This article derives from a 2021 email submission on behalf of prison artist C-Note for artwork consideration and entry into the Spirit of Mandela International Tribunal: Oct. 22-25, 2021.
According to the London Daily Post, Donald “C-Note” Hooker is the world’s most prolific prisoner artist, whose works don’t live on walls but in the streets. The following with the artist’s blessings can be used however organizers see fit for their event.
The following works are from Free Virtual Art Exhibition (1-Artist; 1-Subject; 21-Works)
Incarceration Nation (2017) is a work that was inspired by and created in August of 2017, for the August 19, 2017, Millions for Prisoners’ Human Rights March in Washington DC and across the U.S. and globe. Incarceration Nation is a well disseminated work used by grassroots in print and digital publications, and is published in Wikimedia, Incarceration Nation. It is also included in the Mercy Fashion line. To get a true sense of the work it is recommended to watch Excerpts from Free Virtual Art Exhibition (1-Artist; 1-Subject; 21-Works). In 2018 this work was donated to the California Prison Focus (CPF).
Cell Time (2019) is a work that was created for the University of California, Los Angeles’s (UCLA) inaugural spring festival Connecting Art and Law for Liberation (CALL). It has also been published by Wikimedia,Cell Time.
During the Flood (2017) was created to act as a Public Service Announcement right after the 2017 Category 4 Hurricane Harvey. During the Flood was inspired by the 2005 Category 5 Hurricane Katrina. It is one of the artist’s most disseminated Works in digital and print publications. It has been used by grassroots organizations as a Public Service Announcement to evacuate prisons in the path of the 2019 Category 5 Hurricane Dorian, and the 2021 Category 4 Hurricane Ida. See, Hurricane Harvey Told Through the Voice of the Prisoner-Artist. It was also donated to UCLA for their CALL event. During the Flood is featured in the 2021, 10:00 movie short Abolish It now on exhibit at the Art on Abolition exhibition. An online exhibition curated by Maine’s Freedom and Captivity, Sept. – Dec. 2021.
Mprisond (2012) is the sequel to the artist’s 2009 work My Dilemma. It is credited with being the first Paintoem. Paintoems are poems inspired by paintings or drawings; or paintings and drawings inspired by poems. They are combined together as a single work of Digital art. All paintoems are classified as a Creative Commons (CC). This means the public has the right to freely use these works as long as the artist or artists are acknowledged. It was donated to the California State University at San Bernardino (CSUSB), to be in the 2016 Prisoner art exhibition Through the Wall: Prison Arts Collective. It was curated by CSUSB and held at the CB1-Guest Gallery in downtown Los Angeles. The exhibition consisted of artists from two men’s prisons, and one women’s prison. These prisons were the California Institution for Men (CIM), the California State Prison, Los Angeles County (CSP-LAC), and the California Institution for Women (CIW). The exhibition has been published online and in a book ISBN 978-1-36-721324-1.
Decarcerate Now! (2020) is a work created for the Min King X Aka Pyeface music video Mask Protest. It too has been published in both digital and print publications. It was in the 2020 Black Fashion World Foundation’s The Mask Parade Show, and will be in the Black Fashion World Foundation’s COVID Mask collectible coffee table book.
Jumping the Broom in the Age of the New Jim Crow (2016) was created for a civilian-prisoner wedding ceremony. He was asked if he could draw a broom for a prison wedding ceremony and decided to do one better. He decided to create a work on paper so large that the bride and groom could actually jump over the piece. The broom represents the traditional enslaved African American wedding ceremony. The broken handcuffs are represented in the style of manacles of that era. They’re broken to represent the end of slavery of that period and the soon-to-be hope for end of Black mass incarceration of this era. He receives requests from other African American couples to do this same piece for their prison-weddings. A work was created for the 2017 Prisoner art exhibition Escaping Time: Art from U.S. Prisons on Governor’s Island in New York City.
God Is A Woman (2018) is a work that was inspired from another prisoner’s work similar to the figures near the prison bars. It is also the cover art to the short story by the artist God Is A Woman.
My Dilemma (2009) is the artist’s first completed work. It was donated to the 2017-2018 Faith & Hope Art Shows for reentry fundraising. Faith & Hope Art Shows are curated by the Partnership for Re-Entry Program (PREP). PREP is a part of the restorative justice ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Black August – Los Angeles (2016) is the artist’s first political work. It was donated to the 2017-2018 Faith & Hope Art Shows.
Strange Fruit (2017) was created for a poem of the same title. These works were inspired by reporting in the San Quentin News, that during an18-month period 2014 – 2015, the suicide rate at the California Institution for Women (C.I.W.) was eight times the national average for women prisoners, and five times the rate for the entire California prison system. Strange Fruit has been published in the California Prison Focus and in Wikimedia, Strange Fruit. Strange Fruit was donated to the California Coalition for Women Prisoners in 2018.
Background to Strange Fruit (2017) is the background to the artist’s work Strange Fruit which has several images collaged into the work. This piece has been used as a headline image.
Between Here and There (2017) was created for the Between Here and Their International Fine Art Contest in 2017. It was the 4th art competition by Art and Prison eV, and consisted of 371 entries by prisoners from 23 countries. Besides being an international prisoner art contest, Between Here and There first exhibited at the Liechtenstein National Museum in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, Germany in 2018. The exhibition then travelled across Europe.
A Bird Man’s Dream (2017) was created for the Art Escape on Alcatraz Exhibition in 2017. The piece is an homage to Robert Franklin Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz.” The bird came from hours of observing pigeons on the prison yard. The scene was inspired by a prison Christian Ministry photo. The artist knew that pigment could not compete with the sunlight in a photo. Western Art is all about light. To manipulate light he would employ the camera. In the original work, the pigeon is as black as a crow. And the prison bars are white from the paper. Everything in the original work was drawn opposite of the final Digital Image. The digital image was printed on a wood block and donated to Prison Arts Touching Hearts (P.A.T.H.). PATH curated the exhibition. Large prints of A Bird Man’s Dream are available at $100,000.
Midnight at Alcatraz (2017) was created for the Art Escape on Alcatraz Exhibition in 2017. It was donated to P.A.T.H..
Life Without the Possibility of Parole (2016) is a work that was created for a poem under the same name. It was inspired by an article published in the California Prison Focus of the 175+ women at the Central California Women’s Facility serving a sentence of Life Without the Possibility of Parole. The purposes of these works are to draw attention to these women who are deemed unworthy of any State spending regarding rehabilitation. Eventho, it is not uncommon that for some, this sentence will be commuted to life with the possibility of parole. This work was published in the CPF and Wikimedia, Life Without the Possibility of Parole. It is also the cover art to a play of the same title, LIFE WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE (a prison play). In 2018 it was donated to the CPF.
Untitled 66 (2009)
Black Love Matters (2015) created for the cover art to the artist’s epic poem It Must End! (BLACK FEMALE BOYCOTTS AGAINST BLACK MEN IN THE PEN).
Tear Down This Wall (2018) was created for the 20th anniversary of Critical Resistance (CR), and their strategy and struggle to abolish the Prison Industrial Complex. It was donated to CR.
American Negro: A Migrant’s Story was just a color study created in the aughts. It was digitally enhanced with text in 2014 as an Untitled work. In 2019 it was reassigned a name as the cover art to the artist’s 2019 poem of the same title.
Capitalizing on Justice (2018) was created for the Capitalizing on Justice art contest. The contest led to the exhibition of the work. The Capitalizing on Justice Exhibition was in the fall of 2018 at the Urban Justice Center in Manhattan, New York City. Curated by the Corrections Accountability Project (CAP), a criminal justice advocacy organization. The aim of the exhibition was to raise awareness on the issue of “monetary exploitation of prisoners and their families.” The artist’s work was to bring awareness of the role of pharmaceutical companies in the administration of psychotropic medication to prison. The work was awarded a silver classification and a cash prize of $350.
Today We Are Sisters (2018) was created for a poem of the same title. From 2006 – 2010, 150 California women prisoners were forcibly sterilized. Today We Are Sisters was created for the reparations to women prisoners who were forcibly sterilized, and raises the question, “Shouldn’t both sides of the reproduction debate be for that?” Eight weeks after the release of Free Virtual Art Exhibition (1-Artist; 1-Subject; 21-Works) the California legislation introduced a bill to give women prisoners who were subjected to forced sterilizations reparations. The bill was passed into law in July of 2021. The work is featured in the 10:00 film short Abolish It. Abolish It is now on Exhibition at the online Exhibition Art on Abolition Sept. – Dec. 2021. It is also featured in the 2:00 film short TODAY WE ARE SISTERS Reparations for Women Prisoners. The work was donated to the California Coalition for Women Prisoners in 2018.
New Works
Return to Vitality (2020) was created for Art and Prison’s 5th International Art Competition. The theme of the competition is Back to Life. 489 entries were received from across the globe by men, women, or juveniles, who at the time of submitting their artwork were in prison, in remand pending deportation, under court-ordered supervision in hospitals, or on work release. The first exhibition will be held on the 23rd of June 2021 – 12th of September 2021, National Museum of Liechtenstein, Vaduz.
Return to Vitality is a work of wax on the back of a legal tablet (cardboard). It depicts an African-American male outside of a prison with nothing on but the cutoff shorts worn by the field slave of old. Near him on the ground are his effects, as the searchlight from a prison guard tower searches the inside of the prison grounds. While he appears to be running, his fists are closed and his palms are facing up. Try it for yourself. This it’s not how the body would position itself for running, but for dancing. Take into account his facial muscles, and we are not witnessing the breathing upheaval of running scared, but the movements of a man in Jazz.
Untitled (2021) was created for the InterNational Prisoners Family Conference Competition, Virtual Auction & Sale, October 20th – 22nd 2021.
Paintoems
The Prism of Abolitionism (2021) was created for the Art on Abolition Exhibition.
Incarceration Nation Paintoem (2017) is the artist’s backlash to the NFL owner’s backlash to its players taking a knee during the playing of the National Anthem.
To learn more: INCARCERATION NATION | Mprisondpoetz
Black August – Los Angeles Paintoem (2016)
To learn more: BLACK AUGUST-LOS ANGELES | Mprisondpoetz
My Dilemma Paintoem (2016)
To learn more: My Dilemma | Mprisondpoetz
Life Without the Possibility of Parole Paintoem (2016)
To learn more: LIFE WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE | Mprisondpoetz
Mprisond Paintoem (2016) is the world’s first Paintoem.
To learn more: Mprisond | Mprisondpoetz
Mr. Warden (2017)
To learn more: MR. WARDEN | Mprisondpoetz
EYES WITHOUT A FACE (2016)
To learn more: EYES WITHOUT A FACE | Mprisondpoetz
Today We Are Sisters Paintoem (2018)
To learn more: EYES WITHOUT A FACE | Mprisondpoetz
Strange Fruit Paintoem (2017)
To learn more: STRANGE FRUIT | Mprisondpoetz
Protest Posters
To purchase a poster $15 Decarcerate Now!
To purchase a poster $15 Together We Can Tear Down These Walls
To purchase a poster $15 Black Love Matters
To purchase a poster $15 Restorative Justice
To purchase a poster $15 #SayHerName
his art doesn’t live on walls but in the streets
Prison Cell Art Gallery (2015)
A Bird Man’s Dream, center cased at the Anne T. Kent California Room, Marin County Free Library, Marin County Civic Center Complex in 2017, it was architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s last architectural achievement.
Today We Are Sisters at the Headquarters of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners in 2021.
A work by the Revolutionary Prisoner Artist Joedee in 2018. It includes fellow prisoner artist C-Note (top), and Civil Rights activist Imam Jamil Al-Amin, aka H. Rap Brown (bottom).
A 2020 protest poster by Revolutionary Prisoner Artist Joedee. This work features portraits of five CDCR peacemakers [“The revolution won’t be televised,” Gil Scott Heron].
Top left: Former prisoner William E Brown, also known as Min. King X AKA Pyeface;
Center: Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa;
Top right: Donald “C-Note” Hooker;
Bottom left: George Lester Jackson (1941 – 1971);
Bottom right: Stanley “Tookie” Williams (1953 – 2005).
Image of prisoner-artist C-Note sewn into one of the dresses in the 2020 fashion line Mercy by Fashion designer Makenzie Stiles.
San Francisco Bay View editor Nube Brown at the inaugural Ratcliff Awards in 2019. The original work of Incarceration Nation was put up for auction.
Fall of 2021, inspired by British Graffiti artist Banksy, and Covid-19, Incarceration Nation on Billboard at Keys and 9th in San Jose.
Incarceration Nation on one of the dresses in the 2020 fashion line Mercy by Fashion designer Makenzie Stiles.
2021, Anna in front of the Alameda County Jail with the artist’s protest poster #SayHerName
2021, Bay Area Rapper/Artivist Min. King X Aka Pyeface in front of the Alameda County Jail with a C-Note #SayHerName protest poster.
In 2021 Silicon Valley artist William with a C-Note #SayHerName protest poster.
A 2021 Keith Haring (1958 – 1990) Polaroid photo of Bay Area attorney Matt with a C-Note #SayHerName protest poster in San Francisco’s Castro District.
In 2021, Silicon Valley homeless parolee Nancy with a C-Note #SayHerName protest poster.
In 2021 California Prison Focus Editor-in-chief Kim Pollak with a C-Note Decarcerate Now! protest poster; standing next to Watani Stiner
with a C-Note #SayHerName protest poster. Stiner spent 40-years in prison.
The Google Search result of the 23.7 million, Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta, 1983, Jean-Michel Basquiat
(right), and Decarcerate Now!, 2020, Donald “C-Note” Hooker (left)
In 2016, C-Note with his works My Dilemma (2009), and Colored Girl (2009).