Faith & Hope Art Shows
2016-2017  

Many of C-Note's works are donated to grassroots organizations for fundraising purposes. On the flip side to the Prison Industrial Complex, is an ecology of working-class families and activist who support prisoners' human rights. This support can come, in the form of petition drives to get initiatives placed on Statewide ballots, caravanning to state capitals to meet with lawmakers, organize events around prison awareness, fund reentry programs for returning citizens, and provide direct financial stipends to families with a loved one behind bars. One of the principal means of financing these activities, is through the sale of prisoner made art. The Faith & Hope Art Shows: Beyond Prison Walls- Art of the Incarcerated are a signature for the Partnership for Re-Entry Program, known as PREP. These shows serve, not only as fundraisers, but as a two-fold education in:
1.) The work that PREP does with the incarcerated through self-help correspondence courses in providing rehabilitation;
a.) PREP also greatly values prison visits to give presence and restore dignity to the inmates; and
b.) That positive programming in prison transforms inmates to return to the community;
2.) The staff at the art shows are living proof of this change; and
a.) Staff members talk at the Masses and receive much praise for their change and new life

Faith & Hope Art Shows

2017-2018

The first show of the 2017-2018 season was held on September 22 at Homeboy Industries, in conjunction with their 5K walk/run. Followed by a show at the Pilgrim Place in Claremont, September 29. Money raised from these events were used to pay for the resources to help parolees and pre parolees make successful transitions back into society. For this season, C-Note donated his firsts. His first painting, My Dilemma (2009), and his first political work of visual art, Black August-Los Angeles (2016). Partnership for Re-Entry Program (PREP), and Homeboy Industries, are two of the restorative justice ministries of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The adjacent images: (Top) Certificate from PREP for C-Note's donation of My Dilemma and Black August-Los Angeles; (Bottom L) Image of My Dilemma; (Bottom R) Image of BlackAugust-Los Angeles. 

Everything Coffee

2018

Everything Coffee was the name of a Prisoner Art exhibition curated by Treacy Ziegler of Prisoner Express. The exhibition consisted of two shows; one in January of 2018 at Gimme Coffee's Cayuga Street coffeehouse in Ithaca, New York; the other in March of 2018 at Gimme Coffee in Trumansburg, New York. Gimme Coffee is an Ithaca, New York, based coffee roaster, with stores in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Trumansburg, and on the campus of Cornell University. It has been buying, roasting, and serving specialty coffee, to New Yorkers for over 15-years. It is renowned for the quality of its products. Everything Coffee, like most Prisoner Art exhibitions, consisted of paintings and poetry. Visual artists were tasked with using coffee as their visual medium, as curators were not looking for commercial works of steaming cups of coffee. Coffee Bar (2017), is the title to the work submitted by C-Note. He used instant coffee as the base medium for the ice cream bar; while watercolor was sporadically used for highlights and lowlights; and floor wax was used as a glaze. The medium used for the woman was wax.

PE is a project of the Durland Alternatives Library. Through information, education, newsletters, and programs, PE creates an opportunity for incarcerated men and women to have a public forum for creative self-expression. Their mission is to bring hope and to foster a sense of community among the prisoners who participate.

The adjacent images: (Top) Video produced by Prisoner Express staff, showcasing the work of C-Note, and another prisoner; (Bottom) Image of C-Note's Coffee Bar.

Capitalizing on Justice was a prisoner art exhibition in October of 2018 at the Urban Justice Center, in Manhattan, New York City. The exhibition was curated by the Corrections Accountability Project (CAP), a criminal justice advocacy organization. The aim of the exhibition, according to CAP, was to raise awareness on the issue of "monetary exploitation of prisoners and their families." Participating incarcerated artists received financial awards decided by CAP's curatorial committee. CAP focuses on exposing businesses that capitalize on immigration detention and mass incarceration. It was able to get the New York City Council to pass a bill which allowed prisoners to make free calls from jail. This was a first in the nation and at the time, projected to save NYC families nearly $10 million a year. Capitalizing on Justice was reported in such publications as The Guardian and The Nation.

C-Note's submission is titled, Capitalizing on Justice. It was a silver award winner and he received $350. At the time of his submission, he noted, "This piece is part of my broader work on the existential threat of the wide spread use of medication inside of America's prison. In the foreground, there are wholesale boxes, not for retail, of psychotropic medications from pharmaceutical giants like Merck ("Murk"), Pfizer ("Fizer"), and Biogen ("Biojen"). In the background, there is psychiatrist Dr. Freud harassing a nurse while being offered kickbacks from big pharma."

 "Capitalizing on Justice" Exhibit Spotlights Works of Incarcerated Artists

What Curators Don't Get About Prison Art | The Nation
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/prison-art-shows-essay/
Worth Rises - Capitalizing on Justice
https://worthrises.org/capitalizingonjustice

Artivist In Action & Solidarity

2019

The Artivists in Action and Solidarity event in December of 2019, emerged from a powerful alliance and special bond between two Bay Area-based print newspapers, the San Francisco Bay View which prints monthly and the California Prison Focus, which prints quarterly. Both publications publish online. Together, these print publications have over a half century of reporting from behind the wall. First locally in California, then nationally over the course of due time. The event was conceptualized within the confines of the prison cell of William E. Brown, aka Min. King X, or Pyeface, as he was known to many on the prisons yards. He is also know as the George Jackson of Rapp, and founded a prison-based anti-hostility group called KAGE - Kings and Queens Against Genocidal Environments. Released in July of 2019, after doing 24 years, six in federal prisons, and 18 in California prisons, the event offered him an opportunity to honor the legacy of SF Bay View publisher and editor, and unsung heroes, Willie and Mary Ratcliff, by presenting the first annual Ratcliff Award to another unsung hero within the community. King developed a special relationship with these publications during his time in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay's infamous Security Housing Unit (SHU). At the event, King used art to shine a light on the hidden atrocities of prison, to advocate for the release of his imprisoned elders, mentors, and loved ones, to support imprisoned artists, and to support the two publications that inspired and empowered him throughout his journey. The proceeds were raised through a silent prisoner art auction. Imprisoned contributors received compensation for their work, while the rest went to the San Francisco Bay View and California Prison Focus.

From prison, C-Note curated many of the works of art that were used in the event. Both men had been at various prisons at the same time, including doing hard time in the Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU), or the hole, at California's most racist, maximum-security, prison, High Desert, the isolated prison that sits in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, (Investigators Find 'Culture of Racism,' Abuse at High Desert State Prison | KQED

https://www.kqed.org/news/10796983/investigators-find-culture-of-racism-abuse-at-high-desert-state-prison). It was there in 2005, they witnessed the horrors of Hurricane Katrine on a television set, on a wall, far, far, from the prisoners' cells. It was King's loud outrage over the mistreatment of prisoners during the natural disaster, that would leave an indelible mark on C-Note's conscious. In the following decade, when Hurricane Harvey showed up in 2017, C-Note watched news reports of the people being impacted, but not the prisoners. This was the impetus to do the reporting for us in his work, During the Flood. This work saw a renewed interest as a vehicle to convince others to evacuate prisons in the wake of the 2019, Category 5, hurricane, Dorian. In the spring of 2019, while King was still incarcerated, they co-wrote, I Stand2 Vote S.B. 106. I Stand2 Vote is a one act play of two opposing long time activist and politicians arguing the merits of restoring voting rights to the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated. It is set in Sacramento, California, the state's capital, in the state's legislative branch assembly floor.

C-Note would send in his artwork to the California Prison Focus, and his philosophy behind his work, this led to the exchange of letters, between him and Editor in Chief, Kim Pollack. Some of his work had been inspired by the work of Pollack and CPF reporters, such as his two paintoems and play on the subject of women serving a sentence in California of Life Without the Possibility of Parole, LWOP. In early 2018, he donated his Millions for Prisoners Rights march inspired work, Incarceration Nation to the CPF. He was later surprised when they wrote back, it was going to be kept in the office for inspiration. The work C-Note donated for the event was his 2017 work, Eyes Without a Face. One of two paintomes on the subject of women doing LWOP. The work consisted of whiting out the faces with a pastel pencil of an image, of women prisoners sitting and standing around a dominoes table, playing dominoes and watching TV. The image derives from, the television series, Orange Is The New Black. It was published in the entertainment section of the Los Angeles Times. However, his work, Incarceration Nation sold at the event for $125.

On March 10th of 2020, King released the six minute music video, Peace of Pye; A Delegate for CA Prisoners and Advocate to End Mass Incarceration for All. Produced by Pollak, published on YouTube, commentary by C-Note, with footage from the Artivist In Action & Solidarity, it is a mix of still life photos and video. In the first half, King narrates us through his journey in the prison system and the psychological warfare tactics the system uses, to the returning citizen, who takes the lessons learned inside, and uses them to bring positive change to his community, and to society writ large; all the while, never forgetting to honor the dignified individuals he meet inside. The second half concludes with a musical track and lyrics that will have listeners up on their feet, shaking their hips, screaming, "Vote'em Out! Vote'em Out!.....Vote'em Out! Vote'em Out!" It is a part of his strategy of using voter restoration and the power of art as a means to bring the death nails to mass incarceration.

Images: 

#1, Flyer to the December 2019, Artivists In Action & Solidarity event; #2, C-Note's donated work Eyes Without A Face; #3, C-Note's paintoem, Eyes Without A Face; #4, C-Note's painting, Incarceration Nation; #5, Buyers of C-Note's painting, Incarceration Nation #6, Minster King X's  video, Peace of Pyw, A Delegate for CA Prisoners and Advocate to End Mass Incarceration for All 

Agnes Gund, Prison Art's $100,000,000 Patron | darealprisonart
https://darealprisonart.wordpress.com/2019/11/11/agnes-gund-prison-arts-100000000-patron/

The Prisoner Press and the Power to Inspire | darealprisonart
https://darealprisonart.wordpress.com/2019/11/01/the-prisoner-press-and-the-power-to-inspire/

What Financially Minded Blacks Should Know About Art - Artist Social Network
https://artistsocialnetwork.wordpress.com/2019/11/25/what-financially-minded-blacks-should-know-about-art/

Artivists in Action and Solidarity: Rattle the KAGE Dec. 7, 4-7pm | San Francisco Bay View
https://sfbayview.com/2019/12/artivists-in-action-and-solidarity-rattle-the-kage-dec-7-4-7pm/

Portrait of Rap's George Jackson
https://artlectron.in-two.com/darealprisonart/post/72225032