Teaching with American Prison Newspapers: Entry points

Entry Point: Hip Hop Music

“Hip hop has never been perfect. But it is not all worthless.” 

• Toby S. Jenkins

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Despite negative stereotypes and media representation about the genre, hip-hop/rap music has a history of speaking about incarceration and portraying the experiences of people in prisons. This guide identifies songs/artists that discuss issues surrounding incarceration. These songs illustrate how artists use hip hop as a rhetorical strategy to address systemic issues. Each song has an annotation guide. The annotation guide outlines literary elements present in the poem as well as teaching tips and explanations. 

Along with lists of songs, this guide also consists of academic articles that can be used to facilitate critical thinking and academic inquiry.

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1. What’s Free by Meek Mill ft Rick Ross + Jay-Z

• Graphic Organizer: “Defining Freedom”

• Analysis by Genius Lyrics

• Opinion piece by Meek Mill in the New York Times

2. Do Your Time - Ludacris

• Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech” - NPR recording and transcript

• Comparison Chart: MLK + Incarceration Connection

• Slavery to Incarceration Connection: Video from the Equal Justice Initiative

• "Slavery and Prison: Understanding the Connections" by Kim Gilmore (2000). 

3. Locked Up - Akon ft. Styles P 

• Sample Commissary List (from Chainlink Chronicle) 

• Sample Commissary List 2 

• Do Harsher Prison Conditions Reduce Recidivism? A Discontinuity-based Approach by M. Keith Chen & Jesse M. Shapiro (2007)

• "Bail's Failings: Court Systems Rethink the Use of Financial Bail, Which Some Say Penalizes the Poor and Leads to Long-term Incarceration" by David Hills & Lorelei Laird (2016)

• “The Effects of Prison Visits from Family Members on Prisoners’ Well-being, Prison Rule Breaking, and Recidivism: A Review of Research Since 1991” by Karen De Claire & Louise Dixon (2017)

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Additional Readings/Viewings: 

1. Louder Than a Riot, NPR Podcast (episodes are ongoing) 

• NPR Released an Explicit Podcast on HIp Hop and Prison, Here’s Why It Matters by Amaris Castillo (2020)

• Hip Hop, Mass Incarceration, and a Conspiracy for the Ages by Gene Demby (2020)

2. Chainlink Chronicle: The Killing of Tupac Shakur pt. 1 and pt. 2 

3. Chainlink Chronicle: Hip Hop Label Called Part of Drug Empire

4. “A Beautiful Mind: Black Male Intellectual Identity and Hip-Hop Culture” by Toby S. Jenkins (2011)

5. “What Incarcerated Rappers Can Teach America” by Hannah Giorgis (2020) 

6. “Prisoners Rise, Rise, Rise!” Hip Hop as a Ciceronian Approach to Prison Protest and Community Care by Craig Lee Engstrom & Derrick L. Williams (2013)  

7. “Race, Class, Gender, and Rhymes: Hip Hop as Critical Pedagogy” by Noah Karvelis (2018) 

8. “Hip Hop and the New Jim Crow: Rap Music’s Insight on Mass Incarceration” by Donald F. Tibbs (2015) 

9. Tupac’s Law: Incarceration, T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E., and the Crisis of Black Masculinity by Seneca Vaught (2014) 

10. Breakdown FM: ‘91 2Pac Interview about Juice, the Police, Oakland, and the State of Hip Hop 

11. 26 of the Longest Prison Bids in Hip-Hop History (updated 2022) 

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Assignment: Song Study

Have students select a song from the Hip Hop + Prison Spotify playlist. With this song, students should: 

1. Annotate the lyrics

2. Identify topics/issues addressed in the song

3. Conduct research about the topics/issues addressed

4. Curate a short list of reading/viewing material

5. Use their findings from steps 2-5 to develop a mini syllabus to share with class. 

*** See sample 

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Assignment: Podcast Exploration

Students can explore episodes from the NPR Podcast “Louder than a Riot,” which outlines and describes the relationship between hip-hop and mass incarceration. Because each episode focuses on a specific artists, students can listen to one or two episodes (or more!)  and dive into an independent or collaborative study of a hip hop artist and examine the various power dynamics that impact their artistry or their experience with incarceration and/or justice. 

In their exploration, students should be doing the following: 

1. Listen to an episode. 

2. Identify the artist of focus and read as much coverage of the artist as they can from a variety of sources. Students should also listen to songs/albums by said artist. 

Entry Point: Poetry

“Poetry is a way of trying to express something that is very difficult to express. And it’s a way of trying to come to peace with the world.”

• Lucille Clifton

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Students don’t always enjoy reading poetry. They haven’t had much experience with/exposure to the genre in an enjoyable way. They haven’t found poets/poems that resonated with them. They’re intimidated by ‘analyzing’ poetry. The list goes on. The poems found in this guide have been annotated to mitigate some of those problems. These guided annotations identify literary devices and provide questions that instructors can pose to students. 

Below the list of poems is an additional list consisting of additional readings/viewings that can be used to facilitate critical thinking and academic inquiry about the role of poetry in the lives/experiences of incarcerated people. 

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Poems: 

1. “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou 

• James “JC” Cavitt wrote  a response to Angelou’s poem titled “Why I Scream.” The poem was performed as a part of TEDx San Quentin, which is a local event hosted by San Quentin Prison in California. You can watch Cavitt perform his poem here. You can learn more about the San Quentin newspaper here. 

2. “A Cell” by Johnny 

3. “My Eyes Have Seen What My Heart Has Felt” by Cheleta Tuckson

4. “Sometimes I Cry” by DJ 

5. “The Idea of Ancestry” by Etheridge Knight

6. “War Within Myself” by Daniel K 

7. “A Poem from a Father to His Youngest Son” by Timothy B 

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Readings and Viewings: 

1. A Prison Workshop in Arizona: Special Poetry in the Prisons Supplement by Michael Hogan (1976)

2. Crying Like Clouds Trapped in Caves: Poetry in Prison by James Moore (1975)

3. Writing Poetry in Prison is an Act of Resistance by Bunny McFadden (2022)

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Additional Poems: 

1. Elegy Ending with a Cell Door Closing by Reginal Dwayne Betts (2010)

2. Poem about Police Violence by June Jordan 

• click here to hear Jordan read the poem

3. House Arrest by Idra Novey (2012) 

4. Jail Poems by Bob Kaufman