For Immediate Release Contact Sarah Pritchard 510.459.1207 [email protected] Abolition 2021: Virtual concert benefit to support families of people incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary April 9, 16, 23, and 30 Ticketing link: https://noonchorus.com/abolition-2021/ New Orleans, LA, March 11, 2021 — Starting on Friday, April 9 and running for four consecutive Fridays in April, Abolition Apostles national jail and prison ministry will host Abolition 2021, a virtual concert benefit to support families of people incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary, otherwise known as Angola. Produced by musicians Jolie Holland and Johanna Samuels and Peter Bauer, the benefit will launch Abolition Apostles’ fundraising campaign to open a hospitality house to welcome friends and family visiting loved ones incarcerated at Angola. Featuring over seventy artists, Abolition 2021 will stream on Noonchorus. Responding to the moral urgency of the call for the abolition of mass incarceration, artists have donated their time to create a unique multidisciplinary streaming concert. As musician and producer Jolie Holland explains, “The idea of creating a place of radical hospitality and welcome amidst the cruelty and injustice of the prison system inspired me to produce Abolition 2021.” Located on the site of several former slave plantations, Angola is the largest maximum security prison in the United States. As Abolition Apostles co-founding pastor David Brazil explains, “Angola’s history as an antebellum plantation and site for convict leasing post-Civil War demonstrates the roots of mass incarceration in slavery and white supremacy. It is the evil heart of the American carceral system” The name Angola recognizes the region in south western Africa where the majority of enslaved Africans who worked on the plantations that comprise the contemporary prison were originally from. People incarcerated at Angola today still work in agricultural fields overseen by armed guards on horseback. Since Angola’s founding as Louisiana’s first penitentiary over one hundred years ago, the prison has been called “America’s worst prison” by Collier’s magazine and the “bloodiest prison in the South” by the American Bar Association. Notorious for its many human rights abuses, including the use of long-term solitary confinement as punishment, Angola also houses Louisiana’s death row. Seventy-three percent of people incarcerated at Angola are African American, with the majority of inmates serving life sentences or decades-long, virtual life sentences due to Louisiana’s harsh minimum sentencing laws. Angola is several hours’ drive from any major urban center. Friends and family often spend hours driving to visit their loved ones who are incarcerated there. Due to the lack of affordable accommodations close to the prison, most people are forced to drive to Angola and back home in one day, making for an exhausting trip especially for families with young children or elders. The Abolition Apostles hospitality house will provide a free place to stay for friends, family, lawyers, and advocates coming to visit incarcerated people at Angola. By making visitation easier and more cost effective for friends and family, the hospitality house will break the isolation too often experienced by incarcerated people. Abolition Apostles has identified a property located within fifteen minutes’ drive of Angola with a house, a barn, and fifteen acres of land. In order to secure the property and open the hospitality house, Abolition Apostles will launch an eight-week fundraising campaign to raise $815,000 in conjunction with the Abolition 2021 concert benefit. About Abolition Apostles: Abolition Apostles is a national jail and prison ministry based in New Orleans, Louisiana – the most incarcerated place in the world. Founded in 2019 by Pastors David Brazil and Sarah Pritchard, Abolition Apostles now serves over 1,500 incarcerated people in thirty-six states with the help of hundreds of volunteers across the country. Abolition Apostles’ mission is to provide moral and spiritual support to members of the incarcerated community, and contribute to the destruction of the prison-industrial complex through solidarity, prophetic witness, and community organizing inside and outside of prison. Visit www.abolitionapostles.org for more information. About Jolie Holland: American multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, producer, and singer-songwriter Jolie Holland has been on the road since the early 2000s, when her first band The Be Good Tanyas took off. In 2002 Holland self-released Catalpa, which Tom Waits nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize. Holland went on to release five studio albums with Anti- Records before starting her own label, Cinquefoil, in 2017. Her work has been described as a syncretization of American roots, with rock and experimental elements. She’s been in the studio with Booker T, Boots Riley, Lucinda Williams, and TV On The Radio; and shared stages with Mavis Staples, St. Vincent, Elbow, and Big Thief. Lou Reed once told her, “I could have listened to you all night.” About Johanna Samuels: Los Angeles and New York based Johanna Samuels broadens the definition of pop music. The melodically and lyrically focused singer-songwriter sings about the depths and dualities of life with her unique bell-like voice. Standing on the shoulders of the great musicians of the 1960's and 70's she manages to create a sound and sense of musical place that is completely her own. Her album "Excelsior!" will be released on Mamabird Recording Co on May 14th, 2021. A wholly personal document, Excelsior! finds Johanna exploring the nuances of her interpersonal relationships and the importance of listening to each other, understanding that a conversation doesn’t have to end because one person has to be right and the other wrong. NPR says Johanna is "...so compulsively listenable, and so smart in the way she assesses space and communication, it's just brilliant...what a voice." This is her first full length record. She has previously toured with Bonny Light Horseman, Courtney Marie Andrews and Madison Cunningham, and performed at festivals such as Green Man and End of the Road. Abolition 2021 Participating Artists: A.O. Gerber Aaron Embry Adam Brisbin Adeline Hotel Adrianne Lenker Alice Wetterlund Amy Annelle Andrew Combs Anna St. Louis Anna Vogelzang Boots Riley Boyfriend Bracelet Brandi Carlile Buck Meek Burnt Sugar Arkestra Chamber with Abby Dobson Caitlin Rose Cale Tyson Cape Weather Casey Neill Cassandra Jenkins Christopher Paul Stelling Courtney Marie Andrews Daddy’s Boy David Coulter David Grubbs Dayna Kurtz Diana Gameros Dorian Wood Dougie Browne with Marc Anthony Thompson Dylan Meek Dylan Rodriguez Eliza Carthy Elysian Fields Emily Kokal, Warpaint Erin Rae Faustina Masigat Fruit Bats Gabe Goodman Geoff Berner Gill Landry Glenn Morrow Gregory Uhlmann & Meg Duffy hackedepicciotto Heath Cullen Ian Felice Invisible Familiars Jack Symes Jake LaBotz Jasmin Savoy Jelly Toast Jensen McRae Jerry David DeCicca Jess Williamson Joanna Sternberg Johanna Samuels John Vanderslice Jolie Holland Kacey Johansing KERA Ketch Secor & Molly Tuttle Klara Soderberg, First Aid Kit Kronos Quartet Kyp Malone Lady Midnight Little Mazarn Liz Berlin of Rusted Root Liz Vice Lonnie Holley Madison Cunningham Marcus Mumford Mary Lattimore Maví Lou Mike Dillon Mike Watt Molly Sarlé Nathaniel Rateliff Nico Yaryan Ohtis Olivia Kaplan Orchestra Of Cardboard Peter Holsapple Peter Matthew Bauer Pokey LaFarge Portland Cello Project with the Momentum Dance Collective Prison Music Project Puddles Pity Party Rachel Baiman Richard Julian Rupa & The April Fishes Sam Amidon Sam Buck Sam Burton Sam Cohen Sam Weber Ft. Junaco Samantha Parton Sean Hayes Skip the Needle Slow Motion Cowboys Steven Van Betten Stevie Weinstein-Foner Taína Asili Tanya Gagne Terry Edwards The Tiger Lillies The War and Treaty Thor and Friends Tom Greenwood & Hannah Mickunas, Iowa Twain Vijay Iyer Weeks Island Wesley Keith Schultz, the Lumineers William Tyler.