Interview: @Golgotha W/ Piankhi

vox populi vox Dei
(The voice of the people is the voice of god)

There exists a documented conversation between men hanging on crosses after being given the death penalty. One of those men is still a major figure in the lives of people all over the world and yet there are now thousands of people on death row around the world. Go figure.

For far too long the media and other agencies have represented captives on death row from a narrow window, from the outside, and the results are often one-sided, misleading, and straight up false. PAPCO inspires the world to experience unedited conversations between the souls still hanging on the cross at the place of the skull - Golgotha.

The institutional "Instruction Manual for Legal Murder" has not changed. When the people are forced to focus on the person on the cross, by default the condition itself at the same time forces the people not to focus on the systematic overthrow of the underclass, a scheme to silence the people, hidden in plain sight.

Gone are the days of just executing old child molesters and the serial killers. There now exists a new type of political prisoner being held captive on death row, the "New Generation" of targeted inner city youth accused of committing "street level crimes." who are given death sentences in exchange for the political and capital advancement of corrupt law enforcement agents, attorneys and judges.

Piankhi Sniper Xzyzst- atgolgotha.org
circa Circa
2015 2015
@ @
94974 94974

Index

@Golgotha w/ Piankhi
An interview by Xzyzst

The Anatomy of a Zine:

This conversation is solely based on the developmental process of the recent release of the WRITE OR DIE Zine Project Issue #6 titled: Poetry, Prose & Conz

Q's by: Floyd Smith, Xzyzst A's by: Byron Wilson, Piankhi

The Dialogue Key:

1. The Tone Page 1 of 9
2. @Golgotha w/Piankhi Page 1 of 9
3. Most important Page 3 of 9
4. Piankhi's Favorite Page 4 of 9
5. Journalism Page 4 of 9
6. Top 5 Zines Page 5 of 9
7. Setting OUR OWN standard Page 6 of 9

Location: San Quintin State Prison, at Unit East Block 4th Tier/Yard side
Date: 7.31.2015
time: 10:48pm
Format: Handwritten by Xzyzst
Page Count: 9
Contributors: 2

Pg. 1

(The Tone)

It's 10:48 pm, Friday night, July 31st, 2015, here on California's Death Row, San Quentin State Prison, at unit east block 4 tiers high, in cell #9

It's unusually quiet tonight, the old school cat Frank Nitty and Young Tajirio seem to have caught the comedic energy of the day and Piankhi is laughing and enjoying the atmosphere, chillin' next door in cell #10, bumpin' Talib Kneli and Nora Jones collabo in the backdrop.

It's been real hot these last few days, especially way up here on the 4th tier, so a lot of us are using our cell bunks as work desks and pulling our matrasses on the floor where it seems a degree or tow cooler, which makes for a perfect set up to conduct and @Golgotha style conversation with Piankhi, steppin' up to the bars soon.

Me? Oh yeah, my name is Floyd Smith, pen name Xzyzst, been nocturnal, always at home close to the earth relaxing on the floor, somehow unable not to associate the latest unsuccessful suicide attempt by a fellow condemned captive, with the customized CD playlist selection change to a song by a group named Loose Ends, ironically titled "Hanging on a string". Just being on death row can take you to some dark places where even songs about love and relationships register different to the psyche, so thank God for masterful beat productions of the 1980s-90s as they prevent us from sustaining the irony of the hook lyrics of the song.

(@golgotha w/Piankhi)

P: Yeah, let me slide over here, can you hear that beat? That’s my intro music, Rollin' up, slow mo, sup, it's...What time is it? Got my water and snackzzzzz. Hold up, oh, ok, what are we doing? You ready? Can you hear me over the music?

Pg. 2

Xz: You just dropped WODZ Issue #6, off the top of your head, what's 3 things about this issue that's unique

P: Off the, for starters, it's our 1 year anniversary on creating our PAPCO Distro and Co-Op...

Xz: Oh yeah, got to get into that, number two?

P: Audio, it's our first issue where we've created a link where people can hear from us directly...

Xz: Three?

(Most Important)

P: The most important thing about this issue is Ms. Pam and that it was the first time that we not only addressed the Mental Health Conditions of Death Row but in a way not normally expressed by prisoners, you know, showing appreciation for Pam's work and stuff like that.

Xz: Let's start there.

P: So, for people reading this, Ms. Pam had been facilitating a poetry group as part of Mental Health Care Recreation Therapy, I'm thinking back to my first 3 days just observing, my thing was, I'm not a fan of poetry, so just sitting and watching how it all was playing out, by her engaging everybody with topics and contents from everywhere and being able to pull stuff out of people that otherwise would go, missing out on, and when people read the interview inside of this issue and the backstory, I hope she reads this as well, because she needs to see how it's all her, from start to finish. When you really look at the growth, it all starts with Pam.

Pg.3

Xz: Ms. Pam don't know what?

P: She probably don't know that we view her as a warm, pretty smile and that we don't do tributes like that! I think I may have said to her one day that she has a pleasant disposition.

Xz: Mack Hand? Could be misconstrued as shallow?

P: IF I needed a Mack hand, seriously? I don't think enough people say thank you to people like her and those that treat us like humans, you'll miss it easy around here.

Xz: Remember that last day in class when she broke the news to us that the poetry classes’ last day was literally that day?

P: Yeah, You can tell she was disappointed until she hit everybody with smile and make the most out of that day.

Xz: That’s when I decided to collect the work to make this issue a reality, remember me snatching that piece off the wall that she stapled on the wall as we was being escorted out for the last time?

P: Yeah.

Xz: That was paradise Lost by: Battle? She always stapled her favorites on the wall, she'll be glad to see some of her favorites in this issue, well the pieces that survived the hard searches by the cops, "loss or destruction of property" is how they describe it.

Pg. 4

(Piankhi's Favorite)

Xz: I know it’s still early for others to draw a favorite from this issue, but we've dealt with this issue from the gate, so, what’s your hands down favorite piece in issue #6?

P: Poetry, Theology and Psychology by Mousey and not because of the poetry, because like I said I'm not even into poetry but because he recited the piece to me on the yard and both of us dug into it and he listened to me as I was checking the nuances and awh man, we went on one about this piece and Mousey had already biased me by spittin' it on the yard, so yeah. I'd have to pick that one. I haven’t read everything in this issue, but I did also like to backstory to the @golgotha interview, I thought that was well written

(Journalism)

Xz: Cool (?), Journalism, how did you catch this bug because this Zine Project is not a regular part of the everyday lifestyle of inner city youth growing up in Compton like you did.

P: I mean for me, watching daily news programming, Charlie Rose and how others relay stories period and i think we have to understand it appropriate to relay our own unique stories and details from death row, so, it started out me taking on like a manager role slash promoter, you know the work that it takes to provide the forum for people to voice out. We didn’t have that here on the Row and those that did individualize for years.

Xz: Yeah, real talk, because this is far from just being a one person issue. What’s this thing about Anthony Rayson? I mean, had it not been for you, me and others in our generation probably would’ve never even heard of Anthony. Why is he so important to WOD?

Pg. 5

P: How I ended up with one of his Zine catalogues, I can't even remember but around 2004 when zines started falling into my lap, I noticed that they all came from ABC Zine Distro, and I was impressed that Anthony had a prisoner Zine section, so I started trying to learn more about what he does and he's been the motivation, especially in sustaining the p[project because we had no other venue of distributions. He engaged us head up, straight out and I wanted to work with people that didn’t have a filter.

(Top 5 Zines)

Xz: Let’s get a personal Top 5 from you out of Anthony’s Catalogue. Be specific, because I want people to gauge exactly what it was that made you want to read more and be like, OK finally, got something real and anti-bullshit, feel me?

P: It's some good ones, so only asking for a Top 5 is not making this easy for me, Let me see:

#1. How to build a collective.
#2. Anarchist Organizing Manuals.
#3. Thought Bombs by Cyote Chef.
#4. Liberation or Gangsterism/Freedom or slavery by Mr Shoatz.
#5. Brief History of The New Afrikan Struggle By Syndiati Acoli.

Xz: You're right, that ain't fair because people like Mr. Shoatz got hella hit rocks and the De? University Interview with Anthony Rayson is super solid, not to mention Mr. Cyote Chef writes like he's writing directly to us, huh?

P: All his stuff is loaded. He's a prolific writer in my opinion, that's why he was the first non-condemned in issue #3

Xz: When people read you mentioning Anarchist, New Afrikan and other, how do you think that resonates with society or the portion of society that don't exist in subterranean culture?

Pg. 6

P: Personally, I don’t care. I am an observer. I may not be associated with those and other groups, so what? My primary objective is to produce good zines and i appreciate reading people who are serious about what they are about. I am a student of life, so back to my original answer, I don’t care what people's ignorance display; my focus is becoming better at what I do.

Xz: When I wrote "The New Political Prisoner" I was challenging Mr. Shoatz because I want whatever I write or work on to reflect what I’ve learned and for my teachers to see themselves in our work, specifically to let them know that, Yeah, while they got their eyes on the streets are also watching them, in ink.

P: And its so many that we ain't even gonna get caught up in because the reality is, it's also a lot of rhetoric and bullshit zines out there and...

Xz: Real talk, we ain’t got the luxury for that megalomaniac, follow me syndrome, zinester.

(Setting Our Own Standard)

P: LOL; Yea we done already experienced all that anyway, so we can spot that a mile away. I wish people would just send us Zines because we're starting to do our own zine reviews as if nothing else, we can be able to expose our readers to other zines that are relevant to our generation and to create a new conversations within our own subculture groups and we want to also continue to more WOD to do something now and whatever we do we are just doing it, we don’t need permission, we are setting our own new standards with this project.

Pg. 7

Xz: If you wanted to produce issue #6 again, what would you not include, how would it be different?

P: A do over? No interview, no articles, no prompts, just poetry & prose & audio. I like audio, like I said, we want to continue to add to what I am calling New Media 2.0, and everyone will see how many ideas take on new life forms and adding audio links to our projects is only the beginnings of this new standard.

Xz: Like PAPCO Distro?

P: Exactly, you got us back to that...

Xz: Give the people a crash course

P: As we all know, Anthony Rayson's ABC Distro does everything, assemblage, print, distro, the whole 9. I mean for years and for thousands of zines and a largely recognized as the ultimate authority.

So with WOD, I wanted to cut Anthony's workload and for us to take greater responsibility and action oriented approach to adding to the zine community. So with issues #4, #5 and #6 I’ve decided to submit full complete, self-produced issues, so all Anthony has to do is print and distro on his end. A new standard for prisoner zines.

This is now for us a lot of hard work and it allows for all of our contributors to experience my Co-op idea, for example, I've been getting at least 20 copies of my first print run of a complete issue that we assembled and produced right here. It ain’t like we lose the hustle after incarceration and I ain’t never had no problem with hard work.

Anthony gets our best copy, while the other copies go directly fellow captives that are able to generate resources to produce no less than 3 copies of said issues each. If all goes well, our minimum projected turnaround is 57 copies from just the first print run.

When we add 57 to our next print run, we end up with around 77 copies or more, so our inner prison, inner unit circulation and turnaround system keeps PAPCO Distro with a continuous flow of our Zines available for circulation from behind the walls to family, friend, pen pals, attorneys and associates of an entire generation of our contributors.

Distribution through cooperation, Its more involved but that’s just a small crash to explain how any group of people can get things done without overhead stress, time limitations and become active participants in helping to circulate our own work, a new standard.

Anthony Rayson was one of the "very few" that engaged us without strings from the very beginning, so like i said before, giving us the motivation to sustain this project is something I value as serious, because we are doing all of this from scratch, without ZERO journalistic experience and I'm on the business side of things so as for as the content goes, my job is to get our work into the world. These contributors are now 6 zines deep with cover to cover content unique to our situation. So i aim to produce and preserve this work, to be the best of my ability, as I continue to get better at this and engage new ideas.

Xz: Who is that, Nas? (Piankhi's Cd still playing in the background)

This cipher ends with Piankhi rapping alongside Nas word for word. The one: "Purple"