If the 2.3 million American prison population were a city, it would be the fourth largest behind New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, all known for very vibrant art scenes.
Donald “C-Note” Hooker shares in his “Untapped Potential of Prison Art”:
American Prison culture is a part of American Street culture. Street Art is the biggest art movement in the history of the planet. This is because Street Art has many points of entry. There is the visual art, most commonly known as Graffiti. The legalized form of Graffiti is called Street Art. There is its literary expression in Poetry and Urban novels. There is an expression in dance, and its musical expression in Rap. Recently, with the commercial success of the Broadway play Hamilton, even in theatrical works, including Spoken Word. Its nearest rival would be during the Baroque period. Unbeknownst to most, the father of the American Graffiti movement is Daryl “Cornbread” McCray. Cornbread was exposed to Graffiti while in a juvenile prison. There he honed his craft and acquired his artist name, Cornbread. Prison Graffiti, birthed Graffiti, which birthed Street Art, it’s legalized form. The art prints of America’s top Graffiti and Street artists can easily go for $100,000. But what about their imprisoned counterpart? The prisoner artist receives no such public support, yet they rival, if not surpass, these artists in their craftsmanship. The prisoner-artist, and his or her use of expression is fundamental to rehabilitation and the Restorative Justice movement. Prison Art is a primary method of raising funds for legislative reform, prison reentry programs, and to support families with a loved one behind bars. Yet the prisoner is on their own when it comes to acquiring supplies for these endeavors. They receive no money, and very little recognition for their yeoman’s work. This leaves untapped, an art, that has the potential of rehabilitating the whole person.
Art is a means of reforming the prisoner
Before I became a volunteer in the Prisoner Restorative Justice movement, I did not possess this sentiment. Creating art is a very lonely and internal process. It is an applied science. It’s all about figuring out and working out problems of expression. Contrast that, to the prisoner who feeds their senses with a healthy diet of entertainment, from playing cards, playing dominoes, watching television, or listening to the radio. But these artists and their art has to grow independent of this type of diet. When you can get a prisoner interested in the arts, you get a man or woman seeking for a deeper meaning. The imprisoned poet or writer wants to know the etymology of words. The imprisoned visual artist studies the geometry of shapes. Learning English or math, because you want better outcomes in your craft, so that readers, seers, or hearers, understand you better, is transformative. But if America fails to acknowledge her talent gesturing inside her prisons, she is wasting an opportunity for better outcomes in her criminal justice system. I was the brainchild of an art exhibit that combined the works of two men’s prison, and a women’s prison. The women artists were precluded from having their names associated with their art. These artists were gender discriminated because of their sex. The most important element to an artist imprisoned or not, is to get their work out, and their name associated with that work. Failure to receive recognition can stunt the growth and kill the dreams of any inspiring artist. For the prisoner-artist, this is especially challenging. Their greatest challenge is to get their work over the prison wall. When we are failing to tap into the therapeutic aspects of art, is there any wonder why our women prisoners have exceptionally high suicide rates? When we are failing to tap into the intellectual development that comes with wanting to improve as an artist, is there any wonder why prisoners are ill-prepared for reentry? We must upgrade the status of this art form, and the artists who apply themselves. Rewarding this type of behavior incentivizes other prisoners to model this behavior. I know from experience, trying to get other prisoners to participate in art, or to contribute works for fundraising, I am commonly asked, “Why should I?”
[C-Note has been written about in the London Daily Post, and the online versions of People Magazine, and Public Television-Los Angeles KCET. He also has been a contributing writer to California Prison Focus, Mprisond Thotz, Muzique Magazine, and The Los Angeles Tribune.
In 2017, Google Search listed him first in their search result rankings, as both America’s, and the world’s most prolific prisoner-artist.]
