IIP Update 7: Benefit Concert & 2023 Recap
By Ted Jamison
In 2023, the Instruments Into Prisons (IIP) initiative changed its pace and redirected its course. After several years of fierce commitment and output, donating over $18K worth of gear to over 12 facilities, this volunteer-run effort experienced an understandable down-shift in momentum. We faced this head-on with a publicized push to fulfill as many outstanding gear requests from musicians inside as possible before winding down the effort, which we were able to accomplish minus a few exceptions. Moving forward, our goal with IIP is a quality-over-quantity approach, emphasizing fewer - but more intentional - donations, with the added goal of increased transparency and efforts to follow-up with and document their usage inside.
As we move into our FREER era in 2024, we see vast potential in the IIP program. We believe it is a natural extension of FREER Records’ mission to build the careers of the artists we work with, and even those we do not. Many of these instrument donations are available to most residents at the facilities, regardless of affiliation with our label. Moving forward, to help bolster this program, we are seeking funding via donation and/or grants to keep this effort going in a way that is sustainable and effective well into the future.
Our first big effort towards rebuilding momentum with IIP is a Benefit Concert on June 30 at Francis Kite Club in NYC. We’re very excited to kick this off with an amazing line up - including incarcerated FREER artists Spoon Jackson and Zealot (of Territorial) alongside free world artists Velise, Ben Pagano, Kamelya Omayma Youssef and Frida Kill!!! If you liked our virtual PPE Into Prisons series, you will love this - plus it’s IRL!
Proceeds from this event will go towards hand percussion instruments towards Musicambia’s music program at Bedford Hills, a women’s prison in upstate New York.
Along with this announcement, we’ve adapted last year’s recap (as published in our 2023 Annual Report) for the FREER News archives!
SING SING CORRECTIONAL FACILITY
MUSICAMBIA
In March of 2023, we donated a Yamaha YPG235 electric keyboard to the musicians inside Sing Sing Correctional Facility. This donation was made possible by donor Cole C and our longtime partners at Musicambia, a non-profit organization that runs the music programming at Sing Sing and many other facilities across the country.
Elliot Cole, Program Director of Musicambia’s presence at Sing Sing shared the following in regards to our donation:
“Your keyboard is getting a lot of use. We have about six guys learning the instrument and yours ensures that there’s always something available for their lessons and practice. We have a concert next week, and it will be on stage in front of a 100 person audience from the general population. We have 25 students learning instruments and writing songs. They’ve become a very accomplished, capable community over the years. They write and produce their own concerts. They study instruments and theory. They learn from us and they learn from each other. Some are writing compositions that are being played in the outside world. Having access to instruments like yours is critical for their skill development and creative work. Which, as you know, is a zone of freedom they deeply value.”
Pictured: guitar and violin donation to Bedford Hills. (Photo - Charles Moore)
BEDFORD HILLS CORRECTIONAL
NEWPORT FESTIVALS FOUNDATION
Later in May, we finalized the long awaited donation of both a Revelle SWX Violin and a Yamaha C40 acoustic guitar to Bedford Hills Correctional, another Musicambia affiliated facility located in New York - previously the residence of FREER recording artist Ms. Seeley. This donation was made possible with a generous $500 grant from the Newport Festivals Foundation (NFF) on behalf of the band The Beths. We are immensely grateful for the continued support from NFF as well as the thoughtful consideration of The Beths to make this donation possible.
After about five long months of persistence through red tape, prison bureaucracy and out-of-stock instruments, we were able to get these donations inside the facility and into the hands of musicians under caring instruction from Musicambia staff.
Shawn Jaeger, Executive Director at Musicambia shared some words about our donation’s presence in the Bedford Hills program:
“In general, the program at Bedford Hills is flourishing. It’s grown from about 7 participants at the start to 17 this semester. Our December concert featured 9 newly-written, original songs performed for the first time. That night, I saw one of our participants stop the rehearsal to praise a colleague for how she was lifting up the group with her energy and positivity. I saw joy spread across a student’s face, as our Teaching Artist, Jan, took a guitar solo over chord changes that she had composed for her song, ‘24 Hours.’ I saw an audience of incarcerated people, corrections officers, and prison administrators cheering on a performer who stopped after a brief memory slip and wasn’t sure if she could finish her rap. I saw two beginning violinists go from nervous at the dress rehearsal to elated after the concert — a glimmer of increased self-confidence and ambition in their eyes.”
Here are some comments from participants from anonymous surveys:
“My self respect has increased from not allowing prison to limit my talent.”
“I felt more than free. I needed this space for survival in the darkness.”
“I absolutely love, love, LOVE the energy when like-minded people gets together for one sole purpose.”
“I really appreciate this program and am privileged to be part of it.”
Pictured: violin donation to Bedford Hills. (Photo - Charles Moore)
BUENA VISTA CORRECTIONAL COMPLEX
DANE “ZEALOT” NEWTON
Dane “Zealot” Newton is a singer/songwriter and guitarist whose musicianship can be heard on the FREER Records 2021 release Tlaxihuiqui from Territorial. His voice and guitar are featured in the single “America the Merciful.” After the release of the album, Zealot was moved from Territorial prison to Buena Vista Correctional Complex in Buena Vista, CO. There he has continued his songwriting efforts and musicianship.
In July of 2023 we were able to send Zealot a new Ibanez PF15ECE Dreadnought acoustic-electric guitar. We are excited to hear what comes from him next!
“It is very difficult to put into measurable terms the value of music. Especially as it pertains to a song being trapped inside one’s heart. A simple melody that evolves into emotional complexities that we as human beings must interpret. For me to create music is like the need to breathe - it’s the whisper at night that awakens me, the muster of its rhythm that promises me if I stay just a little while longer, great things are there for us... It’s the song hidden in seven notes drawn from heartbreak, love, loss, hope... It’s the whisper that reminds me... If the world don’t understand - then that’s alright.” - Zealot
Radical Reversal’s Studio at Jefferson County
JEFFERSON COUNTY YOUTH DETENTION CENTER RADICAL REVERSAL
In April of 2023, we received a message from New York musician and activist Devin Brahja Waldman who had been spending the year in partnership with poet and Engilsh professor Randall Horton in a project called Radical Reversal. In this project they installed music studios at three different prison facilities in the US: Birmingham, AL; Boston, MA; and Faribault, MN. Radical Reversal contacted us to seek equipment donations to help build out these studios and expand their access and capacity.
We had just received a generous donation of two high-quality acoustic guitars from D’Angelico and were looking for prisons in which to place them. After discussing with Waldman and Horton, we arranged for one of these guitars to the Jefferson County Youth Detention Center in Birmingham to supplement their studio there. We are always especially excited for donations to facilities with young musicians.
Randall Horton shared the following words about our guitar donation:
“We at Radical Reversal can’t thank Ted Jamison and the folks at FREER for the guitar that we received for JCY. This was a great addition to our studio that we’ve installed there. The guitar is being used for performance and music lessons to our students. The Director of JCY, Monique Greir, was very thankful and impressed. It is indeed a very nice and much needed addition to our studio space in Alabama.”
D’ANGELICO GUITARS
The second of the two D’Angelico acoustic guitars was donated to the folks inside Howard McLeod Correctional Center in Atoka, OK. D’Angelico Guitars has been a frequent donor of excellent quality instruments to IIP over the years and we were, once again, exceedingly grateful for their generosity and thoughtfulness. We look forward to further partnership with their company. D’Angelico and Bond Audio EVP of Product, Ryan Kershaw, shared the following in regards to their 2023 donations:
“D’Angelico is proud to support the Instruments into Prisons initiative. We believe music-making has healing powers and that all aspiring musicians should have access to quality instruments, both to hone their craft and as a means of expression.”
ARKANSAS VALLEY CORRECTIONAL CENTER
NATIVE GROUP TURTLE RATTLE
A while back IIP purchased two items specifically for the Native Group’s ceremonial sweat lodge inside of Arkansas Valley Correctional in Colorado. FREER visual artist E. Brokencoyote referred us to two specific instruments needed for the ceremonies conducted by him and other Native Americans who frequent the sweat lodge: a drum and a Taos rattle, which were shipped to the facility and are made use of with frequency.
In 2023, E. requested another rattle for their ceremonies - this one a turtle shell rattle which has different cultural meanings and properties. With the help of donations we were able to fund this niche request. E. supplied us with the following testimony in reference to this donation:
“As to the experience with the rattle you sent. As I have mentioned before, we have an old one we’ve used for years at our sweat lodge. Your rattle is used at our drum group on Thursday evenings. Our sweat lodge ceremonies are on Saturdays.
I need to explain our musical instruments. First, many people are not aware that there are over 200 tribes in the continental US alone. That’s not counting Canada, Mexico, and South America. Our tribes have different cultures, languages, lifestyles, terrains, and living situations. The point is we are not on the same page in many things.
However, there are some things we share in our cultures: drums, rattles, flutes, etc. Universally we believe our musical instruments are more for ceremonial purposes rather than entertainment. Along with the playing of instruments, we sing.
We believe that singing and praying are not separate. To us, they are one in the same.
The drums are our heartbeats. The rattles call attention and invite spirits to our songs and prayers. I have a rattle which I use when I wake up for my morning prayers. The turtle is sacred to most tribes. To some it represents the slow steady journey of patience. Some believe earth mother is a giant turtle and we live upon her back. She is slowly taking us through the cosmos. In my tribe they wait for a turtle to die before they use the shell to make a rattle. I do not know how the one was done by [the manufacturer] Crazy Crow. But once we prayed with it, it is now sacred. Please know we are grateful.
These songs and prayers help us to humble ourselves and grow closer to our creator. Because someday we must stand before him and explain ourselves.”
IMPACT
Through the Instruments Into Prisons initiative, FREER Records is working to fulfill its mission to build the careers and amplify the voices of prison-impacted musicians. We believe in the potential for each donated instrument to help restore a sense of person-believe in the potential for each donated instrument to help restore a sense of personhood for incarcerated musicians that the prison system actively works to remove.