Jazz for Freedom #1

On Sunday, the Barrios Unidos Prison Project put on the first concert in our Jazz for Freedom series at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.

The Wide Swath Quartet and Mr. Jim Mason, a jazz historian DJ and radio announcer, were our headlining performers. Although the rain detracted from the amount of people in attendance, I would say that it was a full house! We are so grateful to the staff at the museum who helped us facilitate this event.

Nane Alejandrez introducing the Wide Swath Quartet

Additionally, we brought our traveling Interactive Prison Cell, where participants experienced what life might be like in solitary confinement, and I began collecting data for my research project.

Me with Nane Alejandrez, the executive director of Barrios Unidos

In the photo above, Nane and I are standing in front of the Barrios Unidos Interactive Prison Cell. I am holding up a copy of the San Quentin News, which is written and published by a team of incarcerated men in the San Quentin State Prison. Whenever our team visits the Correctional Training Facility, we always bring plenty of copies of the newspapers - these are usually the first items that the inmates grab from our table.