2016 began a 15-year prison Odyssey for American prisoner-poet Donald “C-Note” Hooker to get his poetry read or heard by the public.
1998 was the year American prisoner-poet C-Note was shipped to what the Associate Press would call, a remote, racist prison in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Frustrated, he went from writing Raps to drawing. Hoping to be heard. In 2016, he was asked to create poetry around some of his artwork being exhibited at the Escaping Time, Prisoner Art Exhibit on Governor’s Island near downtown Manhattan in New York City, from July 26 through October 2, 2016.
Shortly thereafter from that experience, he created Paintoems. A Paintoem (painting + poem), is a poem inspired by a painting or drawing, or a painting or drawing that has been inspired by a poem. The two interdisciplinary Works are combined together to create a single work of Digital art. Once created, the Work falls under the Creative Commons copyright law. This law gives the public free use, so long as the artist or artists are acknowledged. Without the public having free use access to the Work, it cannot be called a Paintoem.
In 2017, he created a work entitled, Tho Her Name Is Not Gibraltar She’s Still Called The Rock. It was created for the Prisoner Art exhibition Art Escape On Alcatraz. This exhibit was held on the Island of Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay, in the United States, in the State of California. Part of the Exhibition included two off sites in California’s Bay Area. This work was exhibited at one of the off site Exhibitions. It was displayed at the architect, Frank Lloyd Wright’s, Marin County Civic Center Complex at the Marin County Free Library’s, Anne T. Kent California Room.
In 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 that has been buying, roasting and serving specialty coffee to New Yorkers for over 15-years. Renowned for the quality of its products, Gimme has won numerous awards, including, “Top 10 U.S. Coffee Bars,” by Food and Wine Magazine.
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. The following video is of the artwork C-Note submitted, a work he entitled Coffee Bar.
Art Made Entirely From Prison Coffee
White Noise was one of two poems C-Note submitted for the exhibition. It features several poetic devices, such as the blending of criminality with coffee, and a cadence reminiscent of the great poet Edgar Allan Poe.
White Noise
High ceiling
windowless room
soundless
except the white noise
of bright lighting
humanless
except me
furnitureless
except door’s knob
queasy
of uneasy
a hot mess
but nevertheless
I wait
in this Twilight Zone
of a disaster
seconds
turn into minutes
minutes
turn into hours
still feet
a quickend pace
a slow jog
complexity of thought
rise and fall
like a statistical graph
wondering
searching
Did I see?
Crashing the disturbance
of the undisturbable
Deputy good cop
and officer bad cop
hurled accusations
of machinations
I could not have done
I remained silent
silence brokered for a cigarette
to which I refuse
until
the swiftness
of wiffness
of roasted caffeine
filled the room
Today We Are Sisters
In 2017, while listening to Los Angeles Public Radio Station KCRW local news program “Press Play,” hosted by Madeleine Brand, the topic was reparations for forced sterilization in California. From C-Note’s programming notes, forced sterilizations were legal in California from 1909-1979. Despite forced sterilization being repealed, from 2006-2010, 150-women prisoners were forcibly sterilized. While the news programming story was about righting the wrongs of California’s Eugenics program by providing reparations, nowhere in this conversation was there an attempt to provide reparations for the women-prisoners.
In 2018, in response to this lack of advocacy for these women prisoners, C-Note created two original works, a drawing and poem, for a paintoem he entitled, Today We Are Sisters.
Today We Are Sisters
Today we are sisters
Tomorrow we won’t
unless for reparations
together we fight
I am Pro Choice
I am Pro Life
just because she’s in prison
She still has rights
In the publication Mprisond Poetz, C-Note notes, “Me being an absolutely stupid guy, and using my observations, women are very catty, and they themselves are always discussing how they don’t support one another. This is why the piece is called Today We Are Sisters. Because no matter what side of the abortion debate you are on, forced sterilization is anti Pro-Life, and is anti Pro-Choice.”
That year, 2018, C-Note donated the drawing Today We Are Sisters to the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP). The CCWP is a grassroots organization involved in the advocacy for women imprisoned in California.
Every year since 2018, the CCWP had begun advocating to California legislators for reparations to victims of California’s illegal eugenics program that had been practiced on its women prisoners. Other advocates also began to lobby California legislators for these reparations.
In 2020, Erika Cohn released Belly of the Beast, a seven year project on the forced sterilization of California women prisoners. However, it wasn’t until shortly after the February 2021, release of Free Virtual Art Exhibition (1-Artist; 1-Subject; 21-Works), which concluded with Today We Are Sisters, that California legislators acquiesced to grassroots’ demands, and put forth a Bill to give California women prisoners who were forcibly sterilized reparations.
In July of 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsome signed into law AB 1007, Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program, $7.5 million reparations Bill. As a result, California became the first state in the nation to compensate survivors of prison sterilization.
TODAY WE ARE SISTERS Reparations for Women Prisoners
Journey to Afrofuturism
In 2020, C-Note wrote the poem Journey to Afrofuturism for the 30th Anniversary Celebration of African American Poets and Their Poetry. The event takes place every February on the first Saturday. The 2020 event had two themes, one was the 2020 national theme of the ASLAAH, the other was local, “400 Years of California, African American History.” Upon research, C-Note had discovered that Spanish conquistador, and Governor of Mexico, Hernán Cortés, named California after a Black woman, the Califia to the land of Black women. The poem, Journey to Afrofuturism, brings back the Califia to our current times, as the nursemaid to the Afrofuturism movement.
Afrofuturism, according to Jamie Broadnax of Black Girl Nerds, is the reimagining of a future filled with arts, science and technology seen through a black lens. The term was conceived a quarter century ago, by white author Mark Dery in his essay “Black to the Future,” which looks at speculative fiction within the African diaspora.
After the event, the host of this annual event, Professor Wanda Sabir informed C-Note she would be publishing the 30-years of African American poetry recitals into a book. This inspired C-Note to create a drawing for his poem. He named the drawing Journey to Afrofuturism.
In the spring of 2020, Speculative City Magazine paid C-Note for the rights to these two works for one year, to be published in their “Winter of 2020, Issue #10, Afrofuturism.”
In January of 2021, Charles Payseur of Quick Sip Reviews reviewed the six Works in Speculative City Magazine’s “Winter of 2020, Issue #10, Afrofuturism.” In his review of Journey to Afrofuturism, Payseur wrote:
This piece speaks to me of tradition, of tracing the ideas and influences of Afrofuturism from Africa and to California, finding there a sort of forgotten, parallel history to draw off of, to complicate, and to reclaim. The piece reveals the bounty of the area, touched by a queen, the verdant and lush landscape, the way the earth seems to be so nourishing there. For me, there’s a sense that the piece could almost be saying something about the “true” path of afrofuturism and how it exists in the West, how it’s future is in California. But I feel instead that the poem is rather tracing not _the_ path of the movement, of afrofuturism as a whole, but rather showing how it leads not only forward, but also into the past. It’s a catalyst, a way of reclaiming a history that has been largely ignored and erased. The poem to me feels like a celebration of scholarship and of art to reach back and make connections, to find afrofuturism waiting in all times, in all places. Like with the last poem, there’s a feeling to me of connecting this work to a kind of collective past, one that recognizes Black excellence and endeavor, that shows that the West has never been only white. And for me the piece finds a lot of hope in that, of finding these buried roots that can still find their way to the surface and become new growth. That can connect movements across oceans and continents. Not to claim the center of the movement, of all of afrofuturism, is in California, but rather to show that the same spirit and soul of Afrofuturism existed and exists everywhere, a source of strength and power for those who look for it and who find the stories that have largely been denied to them. So that the future is not pulling out of the whitewashed version of history so many cling to, but from a past reclaimed and made whole. It’s a wonderful piece, and connects directly and explicitly with the theme of the issue, and it’s just a great way to finish things up. Definitely go check it out!
On October 14th, 2021, the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), held a Zoom event, “Afrofuturism Then and Now.” The event was the inaugural 2021 – 2022 Academic Year Global discussion and performances on what Afrofuturism means and how it manifests in cultural practices. The Zoom call panelists consisted of speakers in diverse locations such as the Congo in Central Africa, Burkina Faso in West Africa, and several cities in the Northern California Bay Area in the United States. The event concluded with Hip Hop artist and Hip Hop Congress Board Chairman, Rahman Jamaal exhibiting and reciting C-Note’s artwork and poem Journey to Afrofuturism.
Journey to Afrofuturism Recital and Exhibition
In 2022, author of What Comes After JoAnne Tompkins, who is a participant in PEN America’s Prison Writing Mentor Program had read Journey to Afrofuturism through the program and wrote:
I appreciate this poem as an ode to the search for Homeland, the ways we can be misled in our search, and the power of female energy. I was particularly drawn to the images of prehistoric icons: a saber tooth scepter and Mammoth wool which creates a sense of longing that predates any particular life. I also was taken by the imagery of the Earth’s oldest and tallest trees and the blue whales, and the poem’s female protagonist seeking to nurture the larger Earth and other creatures.
Angelic Tempest
In 2018, a younger prisoner housed in the same cell block location as C-Note was asking other prisoners if they know anyone who writes poetry. Upon overhearing this request, C-Note informed him, he was a poet and how could he help him.
The younger prisoner told C-Note he was looking for a poem to present to his mentor at this program he was participating in. During this time, having outsiders coming inside the prison to mentor the prisoners was a brand new thing. Also problematic about the young prisoner’s request, the recipient of his poem was going to be a woman. In prison, that was a no-no. Such a gesture could be interpreted in multiple ways, all of them negative.
In order for C-Note to write a poem for the younger prisoner, whose recipient was going to be an outside volunteer of the opposite sex, he needed to be very careful in the words he chose. He needed to come up with a poem for this woman, that would not be sexual, but still retained an emotional vigor. The poem C-Note created and passed onto the younger prisoner would be called Angelic Tempest.
Eventually, C-Note found himself in a similar situation as the younger prisoner, how to convey to his female college business English professor, his gratitude for elevating his wisdom in life. He recited to her Angelic Tempest. Her response was so overwhelmed with emotion she nearly ran out of the room in tears.
Later during the graduation ceremony for Defy Ventures, the graduating prisoners, volunteered C-Note to give the valedictorian address. Defy Ventures is an entrepreneurship, employment, and leadership training program that serves people with criminal histories, both inside and outside of prison. Its most famous feature is its Shark Tank-like business pitches to volunteer CEOs, venture capitalists, and other important community volunteers for real capital investment to include, but not limited to $100,000 USD, for business ideas by those no longer in prison, and up to $500 for those who are in prison.
C-Note recited Angelic Tempest, as a means to validate the experience the prisoners just had by the volunteer work of Defy Ventures, including the volunteers who came inside the prison, as a part of the Shark Tank-like business pitches, and
entrepreneur consulting.
Angelic Tempest
I feel from grace
at least from Man’s
Not from His grace
I guess the plan
The prism
from prison
Is birds don’t fly
Not jailbirds
there’s no wind
beneath their wings
But infused with spirit
when someone saw my worth
To be more
than a dirt of Earth
You were the wind
beneath my wings
Now my imagination soars
with greater possibilities
That my life could give meaning
to the world
As noted by C-Note, in a 2018, Medium article, “Defy Ventures with its ‘Career Readiness’ program and entrepreneurial training offers up to any imprisoned man or woman a vision that is rooted in a foundation of support. And that’s why I delivered it to a room full of prisoner family members, educators, CEOs, and venture capitalists, as they truly are the wind beneath a jailbird’s wings.”
CRIMINALIZATION OF OUR AMERICAN CIVILIZATION (This is Not a Manifesto)
In the early 2000s, Outlaws Online held a prisoner poetry contest. Winning contestants would receive money and publishing in a poetry anthology. The themes Outlaws Online were looking for, related to “The Life.” The lifestyle that can lead one to prison, or about prison or the jail experience. The rules permitted a poem up to 3 pages long. Since this was a competition, C-Note had asked himself, How was I going to distinguish myself from the others? He decided to write a three-page poem on the theory no one else would.
The poem he wrote was an epic, 700+ word poem that paid homage to the Iliad, by the Greek poet Homer. CRIMINALIZATION OF OUR AMERICAN CIVILIZATION (This is Not a Manifesto) is a tongue-twisting poem about the history of the United States, with a criminal justice story woven in there. The poem was not chosen by Outlaws Online.
In the winter of 2019, C-Note performatively recited the poem during This Concrete Life. This Concrete Life was a 1-day, 90-minute, solo and group of theatrical performances by prisoners at the California State Prison at Los Angeles County, Facility B-yard. It was the accumulation of 16 weeks of theatrical training by the theatrical troupe Fugitive Kind Theater. Fugitive Kind Theater is a Los Angeles-based troupe committed to social justice by amplifying the voices of the incarcerated and returning citizens.
THE CRIMINALIZATION OF OUR AMERICAN CIVILIZATION (This Is Not A Manifesto)
This is my homagization
of Homer’s epic poetization
of the Iliad, which receives glorification
from western civilization
and it’s in that vein of creation
I present to you my poetization
on the criminalization
of our american civilization.
When was its commencization?
Was it with Christopher Columbus, and his infestation
of small pox, on the Indian population?
Is my street spill, a revisitation
on the orgins of this american civilization
whereupon european colonization
was the dominate manifestation
and natives suffered humilation
for christian propagation
and capitalistic subjugation?
With natives being stamped with ineptation
they turned toward their own population
for labor intensification.
Their prisons they went
their street people they sent
to their european colonizations
under a system of indenturification.
Yet this prove insufficient to raise a nation.
So it was the african slave occupation
that would work the plantation
to build the nation
so is it any wonder if this is the commencization
of your nation
that it would lack cultivation
of a so-called civilization?
2.2 mil, the U.S. prison population
the most incarcerated in the history of civilization.
Parents, siblings, spouse, children, are an exponentiation
of those who also feel the effects of incarceration.
You’re hauled-off to your local police station
without some rational explanation
you’re then given legal representation
to defend against a State’s accusation
of some penal code violation.
You’re lacking in bail funding capitalization
so you make an OR application
but the judge has some reservation
so you’re given over to the bailiff, for pre-trial incarceration.
After relocation
to a larger jail holding station
you’ll hear detainee conversation
of police report falsification
and witness testimony fabrication
to cheat you out of an adjudication
that will lead to your liberation.
Now you’re filled with frustration
from a lack of attorney-client communication
so you’re not filled with adulation
in the outcome of a jury deliberation.
Now it’s trial commencization
and the D.A.’s presentation
of the State’s accusation
of your alleged penal code violation
but because of your attorney’s lack of preparation
you’re given poor advocation
of the factual characterization
of what really happened with this situation
regarding the State’s accusation
so now the court issues its proclamation
from your negative jury ajudication
you’re eligible for rehabilitation
so you ask the judge for probation
but the D.A. doesn’t like this recommendation
so slithery-tongue prosecutorial persuasion
is spewed without hesitation
and you’re given years of incarceration
now lack of familial participation
will lead to inner feelings of alienation
that will further hearten your subjugation
and this is just one narration
Like the criminalization
thru politicalization
against those who seek euphoration
for their alleviation
to stressful american situations
by illicit foreign importation
of naroctic stimulation
for self-medication
Why are they stressing over the nature of the narcotic’ legalization
Are we not the Zolof Nation!
So what difference does it make how you seek your intoxication?
This is no way for a nation
to treat a spiritually devoid population
But why did I have such expectations?
Was it due, to my rationalization
of America’s constitutionalization
written towards man’s higher aspirations?
However, due to poor implementation
why should anyone believe in that documentation?
Sorid violations
of systematization
of womanhood molestations
are too numerous for citation
The preventation
of women representation
regarding congressional delegation
is just one manifestation
of this vilification
to constitutional implementation
Let’s not talk about the brutalization
of the black population
thru white intimidation
and his racial segregation
Tho lacking in sophistication
it did lead to black intepidation
thank God for white motivation
for national reconciliation
thru civil rights passation
and restoration
of our haloed constitutional documentation
So take this into consideration
Go visit another State on vacation
then leave out on probation
this is what we do as a nation
this criminalization
of our American civilization
and always a history of demonization
on the next population
of immigration
But for my final observation
It regards poor funding in education
for the eradication
of the minority population
Blacks statistically 12% of U.S. population
but 50% of its incarceration
Tupac citations
ain’t got shit, on my enunication
in this undercover operation
to conceal my true representation
for this was a manifestation
on the criminalization
of our American civilization
In Conclusion
Despite the hardship of prison life, and not to mention, the quarter-century of his wrongful removal from freedom, this kid, Donald “C-Note” Hooker, shall be forgotten no more.
