College Composition and Communication Sep 2023

Imagining Freedom: Cultural Rhetorics, Digital Literacies, and Podcasting in Prison

Brandon M. Erby

Abstract

This article examines how individuals experiencing incarceration inside jails and prisons use tenets of cultural rhetorics and digital literacies to reshape understandings about composition students and how they make knowledge to envision and practice freedom inside unconventional educational spaces. By primarily analyzing the prison podcastEar Hustle, the author addresses how incarcerated people turn to podcasting not only to sharpen their composing skills but also to build literate communities inside demoralizing environments.

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2023-09-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc202332676
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
cultural rhetorics literacy studies
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Aguilar (2025)
    AI Writing Is Always Embodied: Building a Critical Awareness of the Invisible L…
    College Composition and Communication

References (33) · 3 in this index

  1. (2022)
    15 Minutes
    Ear Hustle from PRX’s Radiotopia
  2. Alexander (2010)
    The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
  3. (2023)
    How an Illicit Cell Phone Helped Me Take College Courses from Prison
    Marshall Project
  4. Banks (2015)
    2015 CCCC Chair’s Address: Ain’t No Walls behind the Sky, Baby! Funk, Flight, Freedom
    College Composition and Communication
  5. Banks (2011)
    Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age
Show all 33 →
  1. Benjamin (2019)
    Captivating Technology: Race, Carceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination in Every…
  2. Berry (2018)
    Doing Time, Writing Lives: Refiguring Literacy and Higher Education in Prison
  3. Blakinger (2023)
    The Many Ingenious Ways People in Prison Use (Forbidden) Cell Phones
    Marshall Project
  4. (2022)
    Boots and Max
    Ear Hustle from PRX’s Radiotopia
  5. Buckley (2021)
    Writing Is My Main Freedom. One Day My Work Disappeared
    Marshall Project
  6. Cecil (2009)
    Unlocking the Gates: An Examination of MSNBC Investigates – Lockup
    Howard Journal of Criminal Justice  ↗
  7. Coogan (2019)
    PrisonPaideia
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  8. Coogan (2020)
    Situating Agency in the Memoirs of Mass Incarceration
    Rhetoric Review
  9. Corrigan (2016)
    Prison Power: How Prison Influenced the Movement for Black Liberation
     ↗
  10. (2023)
    Dream On
    Ear Hustle from PRX’s Radiotopia
  11. (2019)
    ‘Ear Hustle’ Co-host to Carry on Prison Podcast that Helped Win His Freedom (Extended)
    NBC News
  12. Gambino (2018)
    This Is America
  13. Gilyard (2018)
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     ↗
  14. Hill (2020)
    We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest, and Possibility
  15. Kelley (2003)
    Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
  16. (2022)
    Let Them Tell It: Voices from Inside the System
    Marshall Project
  17. Martinez (2020)
    Counterstory: The Rhetoric and Writing of Critical Race Theory
  18. (2023)
    The Mayor of San Quentin
    Lowdown from Ear Hustle
  19. Metcalf (2016)
    I Made a Rap Video in Prison
    Marshall Project
  20. Perry (2019)
    Breathe: A Letter to My Sons
  21. Ratcliffe (2005)
    Rhetorical Listening: Identification, Gender, Whiteness
  22. Smith-Pennick (2022)
    Dear Ira: I Want You to Know You Did Not Die in Vain
    Marshall Project
  23. (2021)
    Stormy Monday
    Ear Hustle from PRX’s Radiotopia
  24. Sweeney (2010)
    Reading Is My Window: Books and the Art of Reading in Women’s Prison
     ↗
  25. Weber (2021)
    Anticarceral Internationalism: Rethinking Human Rights through the Imprisoned Black Radic…
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  26. (2023)
    What We’re Listening To (Other than this Week’s Episode, Obsessively)
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  27. Wheatley (1773)
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  28. (2021)
    Yard of Dreams
    Ear Hustle from PRX’s Radiotopia
CrossRef global citation count: 2 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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