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Kite Line is a weekly radio program and podcast that focuses on issues in the prison system and beyond.

On the inside, a message is called a kite: whispered words, a note passed hand to hand, or a request submitted to guards for medical care. 

Illicit or not, sending a kite means trusting that other people will pass it farther along, until it reaches its destination. 

We make this show to pass along words, across the prison walls

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Episode Archive

Recent Episodes

249 | Studying Against Repression

April 30, 2021 kevwei11_7wqsj7 0 Comments

On today’s episode, we share two perspectives on the role of study, as practiced in the face of repression and directly against repression.  First, we complete our interview with Garrett Felber, with a focus on his termination by the University of Mississippi in retaliation for his outspoken criticism of its white supremacist structure and how he and others have worked to ensure that the  anti-prison work of Study and Struggle can continue despite his firing.  Just as Garrett must also study and navigate these academic power structures, our next guest, Mwalimu describes carefully tracking the changing

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248 | Study and Struggle

April 23, 2021 kevwei11_7wqsj7 0 Comments

This week, we share the second part of a conversation between Garrett Felber and Micol Seigel. Felber has been on the show before, discussing the Nation of Islam and its relationship to the origins of the modern prisoners’ movement. His new book, Those Who Know Don’t Say: The Nation of Islam, the Black Freedom Movement, and the Carceral State, is an important contribution to this history. In this episode, Micol and Garrett introduces the role of the “scholar-activist” and its tenuous relationship with the university. Garrett organizes with the Study and Struggle program to fight against criminalization

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247 | The Dialectics of Discipline

April 15, 2021 kevwei11_7wqsj7 0 Comments

This week, we share the first part of a conversation between Garrett Felber and Micol Seigel. Felber has been on the show before, discussing the Nation of Islam and its relationship to the origins of the modern prisoners’ movement. His recently released book, Those Who Know Don’t Say: The Nation of Islam, the Black Freedom Movement, and the Carceral State, is an important contribution to this history. In this episode, Micol and Garrett talk about the dialectics of discipline- a term Garrett coined to describe the relationship between disciplined, collective Black protest and escalating punitive state

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246 | Even When You’re Right, You’re Wrong

April 9, 2021 kevwei11_7wqsj7 0 Comments

In this episode, we share information about the recent disturbances in St. Louis. Afterwards, we have the second part of a conversation with Balagoon, an Indiana political prisoner who has been locked up for almost 43 years, 31 of those in isolation. In this episode, he first describes the context of the 1985 uprising in the Indiana reformatory, now called Pendleton Correctional Facility. He describes the lockup units as “our schools of thought and consciousness” prior to the uprising. He tells of guards beating his dear comrade with an illegal baton so hard

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245 | Harsh Debts

April 2, 2021 kevwei11_7wqsj7 0 Comments

Up first, we have a comprehensive overview of prisoner protests compiled by Perilous Chronicle, who are collecting information about the many prison uprisings and disturbances now occurring regularly. They will be sharing these updates with us each month. For our feature this week, we share the first part of a conversation with Balagoon, an Indiana political prisoner who has been locked up for almost 43 years, 31 of those years in isolation. Now, at age 61, he is seeking a sentence modification due to his worsening health conditions, as well as the fact

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244 | The Struggle for the Eurma C Hayes, Part Two

March 26, 2021 kevwei11_7wqsj7 0 Comments

Our show this week returns with the second part of a conversation between Kite Line’s Micol Seigel and three members of the Carbondale, Illinois community:  Chastity, Kim, and Nick. They speak about the ongoing struggle for the use of the Eurma C Hayes Community center. Originally opened by the city as a space for youth, the city later defunded the Eurma C Hayes center and put the responsibility on community groups to steward the building.   Now Carbondale politicians are proposing converting it to a police substation. This sequence is familiar to Bloomington residents,

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