Surfaces

Abstract

Abstract In the late 1960s and 1970s, Angola’s engagement with the public grew. On the one hand, the prison used outside performances as a public relations tool. On the other hand, prisoners took advantage of Louisiana’s economic turn to tourism to raise money. Chapter 4 examines how prisoners engage surfaces of the prison—boundaries where they interact with outsiders. These meeting places develop out of negotiations with an administration under fire for mismanagement and underfunded. The alliances that form help fund music programs and offer slim chances for release as the concept of prisoners’ rights develop. The chapter is split between following the Westernaires, a country band that played the new rodeo and toured Louisiana on a bus, and the rise of club banquets, where Black musicians provided music for newly empowered prisoner clubs and their outside partner organizations.