The Life and Art of Keith Brazley

Authors

  • Fury Young Founder and Co-Executive Director, FREER Records, New York, USA
  • BL Shirelle Co-Executive Director, FREER Records, New York, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33009/fsop_ijci140395

Keywords:

Keith Brazley, prison art, arts-in-corrections

Abstract

This essay provides an interview with formerly incarcerated artist, Keith Brazley, and features examples of his artwork.

Author Biographies

Fury Young, Founder and Co-Executive Director, FREER Records, New York, USA

Fury Young is Co-Executive Director and Founder of FREER Records in New York. He released his debut album, Escape From LES, in 2025.

BL Shirelle, Co-Executive Director, FREER Records, New York, USA

BL Shirelle is Co-Executive Director and Artist of FREER Records in New York.

References

Harbert, B. J. (2023). Instrument of the State: A century of music in Louisiana’s Angola Prison. Oxford University Press.

Schrift, M. (2004). The Angola Prison Rodeo: Intimate cowboys and institutional tourism. Ethnology, 43(4), 331–­ 344.

Schrift, M. (2006). Angola prison art: Captivity, creativity, and consumerism. Journal of American Folklore, 119(473), 257–­ 274.

Whitman, J. R. (2025). Prisons of Creativity: Artistic innovation during incarceration. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/ 9781003566021

Cover image is a painting with the viewer’s perspective from inside a jail cell. Its concrete walls are broken, showing the world outside those walls with barb wire fences and a guard tower. But through the bars of the closed door one can see green grass, a leafy tree, and blue sky.

Downloads

Published

2026-05-20

How to Cite

Young, F., & Shirelle, B. (2026). The Life and Art of Keith Brazley. International Journal for Creativity Inside, 1(1), 73–77. https://doi.org/10.33009/fsop_ijci140395

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2026)

Section

Creative Works

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Fury Young, BL Shirelle

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.