America is the prison : arts and politics in prison in the 1970s / Lee Bernstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bernstein, Lee, 1967-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prisoners as artists--United States.

Prisoners as artists.

Arts, American--20th century.

Arts, American.

Arts--Political aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Arts.

Arts and society--United States--History--20th century.

Arts and society.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 224 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the 1970's, while politicians and activists outside prisons debated the proper response to crime, incarcerated people helped shape those debates though a broad range of remarkable political and literary writings. Lee Bernstein explores the forces that sparked a dramatic ""prison art renaissance,"" shedding light on how incarcerated people produced powerful works of writing, performance, and visual art. These included everything from George Jackson's revolutionary Soledad Brother to Miguel Pinero's acclaimed off-Broadway play and Hollywood film Short Eyes. An extraordinary

Contents:

We shall have order: the cultural politics of law and order

The age of Jackson: George Jackson and the radical critique of incarceration

What works? reform and repression in prison programs

We took the weight: incarcerated writers and artists in the Black Arts movement

Cell block theater: entertainment, liberation, and the politics of prison theater

Radical chic: Jack Henry Abbott and the decline of prison programming.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [185]-214) and index.

ISBN:

979-88-9313-198-7

979-88-908795-8-5

1-4696-0404-3

0-8078-9832-5

OCLC:

658201602