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Portrait of a Bank Robber with Danny Killion & Matthew Klane
July 31, 2024 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Wednesday, July 31, 7 PM – ACW – FREE
Killion will share his story and read from his book, Portrait of a Bank Robber. The event will conclude with an open mic where anyone can share up to five minutes of their own writing.
Meet artist, small-business owner, and formerly incarcerated bank robber, Daniel Killion. In the mid-’90s, pre-consciously aware of “wage slavery” and “systemic racism,” and after seeing the iconic film Point Break, he is inspired to rob banks. It’s a romantic life-defining spree that ends in Danny (alias: Paul Blackman) inevitably getting “busted.” We follow him into the correctional system where he serves 12 years in four distinct state and federal institutions. At age 50, he’s free, but embroiled in a dispute with local police, a few months into the pandemic, while BLM protests surge. Sans regret, himself as ever, Danny’s here to tell you his wild story and what he’s learned about creativity, society, and the prison system.
Danny Killion is a painter, sculptor, and small-business owner in Troy, NY. He makes art from Hudson River driftwood and other locally scavenged materials. His adoption into an evangelical family, wild childhood, adventures in bank robbing, subsequent 12-year incarceration, and post-prison life are documented in the unpublished manuscript Weathered Wood: Portrait of a Bank Robber (written with Matthew Klane).
Matthew Klane is co-founder of Flim Forum Press. He has an MA in Poetics from SUNY Buffalo and an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His books of poetry include Canyons (w/ James Belflower, Flimb Press 2016), Che (Stockport Flats 2013), and B (Stockport Flats 2008). His e-chapbook From Of the Day is online at Delete Press, his e-book My is online at Fence Digital, and his chapbook Poetical Sketches is available from The Magnificent Field. He currently lives and writes in Albany, NY.
Portrait of a Bank Robber – a work of creative nonfiction – is a stylized voice-portrait of artist, small-business owner, and former bank robber, Daniel Killion. We meet Danny at age 50, embroiled in a personal dispute with local police: a cop ran a red light and T-boned his van. It’s a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, as BLM protests surge, in the culminating tumult of our previous president’s term. This book is part memoir, part Hollywood action movie, part racial slash socioeconomic case study, part document of 2020.
At six months old, Danny was brought into an evangelical family who adopted kids with special needs. His special need was “being Black.” In this environment of casual abuse and neglect, young Danny, blessed with a rebellious spirit, learned to assert his independence. The setting: white suburban Connecticut. He and his metal-head friends mostly occupied themselves drinking and drugging, shoplifting and messing with cops. His teen years were spent in and out of juvie, rehabs, mental facilities, and even, briefly, the Marines.
In the early mid-‘90s, pre-consciously aware of “wage slavery” and “systemic racism,” Danny and his younger brother Mike – “The Killion Brothers” – only wanted to snowboard, party, and pull petty crimes. After seeing the iconic film Point Break, however, they were inspired to become bank robbers. Real-life outlaws, they rampaged across Connecticut in stolen “switch cars.” His stories are full of police chases, fake bombs, dye-packs, walkie-talkies. It was a romantic life-defining spree – that seemed an eternity – until Danny (alias: Paul Blackman) got “busted.”
We follow him from county jail, court to court, and into the correctional system where he served 12 years in four distinct state and federal institutions. Amid so many inmates, mostly men of color, Danny a.k.a. Wildman navigated a somewhat stereotypical, but still shockingly violent incarceration experience. He endured with Parkour, Slayer, basketball, smudging, Siddha yoga, and by singing in a band called “Congratulations Asshole.” Most importantly, he enrolled in the prison art program and began a lifetime creative practice working with scavenged materials.
When freed, and released to a halfway house in Albany, NY, Danny encountered the typical pitfalls of post-prison life: probation, exploited labor, the continuing allure of drugs and alcohol, volatile interpersonal relationships. Hustling in a world where everyone has to hustle, he discovered vintage lumber on commercial construction sites, fell in love with Hudson River driftwood, and started building reclaimed furniture. Over the years, integrated into the local art scene, Danny also became a known artist, small-business owner, and unlikely community pillar.We meet him here and now, January 2021, sans regret, himself as ever. Like many during the pandemic, Danny’s life is up in the air. There’s the ongoing case against the city, a newly received bill from the federal government for “restitution,” the future viability of his storefront in question, and his on again/off again relationship with badass barber Amy Rose. But he’s sober-for-the-moment, making art and snowboarding in the streets, on the verge of maybe meeting his biological family.
Adirondack Center For Writing
518-354-1261
info@adirondackcenterforwriting.org