Coming to you live and direct from the tombs of North
Carolina’s death row, are the voices that bring shame to the erroneous
practices of capital punishment in this country.
Paul Brown, Rodney Taylor, Lyle May, and yours truly, Leroy
Mann, are the “paradigmatic hippies” turning the tables on the state-sanctioned
homicides that have initiated and concluded each of our days for a total of 70
years. In turn, this is our LETHAL INJECTION
of truth acting as a stone throw into the ocean of your existence.
Allow this art to be the TIDAL WAVE of humanity that rumbles
beneath the surface. Life is not rocket
science; nor is it fair. Life will
always be artful, just let the art be art.
The passion within our voices bridges the gap between unconcerned and
GETTING TO KNOW.
Life Lines is about connection. It’s about finding surprising spaces to share
endangered, beautiful life. It’s about
recognizing our power and our powerlessness to give and take life.
One hundred and forty-seven men live on Death Row in North
Carolina. Most of us have been here for
more than a decade. Some more than 30
years. Those of us, who are writers and
poets, are passionate about the spoken word.
Until now, we’ve only been allowed one supervised 10-minute phone call
each year. But now, with regular access
to the phones, we want to share our voices with you. Literally.
Life Lines is an audio journal of poetry, spoken word and
other creative writing from North Carolina’s Death Row. We’ll publish three pieces each week: poems,
or short stories in our own words.
Words, which we hope, invite communion, however limited and imperfect,
with those struggling to live inside state prisons.
But we need your help to make it happen. We want to build this place for you and us
online, and that means creating and maintaining a website. We’ll also have to pay each time we call off
the Row to make the recordings.
With your support, we can cover these start-up costs and get
connected for the first year. We hope
that will give us enough time to generate a moderate flow of monthly support to
keep this line open for as long as you and we are willing.
Because of state laws restricting access to prisons, the
authors record these poems by phone. As
you listen, carefully, let the line static become a reminder of all the
lines-race, class, iron bars, and barbed wire we’ve constructed between
ourselves. If we allow them, these
pieces can open new, shared spaces for us in spite of these boundaries, if only
for a moment. Take a chance with us –
just listen.
Checkout this fascinating piece, featuring the Life Lines organizers,
as well as, the North Carolina Death Row spoken word artists, on the Talking
Bull Podcast.
Written by,
Leroy Mann and Chris Agoranos
