Donald "C-Note" Hooker

---

Donald "C-Note" Hooker
C-Note in 2016, photo by Peter Merts C-Note in 2016, photo by Peter Merts C-Note in 2016, photo by Peter Merts American Prisoner Artist
Native name	Donald Oliver Hooker
Born	(1965-12-13) December 13, 1965 Los Angeles, California, United States of America
🏡 Residence	California State Prisoner serving Life
🏳️ Nationality	African American
💼 Occupation
Known for	* Plays: "Birth of a Salesman", Redemption In Our State of Blues (2015) Life Without the Possibility of Parole (A Prison Play) (2016) "The Seed of Bonnie and Clyde (South Los Angeles Edition)", Fathers and Sons (2017) Epic Poems: CRIMINALIZATION OF OUR AMERICAN CIVILIZATION (This Is Not A Manifesto) (2003) It Must End! BLACK FEMALE BOYCOTTS AGAINST BLACK MEN IN THE PEN (2017) Can't Black Lives Matter Too??? (2018)
Notable work	EXHIBITIONS: "Through the Wall: Prisons Arts Collective", CB1 Gallery (Guest), Los Angeles, California, (2016) "Escaping Time", Governors Island, Officer's Quarters, New York (2016) "Art Escape at Alcatraz", Alcatraz Federal Prison, Alcatraz Island, U.S. (2017) "Between Here and There", Liechtenstein National Museum, Vaduz, Liechtenstein (2018) "Capitalizing on Justice", Urban Justice Center, New York, New York (2018)
🥚 Twitter	Twitter=

label65 = 👍 Facebook

Search Donald "C-Note" Hooker on Amazon.

Donald Oliver Hooker (born December 13, 1965), better known by his street name, C-Note, is an interdisciplinary American Prisoner Artist. A poet, playwright, painter, performing artist, and the King of Prison hip hop, his works have either been exhibited, recited, performed, or sold, from Alcatraz to Berlin.

C-Note was born as an orphan in Los Angeles, California. He was adopted by an African American married couple, Clavie and Paulette (Washington) Hooker, and was their first child. Later, they would adopt another boy they named Douglas, a younger sibling whose mother was white and father Black. Eventually, the couple would have their own child, a girl they named Dion. When C-Note was eight; Douglas, seven; and Dion, six; she died of a brain tumor. According to a 1999 court briefing document, filed by his attorney in the Second District of the California Court of Appeals, C-Note received a prison sentence of 35 years to life for pulling out a knife in the skid row area of Los Angeles, and holding it in a threatening manner to prevent a homeless person from following him. In 1999, his mother Paulette died due to complications with cancer. In 2018, his father Clavie died due to complications with cancer. In 2019, his brother Douglas died to suicide. C-Note drew local attention in the late 80s while an inmate in the Los Angeles County Men's Central Jail, when he sat down for two televised interviews as a part of investigative reporting by then independent Los Angeles broadcast station KCOP-TV. The first investigation involved Cross burning by white officers inside the jail's Crips gang housing units. Over a year later, he was one of a number of people interviewed on a televised special regarding the gangs in Los Angeles. As a prisoner artist, he first came to prominence as Money Mike; the lead character in the 10-minute play, Birth of a Salesman. A play in which he both wrote and starred. Birth of a Salesman was the opening act to the critically acclaimed play, Redemption in Our State of Blues. Redemption was performed at the California State Prison, Los Angeles County in December 2015, and encored in March 2016. The performances were performed before politicians and/or their representatives, such as, California Governor Jerry Brown; California State Senator Holly Mitchell; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and former US Secretary of Labor under President Obama, Hilda Solis; and the Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti. Celebrities such as, The Hangover, movie producer, and Criminal justice reform in the United States Advocate, Scott Budnick; film actor, and husband to actress Sofia Vergara, Joe Manganiello; also members of the Marin Shakespeare Company at San Quentin. The play attracted a broad spectrum of professionals and activists, and lead to BREAK IT TO MAKE IT (BITMI): Busting Barriers for the Incarcerated Project Los Angeles, CA, a first in the nation prisoner reentry program. The program consists of two years of free housing at the Los Angeles Mission. Two years of free college to earn an Associate degree at the Los Angeles City College. College credits earned by prisoners in theater, and actual paid theatrical work with The Strindberg Laboratory.

In May 2016, his work Mprisond was part of a first-in-the-nation prisoner art exhibition at the CB-1 Guest gallery in downtown Los Angeles. Through the Wall: Prison Arts Collective, May 14–29, 2016, consisted of works from two California men's prison and one California women's prison.

In July 2016, his work Modern Girl, and other works by the artist, were a part of the Escaping Time prisoner art exhibition on Governor's Island, New York City, July 26-October 2, 2016. The artist was asked by the curator to create poetry for gift cards of some of the artist's work. This led to the artist creation of the Paintoem. Paintoems are digital works of art that consists of an original painting or drawing combined with a poetry vignette. This digital combination is then given away to the public for their free use; so long as the poet and the painter are given acknowledgement for their creation as part of this free content for public use. Mprisond (2014) was a part of the first paintoem the artist created and whose opening stanza begins with the line, "Rapunzel could let down her hair/because some cared".

In September 2016, he donated art for fundraising to the Partnership for Re-Entry Program (PREP), for their 12th annual prisoner art Exhibition. The Art of Incarcerated: Faith and Hope Beyond Prison Walls, was held Saturday, September 22, 2017, at Homeboy Industries in conjunction with their 5K run. Money raised from that event were used to pay for the resources to help parolees and pre parolees make successful transitions back into society. The following year at this event, C-Note donated his first political work of visual art, Black August-Los Angeles. PREP and Homeboy Industries are two of the restorative justice ministries of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

In the intervening years, his works have either been exhibited, recited, performed, or sold, from Alcatraz to Berlin. Despite being incarcerated as a general population prisoner in a maximum-security prison, the media has either filmed, photographed, quoted, or written about him in People; ABC Los Angeles (KABC-TV); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles's Artbound; Inside CDCR; Darealprisonart; San Francisco Bay View; and KCET's Departures. He also has been a contributing writer or visual artist to California Prison Focus; Prison Action News; Mprisond Thotz; Hamilton College's, American Prison Writing Initiative; John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Prisoner Reentry Institute's, Our Voice; The Real Cost Of Prison; In 2017, Google Search listed him first in search results as both America's, and the world's most prolific prisoner artist.

Women's issues

Some of his works have focused on the travails of being a woman, from the maturing woman, Diana, mothering in gang-infested and high-crime areas, Tears of the Mothers, to the incarcerated woman. In 2016, he created a painting, paintoem, and play, called, Life Without the Possibility of Parole. A series of works surrounding women serving a sentence of Life Without the Possibility of Parole (LWOP) in California. In 2017, he created the painting and paintoem, Strange Fruit. These works surround the higher than national average rates of suicide by women in California prisons. In 2018, he created a painting and paintoem called, Today We Are Sisters. These works surround the forced sterilization of women in California prisons.

American prisoner artist, C-Note's, 2017 work, Strange Fruit

American prisoner artist, C-Note's, 2016 work, Life Without the Possibility of Parole

View the following Paintoems:

• Life Without the Possibility of Parole (Paintoem)
• Strange Fruit (Paintoem)
• Today We Are Sisters (Paintoem)

Poetry

Other works in poetry are of the travails of being Black in America, such as, Can't Black Lives Matter Too???, and American Negro: A Migrant Story. Can't Black Lives, was created as a work of performance poetry for his final exam for California State University, San Bernardino's Prison Arts Collective's inaugural performance poetry course. American Negro was written specifically for the 2019 Black Migration theme of the 29th Celebration of African-American Poets and Their Poetry. Other poems of note, are the painting and paintoem, Incarceration Nation, and the epic poem, THE CRIMINALIZATION OF OUR AMERICAN CIVILIZATION (This Is Not A Manifesto), also known as the American Illiad. Incarceration, was recited at the 28th Celebration of African American Poets and Their Poetry; Tho Her Name Is Not Gibraltar She's Still Called The Rock, was on display at the architect, Frank Lloyd Wright's, Marin County Civic Center Complex at the Marin County Free Library's Anne T. Kent California Room; while Angelic Tempest, was recited before a room full of venture capitalist, CEOs, and other professionals at Defy Ventures SoCal's 2018 graduating Commencement Address.

American prisoner artist, C-Note's, 2017 work, Incarceration Nation

Prose

Some of his writings include, "The Untapped Potential of Prison Art", "Neo Jim Crow: Black Art Movements and It's 21st Descendants", "The Importance of Women in the Struggle: Emphasis on the Black Woman's Voice", "What if Amy Goodman's Democracy Now had Covered the Millions for Prisoners Human Rights March", "The Myth of Intersectionality to Women of Color", and "Due process in the Era of Me Too".

Exhibited works

• "Mprisond (2014)", was exhibited at the Through The Wall: Prison Arts Collective Exhibition held at the CB1-Guest Gallery in downtown Los Angeles, California, May 14–29, 2016.
• "Modern Girl (2015)", was one of several of the artist's works exhibited at the prisoner art exhibition, "Escaping Time", in the Officers' Quarters on Governor's Island in New York, July 26-October 2, 2016
• "Black August-Los Angeles (2016)" was one of two works donated by the artist for fundraising to the Partnership for Re-Entry Programs at their "The Art of Incarcerated: Faith and Hope Beyond Prison Walls", Saturday, September 23, 2016, at Homeboy Industries. "Black August-Los Angeles" is the artist first work of political visual art.
• "A Bird Man's Dream (2017)", was a work specifically created for the prisoner art exhibition, "Art Escape at Alcatraz", in the band room on Alcatraz Island, May 1-June 30, 2017
• "Between Here and There (2017)", was a work specifically created for the 4th International Prisoner Art Competition of 371- entrants from 23-countries. Its initial exhibition was at the Liechtenstein National Museum in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, Spring of 2018
• "Coffee Bar (2017)", was a work specifically created for the prisoner art exhibitions at two Gimme Coffee houses in New York during the Winter of 2018. All works were required to use actually coffee.
• "Capitalizing on Justice (2018)", was a work specifically created for the prisoner art competition "Capitalizing on Justice". This work was a second place silver prize award winner. The first exhibition was at the Urban Justice Center in Manhattan, New York, during the Winter of 2018

Prisoner-Artist, C-Note's, 2019 work, Cell Time

Cell Time (2019), is the artist first completed acrylic painting on canvas. It was done under the tutelage of artist Jim Dahl of the Muckenthaler Cultural Center, and was exhibited at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, as part of the University of California, Los Angeles's inaugural art fair-workshop, known as CALL, Connecting Art and Law for Liberation, April 12-14, 2019. CALL was the brainchild of third-year law student Delaram Kamalpour. Speakers during the three-day event included such notables as Los Angeles Poet Laureate 2014-2016, Luis J. Rodriguez, actor and activist, Danny Glover, hip hop artist and activist Chuck D, and author activist and former prisoner Donna Hylton.

Further Reading

Gayle, Caleb. "Capitalizing on justice: the prisoners using art to challenge the system". The Guardian, 17 Oct. 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/oct/17/capitalizing-on-justice-exhibition-inmates-art. Accessed 21 Mar. 2019.

Through the Wall: Prison Arts Collective. Prison Arts Collective, California State University, San Bernardino (2016) ISBN 9781367213241

Selena Ebony (talk) 13:17, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

This article "Donald "C-Note" Hooker" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Donald "C-Note" Hooker. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---