BL Shirelle was incarcerated when she found her life’s calling. After the Germantown native performed two songs at a TEDx presentation held in prison, she received a letter.

“A gentleman by the name of Fury Young reached out to me,” Shirelle told the Local. “He was working on an album about mass incarceration through the Black experience called ‘Die Jim Crow.’”

In the letter, Young explained the idea: a conceptual album — similar to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” — exploring racial injustice in the U.S. prison system, from the minstrel era through the war on drugs to present day. Shirelle was shocked at how closely the story paralleled her own life.

“The story that this guy is telling me through the spreadsheet of this album he’s creating — it was literally my whole entire life and I never met this guy,” Shirelle said.

Shirelle was experiencing writer’s block and a deep depression at the time. However, the letter from Young inspired her to keep creating. Looking back, Shirelle recognizes how influential that moment was for her.

“I feel like it was some kind of calling that was bigger than me,” Shirelle said. “It was me stepping into my purpose as a human being.”

Over a decade since being released from prison, Shirelle is now the co-executive director of Freer Records, a nonprofit record label for currently and formerly incarcerated artists that grew from the “Die Jim Crow” album.

Early struggles

Shirelle’s childhood was heavily impacted by her mother’s struggles with drug addiction. Even so, Shirelle said her upbringing was still “pretty good.”

“I know that sounds crazy, but I grew up with the things that mattered,” Shirelle said. “I always felt very loved. I came out as gay in probably seventh grade. I didn’t even come out. I just was myself. I never had to clear it or say anything. So I’ve always felt very accepted and loved.”

However, at around 12 years old, Shirelle started to get in trouble because of substance abuse issues of her own. From the age of 12 to 32, she continually experienced some level of supervision or incarceration. At 18, Shirelle got in a shootout with an undercover police officer. She served her sentence, but eventually was involved in another drug case after being released.

“That was my rock bottom,” Shirelle said. “I understood that I had made it through a lot. I was shot by those police and I was beaten down to the ground. I couldn’t really get much closer to death in that moment. And I recognized that if I didn’t make some kind of change, I wasn’t going to live much longer.”

Shirelle said she “couldn’t take control of my destiny” for a long time. Exposed to drug deals involving her mother and suffering from abuse, Shirelle thought selling drugs herself would be a way to eliminate any threats of violence.

“At the time, it was a very rational decision,” Shirelle said. “I thought it was me taking control of my destiny in a sick way, but in reality, I was just doing exactly what that particular lifestyle sets you up to do. I wasn’t in control of my destiny at all, but that’s what I thought.”

Role with Freer Records

When Shirelle read Young’s letter, she recognized she was no longer going to be “a perpetual puppet stringed along by some grandmaster of society.” She began to work on the “Die Jim Crow” album as a songwriter.

After several years of work on the project, Shirelle and Young realized that much of the content did not fit the project’s narrative. Shirelle suggested opening up the specifications to include everyone who is incarcerated, not just people of color.

Before long, the project grew from a conceptual album into a record label and eventually, a nonprofit. Shirelle moved up in the ranks from a founding board member to the co-executive director of Freer Records. As a leader in the nonprofit, she hopes to empower others to take control of their own destiny.

“I think a lot of times in the activism world, we put a lot on making people feel oppressed,” Shirelle said. “So, if everything’s set up from the beginning to be what it’s going to be, what power do I have to change it? ... That’s the part that I’m trying to change. I want people to understand that you are in control of yourself.”

One of the projects Shirelle recently worked on was a groundbreaking album called “9th and Gasoline” by B. Alexis, who Shirelle says is the first woman to record and release an album from prison. Freer Records is also releasing a movie along with the album later this year.

Hard work pays off

In January, Shirelle received a $10,000 grant from Creative Capital, a nonprofit arts organization. The funds will be used as part of a project Shirelle is working on in which former and currently incarcerated individuals tell their stories through the lens of Dante’s “Divine Comedy.”

Shirelle said her experiences in life run parallel with the text, in which Dante journeys through hell, purgatory, and heaven, exploring concepts of sin and punishment, as well as redemption.

“A lot of my music already runs aligned with the things that Dante said, which feels good because I’m like, ‘I’m actually a pretty good writer,’” Shirelle joked. “Dante wrote that in the 1300s, but before I ever picked up the book, we were saying the same thing.”

Shirelle is excited about the project and the grant, and is hopeful that Freer Records will become a household name.

Freer Records “has put out so many great bodies of work and movies,” Shirelle said. “We’ve done a lot with a little, and I feel at this point, we’re deserving of something a little more. The Creative Capital grant was a step in that direction in terms of becoming the multimedia conglomerate we want to become.”

To learn more about BL Shirelle and Freer Records, visit freerrecords.com.

Maggie Dougherty can be reached at Margaret@chestnuthilllocal.com.