In times of crises, American prisoner artists are finding Redemption through healing Society.

On December 15th, 2014, inside the Lindt Cafe in Sydney, Australia, 18 people were being held hostage by Iranian born Mohammed Hassan Manteghi Borujerdi, also known as Man Haron Monis. For two days, the citizens of the globe were captivated by the event taking place in Australia. While the event ended in tragedy, it was a seminal moment in Christian-Muslim relationships.

The Global War On Terror as it is called by Western Nations, to an outside observer, is a violent struggle between citizens of the Christian West, against citizens of the Islamic Middle East. Instead of the event at the Lindt Cafe being an accelerant, that would further fuel this global war in the new millennium, it fueled a different flame, a different passion, a passion of peace, a passion of healing. On the social media giant Twitter, the Western world reached out to the Islamic world through the hashtag #illridewithyou. Instead of taking the knee jerk reaction of blaming all of Islam for what had just happened in Sydney, everyday citizens of the Western world, reached out to the everyday citizens of the Islamic world, to let them know, “I’ll ride with you.” Ordinary citizens took the extraordinary step, that despite how their government would react, the citizens of the Western world had the Islamic world’s back. They would support them, and be there for their community, despite their government’s response, and against Islamophobia from citizens in their own country.

One such Twitter user, Darealprisonart, a small publishing company of prison art, tweeted the artwork from one of its artists, with the caption:

DA MUSLIMA (make art not war) see more @ Works N Color #sydneysiege #illridewithyou

One year later, and the two worlds were still finding solace in this hashtag. On December 13th, 2015, @BeautyBird tweeted:

Non-Muslim high school girls wear hijab to promote acceptance of Islamic beliefs.

On December 14th, 2015, @RhondaItaoui tweeted:

1 year after #SydneySiege, I reflect on how I felt as a young Muslim that day, and why #illridewith you was so vital

On December 21st, 2015, @MrMubShaikh retreated with comment:

#illridewithyou in a combat zone Muslims protect Christians from AlShabaab gunmen who hijacked bus

That was a retreat from @AllAfrican who tweeted:

Muslims Shield Christians from Al Shabab Terrorists in Mandera

When the prisoner-artist, Donald “C-Note” Hooker, heard his work Da Muslima (Muslim woman), had been a part of the global movement of healing between Christians and Muslims, he was moved.

“It’s funny how this work was influenced by visual images from both those communities,” says C-Note. “The image of the women comes from a prominent African American magazine. It comes from an article regarding the diversity of faith in my community. But my artistic approach to the piece was based on Christian and Dutch master Johannes Vermeer’s, Girl with a Pearl Earring. Eventho I am imprisoned in Los Angeles, the piece was sold in 2016 at the Escaping Time, Prisoner Art Exhibit, on Governors Island in New York city, just 1.6 miles from where the World Trade Center buildings had been standing.”

On February 14th, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, United States, 17 people were murdered, and 17 people injured, when a former student, 19-year-old Nicholas Cruz armed himself with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and began randomly shooting. One month later, on March 24th, 2018, students impacted by the event, and other youths across the United States who had been impacted by gun violence, had gathered together on the Washington Mall to lead a protest March. The March for Our Lives in Washington DC, was the largest youth March in the United States since the Vietnam War. Millions were glued to their television sets, including, Darryl Burnside.

Burnside, a California State prisoner, knew what it was like to be an American juvenile on either side of a gun barrel. At the age of 12, Burnside had been critically shot on the inner city streets of Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles is the gang capital of the United States. At 16, these very same inner-city streets in Los Angeles that saw him get shot some few years earlier, now witnessed him as the shooter, but this time, someone was laying in these streets dead.

Burnside, now in his thirties, has a lot on his mind, a lot he wants to say, or Rap about. Struggling as a writer, Burnside had gotten exposed to Arts-in-Corrections. His exposure to this program was a confidence-booster when it came to him writing, rapping, and getting up and speaking before crowds. In an interview Burnside had given Darealprisonart in 2018, he noted:

“I had discovered the history of mass school shootings go back to Columbine, but I don’t know nothing about no Columbine. I was too caught-up in my own pistol toting lifestyle growing up in South Los Angeles. Kids get shot all the time. What’s the big deal? You see what’s going on in the world with Parkland, but for me, my journey began in 2008 in Pelican Bay. That’s when I saw the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford, and the death of Christina Taylor, the little girl that was present.”

The Parkland shooting event, coupled with other mass shootings of young people, and his own experiences, caused him to write a poetic opus to the victims of mass shootings. The piece, No More Massacres, begins with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., here is an excerpt from the quote Burnside used, as well as a passage from No More Massacres:

This method is passive physically but strongly active spiritually. It is not aggressive physically but dynamically aggressive spiritually.”

A Message from Martin Luther King Jr.

No longer do I spread a message of violence

not even in silence

My Old Testament

was shoot anyone for whatever reason

My community was infested with gun violence

and I didn’t take a liking

just the sound alone created fear in my heart

Still I didn’t submit

Unfortunately I found myself at 13

in a hospital

a victim of gun violence

bleeding

shaking my head

Like dang

What’s the reason?

Started holstering a gun for All Seasons

morals became corrupted

trapped

in reaction without Law & Order

secretly, tactically, preparing for war

Cuz there’s brutality all over the world

See in my ghettos we groom-to-be Killers

Black-on-black killings

Hearts full of Madness

cuz we misguided from youth

But ever since congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford got shot

and that little girl Christina- Taylor greene died

that was with her

I died a little inside

truly it was then

where I realized

that my heart was divided from truth

I became teary-eyed

My new testament begins

Now I’m picking up the shattered pieces

digging through the rubbish of my rearview

Face-to-face with my own demons

Please forgive me for my mishaps

Reality check

No more 21-gun salute…

[For more, read: No More Massacres by Darryl Burnside]

Where did you come up with the name No More Massacres?

I didn’t. I was going around asking artists if they could draw. I wanted cover art to go with my piece. So one of the persons I knew could draw was this OG named C-Note. He had helped me before with some of my poetry and getting them published. He read the poem, took an old gang tattoo pattern that he drew, a Hood Grim Reaper, the Hood’s version of the Grim Reaper, drew a red circle around the image, and that’s how you get No More Massacres. Whenever someone gets on a bus or train, you see these images with red circles around them, and that means prohibited behavior, behavior that is not allowed.

To learn more about C-Note https://www.c-note.org

You also were interviewed in the Guardian about your views on the death of rapper Nipsey Hustle?

Yeah, Nipsey was out there doing good. He was feeding his family from rap. That’s something I would like to do one day. But even if you are out there doing something positive, you still got to look over your shoulder. That’s not the message we should be sending to our youth.

What message would you like to send to the youth?

Stay in school, listen to your parents. Find something positive to get into after class, after doing your homework. Leave those gangs alone.

It’s not just the men who are using art to bring hope and healing to us on this side of the prison wall, women are doing this too. The most famous being Alice Marie Johnson. Johnson, a single mother of five, who in 1996 was sentenced to life imprisonment in a U.S. federal prison for drug trafficking conspiracy. During her imprisonment, she became a prolific playwright, writing dozens of plays that have been viewed by thousands of women. She also provided artistic mentorship to other women who were incarcerated. In 2018, with the help of Kim Kardashian West and Jared Kushner, President Donald J. Trump commuted her sentence.

Female prisoner using her art to demand the end of gang violence between the Bloods and the Crips. Photo published in Darealprisonart Magazine from the prison art exhibition, Through the Wall: Prison Arts Collective. An exhibit featuring the works from two metropolitan Los Angeles area men’s prison, and one women’s prison. Per their warden, all works by women prisoners had to be presented anonymously. To learn more about Darealprisonart read:

Darealprisonart, a Leader in the Movement to End Mass Incarceration Through Art | California Herald

https://www.californiaherald.com/darealprisonart-a-leader-in-the-movement-to-end-mass-incarceration-through-art/

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