Anthony Spaulding on finding artistic inspiration while incarcerated

Anthony Spaulding was incarcerated at 16 years-old and spent 27 years in prison. When he got out in 2022, the world around him barely resembled the one he remembered. He, too, was a wholly different person than he’d been nearly three decades earlier. “I don’t wanna say it was a blessing that I got locked up,” said Spaulding. “But it definitely gave me the time to sit down and reevaluate my life.” He spent that time taking classes and developing as an artist under the mentorship of legendary artist Margaret Burroughs. Now, he’s working as a barber and performing his one-man show. In this episode, host Erin Allen talks to Spaulding about his experience of incarceration and his one-man show “To Cut a Barber’s Hands.”