LYRICS ON LOCKDOWN: PRISON ABOLITIONISTS USE ART AS ACTIVISM

Bryonn Bain and Taij Moteelall, Blackout Arts Collective, Nationwide

Photo: Nuri Chandler-Smith
Members of Lyrics on Lockdown and students and teachers at Kuumba Academy in New Orleans, Louisiana

Every human-body sculpture created by the adolescent inmates confined to an East L.A. prison showed them being beaten, stomped, choked, and held at gunpoint. More than 30 young men in the room were engaged in a theater exercise in which they were asked to sculpt scenes reflecting their experience of incarceration. Joined by members of the Blackout Arts Collective (BAC), they took turns positioning bodies into scenes that depicted the violence they endure. Inspired by Augosto Boal's "Theater of the Oppressed" school of arts-activism, this interactive workshop at the Central Juvenile Hall last summer was a follow-up to a hip-hop and spoken word poetry performance during BAC's national Lyrics on Lockdown tour.

A young Chicano brother named Sikes shook his head in disagreement with the sculptures. "I don't think them scenes represent all that goes down in here." Sikes was dissatisfied with the outcome of the theater game he had just observed in silence. "They just showed all the negative things that happen. People always focus on the violence. Don't get me wrong-it gets violent up in here! But it ain't only about that." We asked Sikes to show us what he meant by sculpting a few scenes reflecting his experience. After a round of supportive applause from the rest of the room, Sikes stood up, scratching the scruffy hair under his chin. He then carefully positioned one of his fellow prisoners so that he was sitting cross-legged with his palms open, as if reading a book. He sculpted one of the BAC sisters into a fetal position with both hands folded under her head, as if sleeping peacefully. Finally, Sikes sculpted another of the orange-clad young men so that his face was to the ground, as if kneeling in prayer.

An energetic conversation followed Sikes' sculpting. Nearly everyone chimed in with comments on the new perspective Sikes had brought to the exercise. Consensus slowly emerged that there are rare occasions when prisoners feel free behind bars, just as there are times when those released have felt incarcerated even beyond prison walls. Several young brothers on return visits spoke about the difficulty of reentering one's community after being locked down.

A few days later, former political prisoner Angela Davis echoed the sentiments of these young men at a community activism conference sponsored by the Open Society Institute (OSI) in Oakland. During her speech, Professor Davis observed, "there is an unkind irony that we are imprisoned and told what to do with every hour of each day, but then expected to know what to do with ourselves once we are released." Indeed, the dialogue spawned by Sikes' insightful intervention resonated in the comments of other prisoners around the country as they described their struggle to find hope in a prison system that focuses on retribution rather than rehabilitation. Again and again, we see a system that punishes for profit, while conveniently overlooking the potential of healing and community building.

However, as the incarceration population explosion in the U.S. continues at an unprecedented rate, the prison abolition movement is building momentum around the country. Through BAC's Lyrics on Lockdown campaign, a dynamic group of artists, activists, and educators are working to abolish the dehumanizing prison-industrial complex. This past summer was the second year BAC members traveled on a national outreach effort to raise awareness about the mass incarceration of people of color throughout the U.S. After receiving training from anti-prison activist groups such as Prison Moratorium Project, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and Drug Policy Alliance, members of the tour reached 15 cities nationwide. BAC conducted performances and interactive workshops in prisons, halfway houses, homeless shelters, juvenile detention centers, drug treatment programs, and community performance venues.

Sponsored by AFSC, the Open Society Institute, and BAC's own grassroots fund-raising campaign, the 2002 tour provided an invaluable opportunity for community organizers and artists to forge relationships and begin working more cohesively and effectively for social justice. Not only were we able to learn from prisoners around the country as we shared creative methods of addressing their daily frustrations, but we also engaged in dialogue about how to break down the walls that ultimately imprison us all.

Blackout Arts Collective is a nonprofit organization committed to empowering communities of color through the arts, education, and activism. For more information about the Lyrics on Lockdown Campaign or BAC chapters in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Haven, Houston, or New Orleans, please contact us at: bacdatabase@hotmail.com or visit www.blackoutartscollective.com.

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