Angola Prison Rodeo

Common card · No. 256617

The Angola Prison Rodeo, staged at the Louisiana State Penitentiary since 1965, is the longest running prison rodeo in the United States. It is held on one weekend in April and on every Sunday in October. On each occasion, thousands of visitors enter the prison complex. Various prisoner organizations sell food at concession stands. Many of the prisoners use family recipes to craft the concession stand food. Prison guards conduct the financial transactions at the Angola Rodeo. As part of the prison rodeo, there is a semiannual Arts and Crafts Festival. Prisoners make handmade work. Melissa Schrift, author of Angola Prison Art: Captivity, Creativity, and Consumerism, wrote that "In addition to introducing innovations into vernacular prison art forms, Angola inmates find enormous value in creating works that embody or mimic the everyday images and goods so readily available in the outside world." The rodeo raises funds for religious educational programs for prisoners. As of 2013, each spring...

Read on Wikipedia · Image CC BY-SA 2.0