Making Life a Little Sweeter

A Praline by Robert "King" Wilkerson.

Uploaded to Flickr on May 27, 2008 by Deep Fried Kudzu.

Creative Time is circulating a fabulous New Year's greeting, a Quicktime video that features Robert "King" Wilkerson, the maker of Freelines candy and the only free member of the Angola 3.* Wilkerson participated in Creative Time's "Hey Hey Glossolalia" program in May 2008.

Wilkerson, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace make up the Angola 3. Early in their incarceration at Angola Prison in Louisiana, they helped organized a chapter of the Black Panthers in an effort to end violence and improve living conditions.** When a guard was stabbed to death in 1972, they were convicted of his murder, and all three men were placed in solitary confinement. Wilkerson spent 32 years in prison, 29 of them in solitary confinement, for a murder he did not commit. He was exonerated by the State of Louisiana in February 2001 and subsequently released. Wilkerson makes his Freelines candy to support Woodfox and Wallace who still live behind bars.

Wilkerson writes:

In 1962, at Angola Prison in Louisiana I learned to concoct a special praline-like candy from a fellow prisoner named "Cap Pistol." I continued to make this recipe of sugar, butter, milk and pecans, even during the 29 years I spent in restricted confinement. In my cell I made my candy using a stove of stacked tin cans, and tissue for fuel. The ingredients came from other prisoners on the cellblock that saved their butter pats and sugar packets. The pecans were smuggled in by other means. On my first full day of freedom I was compelled by my aunt, who is like a sister, to make a batch of candy at her house. Later Laurie Lazer, a friend in San Francisco, helped me come up with the name Freelines. We liked the name because it sounds like pralines, which my candy is similar to, and I was finally free. It just made sense... Freelines. Now that I AM FREE I hope to make life a little sweeter for you!

According to Creative Time's website, Woodfox and Wallace are the longest-held prisoners in solitary isolation in the United States to date. If you've visited Prospect.1 in New Orleans, you might recall Jackie Sumell's collaborative installation, "The House That Herman Built," on view in the lobby of the Contemporary Art Center. The installation uses CAD animation, maquettes, architectural drawings, a full-scale prison cell, and letters from Herman Wallace to ultimately render the dream house of a man who has been confined to a 6 x 9 cell for more than three decades. The Angola 3 has a civil suit pending with the U.S. Supreme Court based on claims that their isolation is a violation of their Eighth Amendment rights.

Freelines are $3.00 a bag. Each bag is a King's Portion, 3.5+ ounces and serves 2 to 3. Purchase the candy here.

*Thanks Shelley Bernstein for sharing the Creative Time greeting!

** A 1998 documentary about this particular prison, The Farm: Angola, USA, was screened at Pratt Institute earlier this year, following a lecture by then scholar in residence, Angela Davis.