Giving hope and healing through community, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and great music

By Amelia Eisenhauer

We went to prison.

We know what everyone is thinking, it goes something like this: a look of confusion and bewilderment, sometimes accompanied by a small gasp, but always accompanied by a slew of questions. Telling folks you’ve been to prison is a surefire way to stir up conversation, but it’s the reason behind those visits that grabs attention (and sometimes the heartstrings) of those who are curious.

It started with a Christmas concert for Marshall County Penitentiary in Holly Springs, MS in 2022. I had been put through the wringer that year in my personal and my professional life. That year saw a bulk of the renovations being done in our studio and pushed the team ragged between day jobs and putting in the time and manual labor to bring the vision to life. Having just completed my first foray into full time retail work, I decided there was more out there than busted up feet and battered self confidence for myself, so I took a risk and quit my day job. This decision opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me and I decided to take up my position at Brunjo more full time. Little did I realize the impact that prison Christmas concert would have on my life, or that I would be taking the Brunjo team along for the ride.

I became very passionate about activism for the wellbeing of incarcerated people, and I loved being a part of music that made a real difference in the lives of the listeners. Being in that room was such a humbling experience… I thought I had it hard with my failures in what they like to call “free world”, but the kinds of shadows that loomed in the lives and on the faces of the inmates I met there made even the molehills of my life microscopic. Perspective is an oft needed and seldom sought commodity, it is perspective that causes our minds to change and our hearts to open. Perspective I believe is a fundamental element in producing music because as producers, we must meet the artist where they are and reimagine their experiences and their artistic vision as reality. I felt changed after being in that room with those folks. I wanted Tanir and Jordan to feel that change, too.