Rattling the Bars's Mansa Musa explores how a one-woman play, The Peculiar Patriot, reveals the human cost of mass incarceration and the enduring ties between slavery and the prison system. The artist behind the play, Liza Jessie Peterson, has worked with incarcerated youth for decades, bringing their stories to the stage and to national audiences. Performed in more than 35 US prisons and filmed at Louisiana’s Angola Prison—once a plantation, now a maximum-security facility—the play became the basis of the documentary, Angola: Do You Hear Us? (Paramount Plus / Amazon Prime). As the fight for abolition and prison reform gains momentum, this story reminds us that art is not decoration—it’s a tool for awakening, organizing, and freedom.

🎥 Watch the full interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcDuOs80ya0

Resources

Official site — https://www.lizajessiep.com
Angola: Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison — Paramount+ / Amazon Prime
Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/lizajessiepeterson
Voices of the Experienced (VOTE Louisiana) — https://voiceoftheexperienced.org
National Black Theatre (Harlem, NY) — https://www.nationalblacktheatre.org

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Inside the modern-day plantation: How theater confronts incarceration