114 years imprisoned for a crime they didn’t commit: Play puts you in the shoes of Angola 3
Starting Friday, Oct. 20, a theatrical play called the Angola 3 written by Parnell Herbert and directed by Saran Bynum, will premiere at the historic Carver Theater.
Imagine being confined in a 6x9 prison cell every day for decades, closed off from the world for a crime you didn’t commit. That is the lived experiences of men known as the Angola 3. Robert H. King, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox served a combined 114 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana’s oldest and largest maximum security prison.
Starting Friday, Oct. 20, a theatrical play called the Angola 3 written by Parnell Herbert and directed by Saran Bynum, will premiere at the historic Carver Theater, inspired by the lives of King, Wallace and Woodfox.
“Everyone has heard of Nelson Mandela and Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter and people right here in New Orleans didn’t know about these men who did more time in solitary than either of them,” said Parnell Herbert, playwright and childhood friend of Woodfox
Wrongful Imprisonment
While serving time in prison for smaller offenses, the three were silenced and put in solitary confinement for standing up against injustices that were happening in Angola. In 1972, King was 18 years old when he was wrongfully accused of murdering another inmate. Wallace and Woodfox were both convicted for the murder of Brent Miller, a guard in the prison.
They were targeted for their activism as members of the Black Panther Party, calling out segregation, violence and inhumane practices in Angola. Officials said they were kept in solitary confinement because their activism would rile up inmates at the maximum-security prison farm, about 50 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, La.
King was released in 2001 after his conviction was overturned on an appeal and plea bargain.
Wallace was released in October 2013. He passed away two days after a judge freed him and granted him a new trial. Woodfox served the longest time in solitary and was released in February 2016 after he agreed to a plea deal of no contest to the manslaughter charge of Miller.
He died last year.
The Play
Playwright Herbert remembers growing up with Woodfox who he hadn’t seen or heard from in 30 years and believed him to be deceased.
“To see that this brother has been in solitary confinement, well, that injustice is what drove me to do what I could,” Herbert said. “And in my position, the only thing I could think of was to do a play on them.”
The play explores the stories of the three through music, song and monologue performances. It highlights the mental and emotional health of the King, Wallace and Woodfox, while they fought for better living conditions and treatment during their time in prison.
Sponsored by Voters Organized to Educate (VOTE), the play advocates for prison reform in the criminal justice system. Founder Norris Henderson said he has known the Angola 3 personally for the last 45 years, “the journey that they’ve been on, I’ve been on that journey with them.”
Henderson said their movement added value to people’s lives. Henderson said Wallace, King and Woodfox helped him learn more about the Black Panther Party and prison advocacy reform.
“These guys started out with trying to, you know, stop all of the various conditions that was going on in prison and were able to survive it,” he said. “ So our education came through those guys."
Broken System
Louisiana mass incarceration impacts Black communities differently than other groups, said Loyla law professor Andrea Armstrong, a leading national expert on prison and jail conditions. Mass incarceration deprives communities of stable and important resources, she said.
“We also know from some of the death research here in Louisiana, that solitary confinement is a space in which people are completing suicides.”
According to Armstrong, solitary confinement has the possibility of creating mental illness and increasing health concerns for those incarcerated.
“I think what it does is, it really forces us to confront what we do in the name of punishment, and prompts us to think about whether those are fair and just punishments,” she said.
King, now 81, continues to advocate for "people power" and says the play is a great way to spread the word.
“I think people should walk away with the idea that the struggle continues no matter what," he said. "We understand the word itself coming in this form here, what it can do is, expand upon the mentality and the concept of what the Angola 3 were trying to do."
Opening Night
The play is produced by Poetic Panther Productions and 5th Dimension Studioz.
On opening night, attendees can expect feature performances by The Baby Dolls, Spyboy Rickie, Big Chief David of the Washitaw Nation and A1 'Carnival Time' Johnson who will perform his longtime New Orleans Anthem. In a special performance, Dameon Neville, who met Wallace while incarcerated, will premiere his song “I want to be free” as a tribute to Wallace.
Doors open at 7 p.m. and the play begins at 7:30.
Additional dates of the play are Saturday, Oct. 21, Friday, Oct. 27th and Saturday, Oct. 28.
Tickets can be purchased here.
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