Escape Artist: Memoir of a Visionary Artist on Death Row

by William A. Noguera, Walter A. Pavlo Jr. (Foreword by)

Overview

An ABA Indies Introduce Top Ten Title for Winter 2018
William A. Noguera has spent thirty-four years at the notorious San Quentin Prison, home to the nation’s largest and deadliest death row. Each day, men plot against you and your life rests on a razor’s edge. In Escape Artist, he describes his personal growth as a man and artist and shares his insights into daily life and the fight to survive in the underworld of prison culture.

After being sentenced to death, he arrived at San Quentin Prison and was thrown into a rat-infested cell—it was there that he discovered the key to his escape: art. Over the next three decades, Noguera rebelled against conventional prison behavior, and instead forged the code he lives by today—accepting responsibility for his actions, and a self-imposed discipline of rehabilitation. In the process, he has explored his capacity to bring focus and clarity to his artistic vision.

Escape Artist exposes the violence, politics and everyday existence within the underbelly of society that is prison life. In an unprecedented narrative, Noguera reveals the emotional and heart-wrenching loss that landed him on death row and the journey he has taken to become an award-winning artist, speaker, and author—a tale of one man’s transformation through tragedy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609807979
Publisher:	Seven Stories Press
Publication date:	01/16/2018
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

As an award-winning artist, author and speaker, William A. Noguera has gained international attention and received accolades for his photographic hyper-realistic ink compositions, profound mixed-media paintings, hybridized abstract expressionism and neo-constructivist wall sculptures—exhibiting in Paris, New York and San Francisco. Noguera has been the subject of over 35 articles in such publications as Forbes, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and BOOM! A Journal of California. Besides being an artist and lecturer, Noguera is a former Hapkido Middle-Weight Champion.

Since writing his memoir, Noguera has aspired to help others through lectures at MBA programs and as a radio guest speaker, concentrating on prevention and intervention. Noguera’s inspiration is simple: pay his debt to society by creating art for charitable causes and encouraging others, and writing and speaking about what it takes to make progressive self-change and the continuous effort that is required for someone to have a positive influence on others. Noguera’s talks share an eye-opening, thought-provoking narrative on the realities of wrongdoing, prison life, ethical responsibility, prison gangs, their culture, the ramifications of destructive behavior, and the rewards of constructive rehabilitation.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer 9

Acknowledgments 11

Forword Walter Pavlo, Jr 13

Preface 17

The Sentence 19

Chapter 1 Orange County Jail to San Quentin Death Row, 1988 21

Chapter 2 San Quentin Death Row, 1988 39

Chapter 3 San Quentin Death Row, 1988 45

Chapter 4 Orange County Jail, 1984 61

Chapter 5 San Quentin Death Row, 1988 71

Chapter 6 Childhood, 1970-1975 77

Chapter 7 San Quentin Death Row, 1988 89

Chapter 8 Orange County Jail, 1984 95

Chapter 9 Childhood, 1975-1976 101

Chapter 10 San Quentin Death Row, 1988 111

Chapter 11 Orange County Jail, 1985 123

Chapter 12 Childhood, 1975-1976 133

Chapter 13 San Quentin Death Row, 1988 139

Chapter 14 Orange County Jail, 1985 151

Chapter 15 Childhood, 1976 161

Chapter 16 San Quentin Death Row, 1988 167

Chapter 17 Orange County Jail, 1985-1986 175

Chapter 18 Adolescence, 1977-1978 181

Chapter 19 San Quentin Death Row, 1988 199

Chapter 20 Orange County Jail, 1986 209

Chapter 21 Adolescence, 1978-1979 219

Chapter 22 San Quentin Death Row, 1989 235

Chapter 23 Orange County Jail,1986 241

Chapter 24 Adolescence, 1979-1980 255

Chapter 25 San Quentin Death Row, 1992-1993 263

Chapter 26 Orange County Jail, 1986 267

Chapter 27 Adolescence, 1980-1981 279

Chapter 28 San Quentin Death Row, 1993-1994 299

Chapter 29 Orange County Jail, 1986-1987 305

Chapter 30 Adolescence, 1981 309

Chapter 31 San Quentin Death Row, 1994 321

Chapter 32 Orange County Jail, 1987 333

Chapter 33 Adolescence, 1981 337

Chapter 34 San Quentin Death Row, 1997-2000 339

Chapter 35 Orange County Jail, 1987 345

Chapter 36 Adolescence, 1981-1982 355

Chapter 37 San Quentin Death Row, 2000-2004 363

Chapter 38 Orange County Jail, 1987 375

Chapter 39 Adolescence, 1982 377

Chapter 40 San Quentin Death Row, 2004-2007 391

Chapter 41 Adolescence, 1982 401

Chapter 42 San Quentin Death Row, 2008-2010 415

Chapter 43 Adolescence, 1982-1983 425

Chapter 44 Adolescence, 1983 429

Epilogue 441

Addendum 443

Glossary 445

About The Author 448

Editorial Reviews

Escape Artist is a gripping, sad, inspirational and amazing story of being on death row in America's worst prison and, more interestingly, the emotional journey that got Mr. Noguera into prison and how he evolved into a world-class artist and rehabilitated human being. This book is fascinating on many levels.”—Chris Morrow, Northshire Bookstore (Manchester Center, VT)

"The book is a chilling look through the eyes of a man who has nothing to lose in this life except going to his grave without being understood. Noguera is a gifted storyteller whose story is not only valuable, but must be told." —Forbes.com

“...An inmate in a brutal, violent climate for more than 30 years and never formally trained as a painter or writer, [William A. Noguera] nonetheless produces expressive, award-winning art that is astonishing, as is the clarity and well-crafted technique of his literary voice.” —Bay Area News Group
 
“William Noguera’s road from “the world” to San Quentin prison was a hard one. Even harder was life in the confines of the prison for 34 years, on death row, awaiting his end. But that life brought him to a realization about the value of life and he turned to art to express his new-found ideas, insights and feelings. Now an award-winning artist and speaker, as well as author, he wants to share the story of his move from roid-rage, caused by his use of steroids, to the life a new life – found where he expected his physical life to end. This is an insightful, encouraging autobiography that explains much and asks some hard questions about our system of justice and what it means to be a criminal.” —Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore (Spokane, WA)
 
“This Memoir is rich with sincere storytelling. It is inspiring to know after reading that even in the harsh and unforgiving place like prison, it is possible for someone to produce such a creative expression. His art goes beyond the physical bars and expresses themes that represent his experiences and ideas.  Readers will finds that William A. Noguera is not only an award-winning visual Artist; he is also a model of compassion and generosity.” —Alyson Turner, Source Booksellers (Detroit, MI)

"Escape Artist is a riveting self-portrait of a man with tremendous talent as a writer and artist, who takes us into the dark, and darker realms of American prisons. His candid, colorful, and often chilling description of the life that led to San Quentin's infamous death row is one of the most compelling accounts I've seen." —Peter B. Collins, veteran San Francisco radio host and podcaster at PeterBCollins.com

“William A. Noguera is proof that the arts transcend the worst hells on earth. I’ve been saying this all my life. And I’m not the only one. This book begs the question—can we become more humane, more human, in face of the inhumanity around us? Noguera did, confronting his traumas and the pain he caused others, facing death and choosing life.” —Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. and It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing

“[A] gripping insight into an unimaginable life . . . . The sensitivity with which Noguera writes about his art and emotional state is juxtaposed with his descriptions of the violence he witnesses, and perpetrates, among fellow inmates." –Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian

From the Publisher

2017-12-05
How a death row inmate acquired solace and inner penance through education and art.Currently serving a death sentence at San Quentin State Prison, Noguera writes candidly and unrelentingly about his abusive childhood and his irreversible brushes with trouble as a youth. The bulk of the book details the vicious, unpredictable culture, survival tactics, and tangled hierarchy within the prison where he has spent the past 34 years. Through his fascinating and frequently shocking jailhouse memoir of San Quentin life (with its ironically coveted "million-dollar view of San Francisco"), readers will learn the art of "keistering," the hazards of integrated prison yards and segregated gang affiliations, and how books on distinguished poets, artists, and philosophers at the prison library awakened in the author the "passion, love, hate, fury, and all of the human emotions that would later be the basis for my own work." Noguera discusses his past as a primal, animalistic young man who became a targeted prisoner in Orange County Jail and his present struggles reconciling a dark, inescapable fate with the production of painted artwork, his "vehicle of escape" (liberally displayed throughout the book), offering a creative outlet for his frustration and inner angst. The author's reflections focus primarily on his time in jail, leavened with guidepost life principles that he learned and adopted while behind bars. In the final chapters of the book he shares the intimate details of the vengeful 1983 homicide of his then-girlfriend's abusive mother when he was 18. This event's description is as lucid as the passionate tone Noguera adopts when describing his ongoing efforts of atonement, including the formation of a charitable foundation that donates art sale proceeds and remote speaking engagements on professional ethics and corporate responsibility. The author's obvious remorse and firm commitment to self-rehabilitation are honorable and very much apparent throughout a moody, divergent memoir in which his impressive artistic oeuvre invariably wrestles with a murderous past and an irreversible death sentence.A provocative and sure-to-be-controversial portrayal of repentance through art.

Kirkus Reviews