Pictures from the Symposium
"Angola Bound"
November 17, 2001

Angola, Louisiana


Waiting for the ferry in St. Francisville...




The entrance to Angola...




Alvin Batiste of Southern University (along with Harvey Knox, Herman Jackson, and Charles Neville) lectures on Jazz, Blues, Zydeco, Cajun, and New Orleans Folk Music.




Harvey Knox (Blues guitarist for over 50 years; formerly an inmate at Angola)




Lunch break...live music and chicken...




The Angola Prison Band tears it up with the help of their friends:
Charles Neville, Alvin Batiste, Herman Jackson, and Harvey Knox.

Charles Neville was an advocate for intergrated music during his time in Angola.
Here we see him on stage with a former student.

























Tour of the Angola grounds - all 18,000 acres!

Our bus...










The camp that housed Heddy Ledbetter "Ledbelly"...




A closer view of the Ledbelly camp.




Cows...approximately 1,500 on the grounds...
The Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola is massive, covering 18,000 acres...mostly farmland.
The prisoners (1,794 hired) still work the fields.







Other Lectures:

John Lomax, Alan Lomax, and Leadbelly: Collecting Folk Songs for the Library of Congress at Angola in the Early 1930's - Kip Lornell, Ph. D., Africana Studies Program, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

Prison Song: Music by and about Prisoners from Work Songs and Corridos to Merle Hahhard and Aaron Neville - Nick Spitzer, Ph. D., Host of American Routes (Public Radio International) and Professor of Folklore and Cultural Conversation, University of New Orleans

Harry Oster's Collection of Folk Songs at Angola in 1959 and Memories of Robert "Pete" Williams, Blues Musician and Ex-Prisoner of Angola - Chris Strachwitz, Founder of the Arhoolie Foundation and Owner of Arhoolie Records & Dick Waterman, Manager of Robert "Pete" Williams

Louisiana State Penitentiary Links:
The Louisiana State Penitentiary Museum
The Angola Prison Rodeo


webmaster: mieuzik@hotmail.com





Click here to return to "Slices of America"