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Rachel Zarrow March 17, 2021Updated: March 18, 2021, 12:12 pm
“If The Leader Only Knew,” by Hank Willis Thomas, part of the exhibit “Barring Freedom” at the San Jose Museum of Art in San Jose. The exhibit focuses on pieces by 20 artists that makes viewers examine how they see and understand established notions of policing, incarceration, and surveillance. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
Rahsaan Thomas is a busy man. A writer, community organizer and co-host of “Ear Hustle,” a Pulitzer Prize- and Peabody Award-nominated podcast, he’s also the co-founder of Prison Renaissance, an organization that uses the arts to “end cycles of incarceration” and create connections between the general public and incarcerated people.
Rahsaan Thomas, photographed by Antwan Williams. Courtesy of Ear Hustle.
For Rahsaan “New York” Thomas, success came later in life and at a cost. After being incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison in California, Thomas began to work with organizations and initiatives using creative forces to combat mass incarceration and shift attitudes about prisoners from the inside.
He is now the co-host of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated podcast “Ear Hustle,” co-founder of Prison Renaissance (which connects prisoners to people outside), contributor to multiple national news outlets, and staff writer at the
San Quentin News. He has written about the devastating impact of the coronavirus on prisoners and the prison system for Insider, the Prison Journalism Project, Current, and more.