The Feast - Snap Classic

Summary

Snap Judgment Podcast Summary: "The Feast - Snap Classic"

Introduction

In the "The Feast - Snap Classic" episode of Snap Judgment, released on January 2, 2025, hosts Glenn Washington and Robert Cannon Jr. delve into a poignant and transformative story set within the confines of Muskegon Correctional Facility in western Michigan. This episode explores themes of solidarity, resilience, and the quest for justice through the lens of two incarcerated men who orchestrated a unique celebration of life honoring George Floyd.

Background: Michael Thompson and Robert Cannon Jr. ("Silk")

The story centers around Michael Thompson, a recently released inmate from a 25-year sentence for marijuana possession, and Robert Cannon Jr., known as "Silk," serving a life sentence for a crime committed shortly after turning 18. Both men became pivotal figures in advocating for prison reform from within the system.

Glenn Washington introduces Michael Thompson at [06:01], setting the stage for an insider's view of the prison environment.

Planning the Celebration

In the wake of George Floyd's tragic death, Michael and Silk sought to create a moment of unity and remembrance among the prisoners. Recognizing the restrictive nature of prison life, they conceptualized a "celebration of life" that would allow inmates to grieve collectively without violating strict prison regulations.

Silk articulates his motivation at [09:18]:
"What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country, in education, in health services, and in every area of American life. It's time for us to stand up in George's name and say, get your knee off our necks."

Executing the Feast: The Bagel Sandwich Initiative

Michael envisioned a celebration marked by food, specifically a substantial and symbolic bagel sandwich. Collaborating with Silk, who was revered in the prison kitchen for his culinary ingenuity, they embarked on creating a unique meal using limited resources.

At [15:49], Silk shares his culinary philosophy:
"When you take pride and put love into your cooking, it tastes a whole lot different than you just putting something together and throwing it in the microwave."

The duo meticulously planned the menu, sourcing ingredients from the prison commissary despite restrictions. Silk's expertise in creating appealing dishes from scarce supplies was instrumental in bringing Michael's vision to life.

Overcoming Challenges and Officer Interference

As preparations neared completion, the initiative attracted the attention of prison officers. An aggressive confrontation ensued when an officer questioned the source of the food and the legitimacy of the celebration.

Silk recounts the encounter at [30:38]:
"He asked me the question, well, who paid for all this food? I said I did. So he said, well, you can't just pay for food and give it away. I said I can. I can."

Despite the officer's attempts to shut down the feast, support from a fellow black officer ensured that Michael and Silk could proceed with their plans. The officers' intervention highlighted the fragile balance between maintaining order and allowing prisoners moments of human connection.

The Feast: A Moment of Unity and Reflection

On the day of the celebration, over 60 inmates participated, each receiving a meticulously prepared bagel sandwich. The feast became a profound expression of grief, solidarity, and a silent protest against systemic injustices.

Silk describes the sandwiches at [29:06]:
"When I make your sandwich, before I put your other piece of bread on there, I put three or four spoons of chili on top of it. So the inside of your bagel will be wet. So that's what we call wet bagels. It's a great sandwich."

The event fostered emotional connections among the inmates, breaking down usual barriers and allowing for expressions of love and appreciation rarely seen in the harsh prison environment.

Aftermath and Robert Cannon Jr.'s Death

Tragically, Robert Cannon Jr. later died in prison due to acute fentanyl toxicity, a death that Silk attributed to systemic failures in prison healthcare.

At [38:10], Silk voices his anguish:
"What they gonna do? As long as I ain't got nothing right now they can't do nothing about it."

Michael Thompson reflects on Silk's passing, drawing parallels between their struggles and the broader issues of racial injustice and healthcare neglect.

Michael shares his sorrow at [40:00]:
"Robert was awarded to the state, and the state did not take care of him. And George Floyd depended upon law enforcement, and law enforcement failed him. It's all a joke."

Conclusion: Legacy of the Feast

The "Feast" stands as a testament to the power of collective action and the human spirit's resilience even in the most restrictive environments. Michael Thompson and Robert Cannon Jr.'s efforts not only provided solace to their fellow inmates but also highlighted the urgent need for reform within the criminal justice system.

Glenn Washington closes the segment with a tribute at [42:01]:
"Silk's memory lives on with his girlfriend and soulmate Dolores, his sister and brother, cousins, nieces and nephews, and all the men who gathered together to grieve George Floyd's death over a 7-inch fried rice bagel sandwich."

Impact and Reflection

This episode underscores the profound impact that individuals can have within oppressive systems. Through the "Feast," Michael and Silk created a space for healing and solidarity, challenging the dehumanizing conditions of prison life and advocating for a more just and compassionate society.

Michael Thompson poignantly summarizes at [41:19]:
"Health care. And they both died in Jesse."

Final Thoughts

"The Feast - Snap Classic" is a stirring exploration of how moments of compassion and unity can emerge even in the bleakest circumstances. It invites listeners to reflect on the pervasive issues of systemic injustice and the enduring human capacity for empathy and change.

Transcript

[Glenn Washington]

Snap Studios.

[Tim Washington]

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[Michael Thompson]

When.

[Glenn Washington]

I was a kid, five years old, we lived in what they called a transitional neighborhood. And in our transitional neighborhood, people kept getting their batteries transitioned right out of their cars. And my father says he ain't about to be no Mark. So every evening he starts carrying a battery out of our Chevy Nova and inside the house. And one evening, my mama's making my favorite fried chicken, mashed potatoes and red bean gravy. My mama makes the best mashed potatoes and red bean gravy. Pops grins over at me. You ready to tuck in boy? Yes sir. Pops walks out of the front door. Sis will be right back. Just gotta get the battery first, okay? Mama sets the plate down. I can see the heat wafting off the crispity chicken. And I'm waiting. Waitin. Waitin'everybody. Knows mashed potatoes only taste good when they're hot. But I don't say nothing. Still he doesn't come back from outside. I'm staring at the food, stomach rumbling. My mama tells me to go ahead and eat baby, but I don't want to go ahead and eat. Through the window I see our car hood popped open. My mother opens our front door. Bill. Bill. She sits back down, gets up, sits down again. Then slightly higher pitch. Bill. Bill. We wait. Wait a half an hour, an hour. Two hours later she calls my uncles, the neighbors, the church folk. People start filling the house and telling me it's gon be all right. My auntie wraps our untouched dinner plates in Saran Wrap. We'll Save this for later, baby. In the morning, the hood of our car is still popped open. My mother sits next to my auntie, red faced from the crying. My uncles have taken to knocking on doors. Church ladies moan in the living room, gathered in a prayer circle. Pops doesn't show up that afternoon, doesn't show up later that evening. Finally wailing, the mother picks up the phone to actually call the police. My father walks into the house. Bill. He looks angry and dirty even as we hug him, me crying, my mama praising Jesus. Lord, Lord, Lord. A scowl stays etched on his face. Where you been? One of my uncles asks. What happened? What happened? 5O locked me up. Said I stole my own damn battery out my own damn car. That's what happened. A heavy quiet freezes everyone in place as my uncles take several moments to digest the words. The silence stretches, twists, expands, and finally looking first to each other, then back at my father. My uncles howl, sighs, splitting guffaws, tears streaming down, eyes slapping each other on the back, laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing, then growing still only to erupt laughing again at full strength. Dummy, says Uncle Eldis. How you gonna get arrested for stealing your own battery? Get out. They can't stop laughing. Get out. My uncle shuffle away, cackling, leaning on each other for support. House empty, me still clinging to my father's leg. My mother retrieves the plates. Dinner first, places them in the oven, then sets the reheated food on the table. Then, as a family, we sit down to eat my favorite fried chicken, mashed potatoes and red bean gravy. Today, in Snap Judgment, we proudly present the feast. My name is Tim Washington. Dig in because you're listening to Snap Judgment.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Now.

[Glenn Washington]

We begin behind the walls of a level two prison in western Michigan, and sensitive listeners should note this story does reference police violence and contains strong language. We'll hear first from Michael Thompson, who was recently released from incarceration, and he spoke to us from his home near Flint. Snap Judgment.

[Michael Thompson]

Within the prison system as soon as something hit the tv, they run out their room. They run out their room and get the get to get to talking to each other.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Michael Thompson was alone in his cell at Muskegon Correctional Facility when he heard men shouting.

[Michael Thompson]

They was talking in anger, said they been killing us for years. I knew what they was talking about because I seen it myself, just like everybody else witnessed a murder on tv.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

The men were watching the breaking news of George Floyd's murder.

[Michael Thompson]

They played it all day. They played it every 15 minutes. I just got silent. I mean, what is it for a person to say after you're witnessing something like that.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Michael needed company and went to find his closest friend at Muskegon, Robert Cannon Jr. Hello. This is a prepaid debit call from Robert. This call is from a correction facility and is subject to monitoring and recording.

[PE]

Me and Michael, you know, we used to always sit together in the day room. You know, we sit together and we called it our round table. We sit together and brainstorm.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Robert and Michael ran workshops together in the day room for the other men. Robert's a writer. Everyone calls him Silk because he's good with words. He's written books and books of poetry, screenplays. At the round table, Silk taught creative writing. Michael also led a breathing class, and the two ran a workshop about forgiveness.

[PE]

We sit together and brainstorm about ideas, you know, about the future.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

But the day Silk saw George Floyd's murder on tv, he avoided the roundtable. He needed to be alone in his feelings.

[PE]

Anger at the system, the anger about being helpless or not being able to voice what I was feeling. Rage at feeling that we was getting the black men in this country was getting a bad deal, so to speak. The poem that I tried to write, it was. I think it was too militant, you know what I'm saying? Because I was expressing all my anger and stuff. And so I tore it up a couple of times. I wrote it twice, and I tore it up twice because I didn't like the way it was flowing. I felt that I was just too close to it. And the reason why I couldn't generate my thoughts the way they normally come so easily, emotionally, I was too close to the situation.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

On the day of George Floyd's funeral, the two men watched together at the round table.

[Glenn Washington]

What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country, in education, in health services, and in every area of American life. It's time for us to stand up in George's name and say, get your knee off our necks.

[PE]

I said, man, now people are finally saying enough is enough and standing up and they tired, you know. So I say, well, this may be the spark, that light, the catalyst, you know, make people become more aware of what's really going on. I say, man, we need to do something.

[Michael Thompson]

I want to do a celebration. I want to do a celebration because I felt that was my. That's my duty to do that.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

A celebration of life inside the prison, to grieve George Floyd's death together, but not actually together.

[Michael Thompson]

You gotta be careful during a celebration inside the prison, because what they can do, they can say that you are trying to form some kind of organization. And that's. You can't conquer, you can't congregate.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

It's forbidden for men at Muskegon to congregate in groups of more than 5. But silk and Michael had a workaround. The idea, a feast that men would take back to their cells and eat on their own.

[PE]

You know, we all come together with food. We not getting grade A food, you know what I'm saying?

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

The prison chow hall is known to be pretty rough. So for this celebration, they decided to cook up their own feast with their own food.

[PE]

And so when you come together and you buying food, they want to be a part of something that's bigger than themselves.

[Michael Thompson]

I kind of figured that nobody, no other prisoner within the United States is going to celebrate George Floyd like the way I wanted to do it.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Michael and Silk put their own money in, and Michael got a friend on the outside to donate enough to cover chips and soda. They invited about 60 people to the feast. The feast. They'd be eating individually in their own cells.

[Michael Thompson]

Everybody wanted to be on the list.

[PE]

He picked some guys, I picked some guys, and I put the list together.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Silk took on the role of logistics guy. His first task, enlist kitchen help.

[PE]

I'm real funny about who I let cook my food or even, you know what I'm saying, I'm a stickler for cleanliness and stuff like that.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

The microwave kitchen at Muskegon is a 12 by 8 foot room with three microwaves and a sink. When Silk was in there, he had this thing where he watched people closely.

[PE]

How they cleaning their hands and dishes and stuff like that.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Earlier that year, he noticed this one guy making nachos, carefully layering cheese and meat in between stacks of chips.

[PE]

When you take pride and put love into your cooking, it tastes a whole lot different than you just putting something together and throwing it in the microwave. So that's when I picked P.E.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Silk realized this guy P.E. was kind of a microwave wizard. He tapped P.E. to be the lead chef for the feast. P.E. learned to cook from his grandma, my grandmother.

[Silk]

The macaroni and cheese. I ain't never tasted nothing like none in my life. So I was a little fat kid. So you know me, I want to hang around the kitchen while they cooking.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

PE Is a meticulous chef and a clean freak.

[Silk]

When I see a piece of hair in my food, I throw the whole bowl away. I just. It's just certain things just you don't supposed to do around food. You supposed to be clean, you know, and take your time. If you don't take your time. Then how can you enjoy it?

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

He makes his own food with ingredients from commissary. Basically an overpriced convenience store where people living in prison can buy pouched meat soaking in preservatives. An 88 cent bar of soap deodorant for $3.75, shelf stable crackers.

[Silk]

You got tub cheese, which is spread cheese. You got jalapeno and you got mild that come in a tub. Then you got cheddar cheese, and we got mozzarella cheese that's like the sprinkle stuff. Then you got a provolone cheese, which is like the bar you cut and you got a hot provolone.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Beyond PE's compulsive cleanliness and knowledge of edible commissary items, he's like the superstar of the Muskegon kitchen. He has a sort of famous pizza recipe with a crust he made from saltine crackers.

[Silk]

You just crush them up and slowly add cold water, turn it to a ball, and you shape it out.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

He makes lasagna with cup of noodles and cream cheese. Pecan pie with a cookie crust. Cheesecake with mozzarella cheese and a lemon mousse.

[Silk]

Lemonade. Kool Aid, the powdered milk with a little bit of regular milk and you get the whipping and it's gonna fluff up and it tastes just, I swear it tastes just like cheesecake.

[Michael Thompson]

In the street, this guy thought he was a real five star chef, you know what I'm saying? With that cheap meat.

[Silk]

You got pepperonis, you got salami, meat sticks, turkey, some sauce. A lot of guys who've been around me for years know that I can cook. So when they hear that I'm cooking something, they like, oh, hell yeah. We with that because we know he can come.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

So Silk, the writer who wanted to bring everyone together, summoned PE kitchen superstar into the day room to discuss his plans for the George Floyd celebration of life.

[PE]

I showed him what I had and then I asked him, I said, well.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Listen, this is what I got, $300.

[PE]

What do you think? Do you think this is enough for 58 guys?

[Silk]

When he told me the number, I thought I asked him, was it serious? Because it was a whole bunch of people and that list wasn't even complete. First, I was in shock, truthfully. After I got all the shock, I was like, what's the menu? That all. It all depends on what the menu is.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

The menu.

[PE]

So we limited by some of the stuff we can do.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Silk knew the options. DIY meals in prison typically take shape As a wrap, a bowl, or nachos.

[PE]

So I said, listen, man, I don't want to do wraps this time. I don't want to do bowls because everybody's always doing bowls. I want it to be something a little bit special that nobody normally does. Let's get him a bagel.

[Michael Thompson]

A bagel sandwich loaded.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Once Michael and Silk decided on bagel sandwiches, P.E. the wizard of prison food, got to work plotting a celebratory feast on a bagel.

[Silk]

It's prison food, so how can you make it taste like this? So you go through. You try it a few times with different things, seeing how it tastes. So this is what I do. I experiment to see if I like it. And if I like it, I figure, like, hey, everybody else will like it as well.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Pe Put his headphones on and got a notebook out and listed every type of meat, sauce, and cheese available from the commissary.

[Silk]

And I started making combinations about what I think it goes together. Like, maybe salami meat doesn't go good with ranch dressing or something like that.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

But onions and peppers.

[Silk]

To me, that brings out a lot of flavor and a lot of pepper meats like salami.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Pe Chose his favorite combinations on paper and then went to the microwave kitchen to start testing them out. Cheese with meat sticks. Mackerel and garlic pickles. Rice cooked with jelly.

[Silk]

I did a lot of spearmin'with bagels and stuff before I decided on which ones I was gonna use.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

He got his hands on every kind of bagel in the store.

[Silk]

We had a bagel called Everything, and we had a plain bagel, but to me, those don't got the type of flavors I was looking for.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

He went with cinnamon raisin.

[Silk]

Why cinnamon raisin? It all. It got just like this. Let me try to describe it to you like a cereal taste to it.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

The final dish Pe Came up with was a groundbreaking fried rice bagel sandwich layered with meat, cheesy noodles, fried rice, chili, sweet onions, and bell peppers, all layered on two halves of a cinnamon raisin bagel topped with a pickle, dill pickle.

[Silk]

You get that plain old vinegary taste. So you add that to something sweet and a little bit of spice and a little bit of bread and some.

[PE]

Cheese and some meat.

[Silk]

That's all your flavors marinated together. You know what you get already? An explosion.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

An explosion. Pe Wrote the recipe down in his notebook, and then he started to worry.

[Silk]

Everybody don't have the same taste buds. So when I come up with these different recipes and stuff like that, I do worry, have concerns that people might not like it.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

So the next day he went around to every participant with a pad of.

[Silk]

Paper, rather a pen, and I go around and ask those guys, anything that you don't like. Do you eat onions, bell peppers, fish? For those who don't eat red meat, we use turkey meat sticks for it.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

And are there a lot of guys who don't eat red meat?

[Silk]

Yes. They offer different type of diets in here, like gluten free with no tomatoes, no onions, kosher diet, vegan diet.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

You got like p. Chased down around 60 different men about their dietary preferences and kept tabs in his notebook. But he had another kind of bigger concern.

[Silk]

My main worries and concerns were about the officers because a lot of officers don't like to see us grouped up doing something positive. They'd rather see us going at each other's throats and beefing or going to war over some garbage. They don't want to see us unified because they believe that once we start to unify, we start tackling issues. That really is our concern. So that was my concern and my worries that the officers in the unit would take offense to what we was doing to tell us to stop or go so far as write us tickets.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

PE had gotten a write up for congregating before. It was called failure to disperse and he was sent into solitary confinement. He didn't think the George Floyd celebration would get that tense, but if it.

[Silk]

Did, hey, it's a consequence of us being in prison. So we just accepted whatever came with it. I know we was doing this for George Floyd.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

A week and a half before the celebration, Silk and Michael started buying ingredients from commissary noodles, rice, meat. Where'd you keep all the food? You know, as you're buying it up. Did you have. Did you keep it in your cell or.

[PE]

Yes, I was putting stuff up under the bed on top of the locker, you know, hanging from hooks up under the, you know, you know you have a hook, you have a few hooks hanging along the walls.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Silk bought over 60 cans of soda from the soda machine.

[PE]

I bought all the pops and took all of them to my cell.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

And was it crowded? Like, how much space did that food take up in your cells?

[PE]

Well, yes, it was. It was crowded themselves. It was about a 10 by 12. I had stuff, believe it, I had stuff everywhere.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Meanwhile, PE was in charge of getting onions and bell peppers, vegetables.

[Silk]

You gotta get those from the kitchen.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

And how do you get those from the kitchen?

[Silk]

That's illegal.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Really?

[Silk]

Yeah, that's illegal. I don't see no problem with onions and bell peppers and tomatoes and squash and celery and stuff like that. But for some reason they don't allow us to purchased it and so only way we can get it is through illegal contraband way.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Do you feel comfortable talking about it even though it's illegal?

[Silk]

What they gonna do? As long as I ain't got nothing right now they can't do nothing about it.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Plus PE says most officers don't really care if they see you with a bell pepper.

[Silk]

Like officers can walk down a rock and see you with bell peppers. They really don't care. But other officers be really trying to write you misconducts like theft tickets and stuff. They say oh you can't get it no other way so you had to steal it and that's bummer.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Over the course of a week, men smuggled onions and bell peppers out of the chow hall kitchen. They got a dollar per vegetable for their hustle. In the end, PE had about a dozen onions and a dozen bell peppers.

[Silk]

I let other people hold them for me.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

The night before the celebration, PE gathered up the vegetables. Silk unhooked bags of meat sticks from his wall and slid packets of seasonings out from under his bed and brought them to the microwave kitchen.

[Glenn Washington]

The Mercury men head to the microwave kitchen with vegetables and meat for a groundbreaking bagel sandwich. But will they have enough time to chop and marinate it all? Stay tuned. Acorns makes it easy to start automatically saving and investing so your money has a chance to grow for you, for your kids. Acorn and your retirement. You don't need to be an expert. Acorns will recommend a diversified portfolio that fits you and your money goals. You don't need to be rich. Acorns lets you invest with the spare money you've got right now. You can start with $5 or even just your spare change. I let Acorns round up my spare change from purchases and it goes directly into an investing account. Why? Because I know me and unless it's automatic, frictionless. Easy. I'm probably not gonna do it. Make it automatic for your family, for your Future. Head to acorns.com snap or download the Acorns app to start saving and investing for your future. Today, paid client Endorsement Compensation provides incentives to positively promote Acorns tier one compensation provided investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. View important [e-mail] snap at the top of everyone's goals for 2025 is getting control of your finances. So stop spending crazy money for wireless Switching to Mint Mobile lets you maximize your savings with plans starting at 15 bucks a month when you purchase a three month plan. What I didn't understand at first was that I could keep my phone. So I kept my phone, kept my contacts, kept my phone number. Just ditch the high prices you can too. To get this new customer offer and your new 3 month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.com snap that's mintmobile.com snap cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com snap $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 a month new customers on first 3 month plan only speeds slower above 40gb on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. See Mint Mobile for details. Welcome back to Snap Judgment, the Feast Episode. Listeners should note this piece does contain references to police violence. We rejoin the story. Even his bagel sandwiches are being prepared. Snap Judgment.

[PE]

We was on a time constraint. They take counting 6:00 in the morning, 4:00 in the afternoon, 9:00 at night. Then they take it again at 12:00.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

At night, three hours between 9:00pm and midnight to dice onions, chop and marinate meat sticks. Cut up bell peppers.

[Silk]

I cut the meat sticks in like wheelbarrows, like circles that take a long time but you get tired, your hands start cramping because it's just a lot of meat sticks.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Silk used plastic knives to cut the onions.

[PE]

I broke about seven knives.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

But Pe, he had his own method.

[Silk]

I use a pop card. It's like a credit card, but we call them pop cards because you put them into the pop machine, you get popped they hard like a credit card. You gotta wash it off first though. But it cuts a lot of stuff.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

But you can't cut onions with a card, can you?

[Silk]

It's actually better really because it's straight. You can take your credit card right now and take an onion and they cut right down the center of it. You might gotta push on it a little bit, but it will cut right down the center if you peel off your outer bad onion that you don't want.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

After chopping, Pe and Silk mixed the peppers and the onions with brown sugar and butter in a foot tub.

[Silk]

Please don't judge us. But they're actually foot tubs like you get in the doctor, like the big pink bowls and we get them brand new and we use them to like cook and mix food in. So I had one of those damn.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Near full after three hours in the kitchen. Once everything was chopped, diced and soaking in oils and seaweeds, seasonings. Pe scrubbed the countertops while Silk wrapped up the food in plastic bags.

[PE]

Let me reiterate, I said plastic bags. But what I did was, you know they sell tortilla shells, A bag of tortilla shells. I had four of them and I secured all.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Silk wrapped the food in those little cellophane wraps that come around taco shells.

[PE]

We double wrapped them to keep the smell down.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Silk brought the meat and pepper and onions back to his cell, set his alarm for 4am the next morning and drifted off to sleep surrounded by bags of food.

[PE]

We didn't, we didn't have no, no real smells.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Silk got to the kitchen a bit before 5am the next day.

[PE]

Before guys got up to come down to get their cups of coffee and all that stuff.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Pe was already there assembling popcorn bags that he had cleaned with toilet paper pieces and saved to use as part of his microwave magic. He filled each bag with rice and butter and seasonings and put them in the microwave.

[Silk]

The next thing you know to start browning and frying inside the popcorn bag.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

He blasted the rice until it was brown and crispy and then he added water to the bag a few teaspoons at a time.

[Silk]

Steam from the water would start, blow the rice over to start making the rice real smooth.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Pe then seasoned cans of chili in foot tubs with the juice of jalapeno peppers, barbecue sauce and a few packets of mustard. He steamed the noodles with seasonings and cheese. Finally, around 9am, PE and Silk started to assemble the 60 something bagel sandwiches.

[Silk]

We got these little tags, everybody name bound, so it'll never get mixed up.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

They had eight guys who didn't eat.

[Silk]

Meat, made tuna for them. We had one guy, we used bread, he said, because we had all cinnamon raisin bagels and he said he was allergic to raisins.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

But most guys got a bagel with meat sticks, fried rice, steamed cheesy noodles and vegetables in a brown sugar butter sauce.

[Silk]

So when I make your sandwich, before I put your other piece of bread on there, I put three or four spoons of chili on top of it. So the inside of your bagel will be wet. So that's what we call wet bagels. If I had a choice, I wouldn't eat wet bagels all the time like that. But people like it. It's a great sandwich.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

It's not just a great sandwich, it's a gigantic sandwich.

[Silk]

I'm trying to think of a good way to describe it. Maybe I'm just Using my hand. How tall is my hand? How much you think? I think it's, like, inches wide right here. Seven, eight, eight and a half inches. Okay. The bagel sand is probably about seven inches tall. The homeboy next to me just said, my hand is about eight and a half. Now, what's in my hand? About eight and a half, nine. All right, So I think the bagel was about seven inches.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

When they were all done, the bagel was seven inches tall.

[Silk]

You got to hold it with both hands. You got to hold it with both hands. You have one minute remaining. I'm gonna take you. I'm gonna see. I'm gonna send it to you step by step. How to do it, and you try.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Yeah, I would love. I would love to have the recipe. At 11am over 60 men lined up near the day room for their bagel sandwiches. One of them, who the guys call Picasso, had drawn a portrait of George Floyd with colored pencils on a piece of butcher paper and hung it in the day room. As soon as PE Silk and Michael started passing out the bagels, an officer approached them.

[Silk]

Now, when he first came into the day room, he was very aggressive, like, what the hell is this? And what the hell y'all think y'all doing? We had, like, four tables together packed with pops and chips and bagels and cookies, all types of stuff. We gave out, like, a whole meal. He was upset. It was so much.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

The officer turned to Silk.

[PE]

He asked me the question, well, who paid for all this food? I said. I said, I did. So he said, well, you can't just pay for food and give it away. I said, I can. I can. I said, if I want to get. If I want to go to the store and spend $150 and turn around and give it away, I can do that.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

PE Tried talking the officer down.

[Silk]

This was one of the more frustrated ones. But I was trying to control it, because I know we was doing this with George Floyd. So I kind of. As I'm talking to this officer and talking to the other inmates, I'm trying to keep that out in front of my mind, like, we doing this for a very positive purpose. But what I was thinking was, please just don't escalate the situation. Thinking about the officer or other inmates, I just didn't want them to escalate the situation.

[Michael Thompson]

Then they want to know who giving all these sandwiches away. Where y'all getting these sandwiches from? We just celebrating George Floyd. And then. Then when he said that sounded like something triggered off inside him. And so he Said, do the warden know anything about this? Did the warden authorize this? And they went. Then that got louder, and they got in his face. They got extremely mad.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

After about seven minutes of commotion, the officer left, went to the warden's office.

[Michael Thompson]

I don't know what he said to him, but he never came back.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

The officer causing the commotion was white. And Silk says when that officer went back to the warden's office, there was a black officer there.

[PE]

The other officer told him, they're not violating and leave him alone.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

And he did. With the officer gone, the feast was underway.

[Michael Thompson]

We get each and every one of them a bagel sandwich. They got more than enough meat in it. It was loaded. And then they said things to me like, man, this is beautiful, man. This is beautiful, man. And then they. Then they started talking. Love, love you, man. And that. That's something that's unusual in prison. But they was hugging and embracing me. Said, man, I really appreciate this, man. Thanks, man.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Before the men went back to their cells, Silk made an announcement.

[PE]

I told each guy to go back to their cell. I said, all I ask is you go back to your cell for 8 minutes and 46 seconds and give him a moment of silence, because I want the reality of how long that is to set in. And every one of them came back and told me, say, say, rob, man, you know. You know, eight minutes, man. That's a long time, man. He said it felt like I was standing. He said it felt like I was standing my cell for over an hour.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

When Silk went back to his cell, he couldn't eat his bagel. He was too emotional.

[PE]

My emotions are across the gamut, you know, as far as up and down. When you look at the justice system, you know, and you say equality, it should be all for one. It's not like that. That hasn't been my experience, you know? I mean, how many more people have to die? It's sad.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Michael also went back to his cell after passing out the bagels.

[Michael Thompson]

Well, I was thinking about the incident. You know, it's like a video camera in my head, and how could I go back to my cell wagging my tail? That wasn't going to happen. Everything feels sad when it comes down to unnecessary death. So everything started piling up on me, you know, all the. All the thoughts and the injustice I received. I was in prison for some dumb stuff. That's what I was mad about. You know what I'm saying? You talking about anger. That's what I was angry about. But the George Floyd thing, I was sad but the only difference, I'm still alive. And George. George is dead. So that was a. That was a horrible thing that happened to that man. And that ain't the first time that that didn't happen. It didn't happen all across the United States, and it's been happening for years. And I know friends of mine that done disappeared through the years of the same brutality that George Floyd experienced. So that's the reason why I want to. I want to do something because it had. Wow. It become personal to me.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Silk ate his bagel sandwich later that evening. It was so good. He wanted to get the recipe copyrighted and sell it in restaurants across the country. He really wanted me to make the bagel sandwich.

[PE]

I was gonna ask you about this. What's the hold up now?

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

I just. I haven't really gotten the chance to get all the ingredients, but I was thinking it could be cool to have you on the phone while I make it just to. In case I mess up, you know, just give me.

[PE]

Just give me a. Give me a day that you're getting ready to do it, and I'll definitely. I'll guide you through it.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Okay.

[PE]

No, I definitely. I definitely would do that.

[Cindy Chapanella]

Awesome.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

It was good talking with you, and hopefully we'll talk again soon.

[PE]

You enjoy the rest of your day, and give My regards to Mr. Parker. Tell him all.

[Silk]

Thank you for using GTL.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

I never heard from Silk again. And the next time I spoke to PE I had to tell him what happened. He didn't know. Because of COVID restrictions at the prison, Michael Silk and PE Were separated from one another weeks after the bagel feast. Thank you for using gtl.

[Silk]

Oh, you get my email out, I think, today from the last one. That's how I found out she was going to be home right now because.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Oh, great.

[Silk]

I just read your email. But sometimes they think of the two days for us to get them.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Yeah. I don't know if you heard this news, and I hate to be the one to deliver it to you, but I got off the phone with Michael Thompson last week, and he told me that Robert Cannon actually passed away.

[Silk]

No way.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Silk died suddenly.

[Silk]

Wow.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Yeah.

[Silk]

Was he still in prison?

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

He was still in prison.

[Silk]

Wow.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

And they. They're doing an autopsy, so. Yeah, I think we're just waiting to find out.

[Silk]

That's hard to hear.

[Cindy Chapanella]

Yeah.

[Silk]

Can you put him in our store in the story?

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Yeah, he'll be in the story.

[Silk]

That would ease the pain. Absolutely nothing. Because I understand the pain of.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

We did eventually get a copy of the County's autopsy report for silc. The report lists the cause of death as acute fentanyl toxicity. PE believes the cause of death was the failure of the prison health care system. When Silk died, he had emphysema, renal cysts, heart disease.

[Silk]

You can walk to the officer desk right now and tell them that you got a headache. Splitting migraine, you can't open your eyes. They're gonna tell you to drink some water for real. That's they're gonna tell you to do. It's in George Floyd's case. They didn't believe him when he was saying he couldn't breathe and stuff. And that's like a cry for him. Not maybe literally, but sometimes people just speaking like it's a cry for help, like, I can't breathe. Look at me. Help me. But people don't see it that way, though. People think we all try wolf and it don't become serious until somebody did. Like in the case of George Floyd. You have one minute remaining. He asked for help and it was his. Completely disregarded. So how can we ever take. How can they ever take us serious?

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Thank you for using gtl.

[Glenn Washington]

I'm free.

[Michael Thompson]

Praise the Lord. I'm free.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Robert Silk Cannon G funeral was in Detroit on a Thursday morning, early in September. Michael was at the funeral and he got up to talk.

[Michael Thompson]

He had love for writing the truth. He was a writer. He has loved telling stories. He's a storyteller. And he was talented, very smart. He was super smart and he loved learning. That's really why he hung up underneath me every day. Every day he was with me. And I spent 26 years.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

As Michael spoke in front of Silk's friends and family, he started to get so upset that he could barely get his words out. He's saying he and Silk fought for prison reform from inside. They did a celebration for George Floyd like nowhere in America.

[Michael Thompson]

We feared 80 some guys.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Some of them never had a pop.

[Michael Thompson]

George Floyd's death was because a man hit the police, had the law enforcement. He had a foot on his neck.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Silk's death was because the lack of treatment he was getting from health care.

[Michael Thompson]

Health care. And they both died.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

They both died in Jesse.

[Glenn Washington]

Thank you, Michael, for those words of wisdom.

[Michael Thompson]

Robert was awarded to the state, and the state did not take care of him. And George Floyd depended upon law enforcement, and law enforcement failed him. It's all a joke. It's all a game. It's proof. Proof it with me and proof it with Silk right now in the casket. George Floyd's death The only difference I see is one head foot on his neck and the other one had an invisible foot on his neck.

[Robert Cannon Jr.]

Silk's memory lives on with his girlfriend and soulmate Dolores, his sister and brother, cousins, nieces and nephews, and all the men who gathered together to grieve George Floyd's death over a 7 inch fried rice bagel sandwich.

[Michael Thompson]

Don't you worry about me oh my lonely when you hear my home going don't you worry about me.

[Cindy Chapanella]

I'm just.

[Glenn Washington]

Another soldier this story is a true tribute to silk Robert Cannon Jr. Robert was 62 years old when he died. May he rest in power. A study by Vanderbilt professor Evelyn Patterson shows that time served in U.S. prisons has a direct correlation to years of lost life. For each year lived behind bars, a person can expect to lose two years off their life expectancy. After spending 25 years in prison on charges of possession of three pounds of marijuana, Michael Thompson was released in January. Since then, he has spoken about prison reform on the Montel Williams show and with Snoop Dogg. Marijuana has been legal in Michigan since 2018. Pe is serving the 24th year of his life sentence for a crime he committed two weeks after his 18th birthday. He loves getting email via his Jpay account, specifically pictures of nature. Special thanks to William Welch and Dee Dee Kirkwood, who helped make the bagel sandwich a reality for the men in Muskegon. Additional shout outs to Kathryn Newhan, Stephen Carmody and Dolores Ingram. And Tatanaganeva, a criminal justice reporter who has written extensively about Michael Thompson's incarceration and petitions for clemency. You can read more about the men's celebration of life for George Floyd in her article in the Counter. We'll have a [e-mail] the original score for this story was by Renzel Goriot. It was produced by Shayna Shealy. Now, when we return, a covert operation goes horribly wrong when Snap Judgment the Feast returns. Stay tuned. Welcome back to Snap Judgment. You're listening to the Feast episode. My name is Glenn Washington and we've been featuring amazing stories of grit and determination, but nothing like this. Snap Judgment's Anna Sussman takes us to China to an orphanage where a young child is just about to meet her new American mother for the very first time. Snap Judgment.

[Cindy Chapanella]

When we got there, it was a cold day in January and all the older children came rushing out to see us. They knew that we were there to do an adoption and very few children are ever adopted. And they had practiced saying hello.

[Silk]

They.

[Cindy Chapanella]

Brought my child to me, my daughter Jacqueline. And she of course, was absolutely terrified. She was four years old and then she basically was told, these are your new parents and get in the car with them. She was not about to do that. She planted her feet and she began to cry and make a sound, not even like a human cry. It was like listening to an animal. And all the cajoling and all the encouragement couldn't get her into the car. So we literally almost kidnapped her. We had to pick her up. My husband picked her up and kind of put her in the backseat of the car, where she just laid there stiffly across my lap. And she screamed and she screamed and she screamed, shao, Shao. Shao. Sha. Shao. Sha. And I kept believing, well, this will be when she gets home. When she gets to the United States, this will end. What I didn't know was that this shadow would live with us every day. There was an interpreter there that was a guide for us. And she told the interpreter to explain to us that she had a baby and she wasn't going to leave China without her baby. She called him Xiaoxiao, which is a Chinese nickname for very little. She explained that if the kids were older than three, they were given jobs. So her job, her responsibility, was to care for these two little toddlers that were basically a head shorter than she was. She had potty trained them and she would help them eat. But what she was the most proud of, really, was that she had protected them from bigger kids. She said she gave all her love to this little boy she had nicknamed Xiao Xiao, and that she was not going to leave China without her baby. We were there for about two weeks total, and then when we came back here within six weeks, she could speak and she could actually convey some pretty complex thoughts in full sentences. She talked about him constantly. The only way I can describe it was it was like living with a very short mother who had had a baby ripped from her arms. She never stopped talking about him. We just said to her, we can't bring him here. And of course, she couldn't understand the sophisticated system of how all the paperwork that's required and the red tape and you can't just take a child out of there. To be honest, I never even thought about trying to bring him here. I just kept thinking that she would get over it. One of the things I can remember most vividly was the first time I took her to McDonald's. She couldn't believe that not only did you get this cool meal, but that you also got this little toy you know, in the Happy Meal. But then I noticed every time we went there after that, she. She wouldn't open her Happy Meal packet. She'd hold the toy up to the light to see what it was. And then when she got home, she stuffed him in a little box. And finally I asked her what she was doing, and she said, shoush, I've never had a little toy. There was no logic that you could give her in terms of trying to explain why he couldn't come here. She had noticed that we only had five chairs around our dining room table and that they were already full. So she said one night, well, you know, he could just sit on my lap when we ate. And then one day, she took me up and she showed me her bed, and she said, you know, we wouldn't even need to get him his own bed. He could just slip right here on the other end of the bed from her. I started writing an email to a small group of friends and telling them about Jacqueline and her baby. Unbeknownst to me, and sometimes with my permission, these emails started to get forwarded to people, knew people who knew people. And then the responses started to come. I got emails from people all, literally all over the world saying, my prayer group in New York is praying for Jacqueline's baby. Our Indian reservation is praying to our ancestors for Jacqueline's baby. Our synagogue has taken up this cause. Is there any news? The lady I've never met, I wouldn't recognize her if she walked into the room from Minnesota, put up all these adoption fees, and said, I'll pay the fees if we could bring him here. A lady in Tennessee said, I'll buy him clothes until he's 18 years old. Someone sent a bike from Florida. And then her story got told to some powerful folks. It ended up with a United States senator who ended up cutting through red tape on the INS side of things. And then the story was taken to the Chinese officials, and they worked together with the United States authorities. Fifteen months after she was adopted, Jacqueline walked back into that orphanage and grabbed the hand of her baby. Today, he's her cousin. He lives 20 minutes away from us. He was adopted by my sister, and he's part of our family. The way I think about it is if you think about love being a state where you can't be happy if the person that you love isn't happy. This is the way she loves, loved that little boy. She never could rest knowing that he was still there.

[Glenn Washington]

Go ahead, go ahead, grab a tissue. Wipe your eyes. Don't be embarrassed nappers. It just means you're a human being. Shasha's gonna be alright. Many thanks to Cindy Chapanella for sharing her story of the Snap. She's written some remarkable books. I'm going to have a link to her [e-mail] the sound design for that piece was by Renzo Goriot and it was produced like every other story on this show was produced by Anna Sussman. Yes, that was but one episode from the Snap Judgment Kitchen. Please understand there is so much deliciousness waiting for you to devour. Subscribe to the Snap Judgment podcast instantly become the tastiest person you know. That is right. Subscribe to Snap Judgment on your phone device thing to snap wherever you go. Isn't technology wonderful? Snap is brought to you by the team that eats everything on their plate, especially the Uber producer, Mark Ristich. Yes, he will have seconds and thirds. There's Anna Sussman, Nancy Lopez, Pat Mesiti, Miller, Renzo Gorio, Shayna Shealy, Taylor Cott, Flo Wylie, John Facil, Marisa Dodge, Regina Berriaco, David Exume, Bo Walsh, Nanny Nguyen. And this is not the news. No way is this the news. In fact, you can create your very own cookbook of recipes made except exclusively of stuff that rhymes. The steak and cake, shake and bake. Anybody gobble up each and every bite and you would still not be as far away from the news as this is. But this is PRX.