For Brooklyn activist Fury Young, Michelle Alexander’s book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” proved to be an important catalyst in the creation of Die Jim Crow, a non-profit dedicated to giving currently or formerly incarcerated musicians avenues to creative self-realization. The book concerns “the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked up behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status – denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement.”

Since 2013, Young has made it his mission to do what he can to push back against this kind of systematic marginalization, traveling to prisons across America in search of talented hip-hop, soul, and rock musicians muzzled by imprisonment. Once talent is found, he organizes groups of like-minded artists and arranges recording sessions right there in the prisons.

This Saturday in Bushwick, Young and company celebrate a further step in Die Jim Crow’s evolution: the launching of a $50k Kickstarter campaign they hope will fund a DJC record label, which of course will be dedicated to work by ex or currently incarcerated artists.