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Faith Nolan Any Womon.s Jailhouse Blues
After six years of collecting song lyrics by women prisoners Faith Nolan's launch of the new Cd is here!
Spread the news about wimmins jailhouse blues.Jails close to home Unlike most people, Nolan has never felt uncomfortable going into prisons. She was raised in a working-class black neighbourhood in Halifax at a time where the only jobs a
black person could count on were that of a maid or a railroad worker. "People had to do little extras to live decently," she says.
The more entrepreneurial would pursue drug trafficking, prostitution or robbery.Nolan's own mother was a bootlegger and operated a gambling parlour out of their home. "I grew up with people going to jail all the time," Nolan says. "The police were always busting into our house and taking her or somebody off to jail."As a result, the music she emerged with was freedom
songs and blues.Only Nolan's versions are concocted with a twist: she uses them to educate people on issues close to her heart - racism, homophobia, sexism, labour rights and class oppression. She has 14 CD's to date and has collaborated on a variety of projects for radio, film and community activism . Faith. projects include a trip to Nigeria with the International Conference on Penal Abolition,consisting of concerts with the women of the KiriKiri and Enugu prisons,which she plans to release on disc next year. "They really did the performing,I just started a couple of songs," Nolan says. "The women came in with drums and beautiful voices." In 2002, she also made a video in coordination withthe women of San Francisco County Jail.