In a previous Witness piece, I wrote about Michael’s tragic passing and used an overlay of the touching artistic gesture he gave me when I met him here during an ARC screening of a powerful Sol Guy film. The Mundo Press and I routinely capture the outline of visitors’ hands, and within their palms they inscribe a notable quote – Michael quoted James Baldwin. Because Michael worked with Common for many years and toured him throughout the prison system with Scott, I wanted to return this intimate piece of Michael to his family, who never got to see it.
When I showed it to Scott, he immediately recognized its meaning, walked me over to Common, and within moments our human triangle quickly morphed with the addition of Think Common’s Tamara Brown and Calvin, who immediately recognized his handwriting. It felt good to return a piece of Michael to those who knew him best. I asked that perhaps a copy of it find a home on the wall in the VSP Rebirth of Sound studio. Baldwin’s refrain about changing things by facing them is exactly the sort of mantra our creators need to have whispered to them as they write and express themselves.
Common took a seat next to me in-circle while Warden Bailey, Scott, Marcel, Calvin, and CRM Ford each stood to speak about the journey traveled and the one we were about to embark upon. When he addressed the room, Common moved slowly in the round, made intentional eye contact with everyone, and described working in the prison reform space as the most important work he’d done in life. One by one, cohort participants were announced and met briefly with Common, who then joined the group in the studio learning center, visited the Freedom K9 program, and encouraged residents housed in disciplinary segregation to stay positive.
In addition to learning how to produce, capture, and edit sound using DAWs like FL Studio, Ableton, and Pro Tools, each cohort will spend 12 weeks learning and working towards developing capstone projects that showcase individual and collaborative creatives spanning various forms of art. Using digital software tools and live instrumentation, participants will be given maximum autonomy and the requisite agency to express themselves on their terms. Being free to dream, means being free to create. Be it a song, rap, poem, podcast, audio book, or theatrical play scene, we have been encouraged not just to dream, but to dream big.
This is part 2 of 3
Listen to Ghostwrite Mike’s BLM protest anthem Dirty Cop, published by Columbia University’s MFA society literary magazine Exchange, here. [ link ]
ead Ghostwrite Mike’s Barz Behind Bars: Healing Through Verse curriculum and his Journal of Prison Education Research practitioner paper, here. [ link ]
Watch the Barz Behind Bars Freedom Salute PSA, here. [ link ]
