blues, and hip hop, TLAXIHUIQUI is a powerful musical melding of diverse life experiences. Including several lifers, Native American and Black artists, a queer Jewish man, and a white musician convicted for five counts of murder, these artists share their path from remorse to redemption. Through this musical journey, we discover there is much more than meets the eye behind a criminal conviction and a prison ID number.

Spoon Jackson is a radio producer at Uncuffed; stories from Solano State Prison, featured on KALW 91.7 FM out of San Francisco. He writes a column for Global Oxygen, a Swedish newspaper, and has also written numerous articles for The Good Men Project. His most recent book was translated into German and published in Germany. Jackson has won four PEN America Prison Writing Awards, and have been featured in four documentary films.