ABOUT
Tin Can Phone is a podcast project that began inside Columbia River Correctional Institution, a minimum security prison in North Portland Oregon. As part of an artist in residence program called Columbia River Creative Initiatives, Master Artist Michael Bernard Stevenson Jr. began collaborating with Armon, Queaz, and Joseph to record interviews and stories from fellow inmates at the prison. With the support of KBOO Community Radio, the project has been recording new content now that all of the formerly incarcerated collaborators have been released from prison.
Together the hosts explore the ideas, experiences, and contemporary events necessary to unpack the issue of mass incarceration in the United States, the billion-dollar prison industrial complex, and libratory ideologies.
Join the Tin Can Phone Crew as they leverage the podcast platform to uplift the voices of people and families suffering from the american prison system.
HISTORY OF THE POD
Tin Can Phone began with Armon interviewing 12 currently incarcerated men from inside Columbia River Correctional Institution for a book project called Great American Stories. The interviews were long, in-depth, and full of a unique wisdom that could only come from those who have been living within the carceral system for decades. In the process of their interviews with Armon, each participant came to understand something about themselves that they had not thought of before, leaving a singular mark on the project that could only come from their insights.
Queaz and Joseph were interviewed by Armon early on in the project, and began to hang around for other interviews. Incrementally becoming more involved with the project, the resulting conversations were unlike those they were having with the guys on their block, or anywhere in life before.
The three remained in contact with Michael as they began to parole. At the beginning of the pandemic the Tin Can Phone team started recording episodes online over Zoom.
The content that was recorded in 2018 inside prison remains in bondage awaiting approval for use.