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Jesse Osmun

On August 5, 2019August 13, 2019 By theprisonartscoalition

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PO Box 8261
Silver Spring, MD 20907

info@thejusticeartscoalition.org

the_justice_arts_coalition

Community, opportunities, and resources for artists working in & around carceral settings.
Based in Silver Spring, MD
Link in bio for more resources!

With open mic night right around the corner, here

With open mic night right around the corner, here is our event program for the big night! TUNE IN THURSDAY AUGUST 6th to hear all these amazing performances. Be sure to also check our social media tomorrow to learn more about the artists that will be performing!
#incarceration #prisonart #prisonabolition #openmic #performance #poetry #speakeasy #music #transformthesystem #incarceratedartists

THIS THURSDAY The Justice Arts Coaliton will be pa

THIS THURSDAY The Justice Arts Coaliton will be partnering with @diejimcrow for our first ever virtual open mic night!

Join us in celebrating the power of arts when reimagining justice. SIGN UP to perform or attend by clicking the link in our bio! Performers of all kinds are welcome but those impacted by the system will be prioritized.

SIGN UP TO ATTEND OR PERFORM ✨🎨 #openmic #performance #prisonart #prisonabolition #incarceration #artstagram

🎨 by @prisonart6

Today we are celebrating the amazing work of Grego

Today we are celebrating the amazing work of Gregory Bolden.
#gregBOLDeNtheARTist, the youngest of three siblings, is a D.C. Native that was reared in the N.E. quadrant of the city. Bolden discovered his natural gift of drawing at the tender age of six. By 8th grade, his apparent love and knack for art grew into a better understanding of the craft and was thus introduced to a medium that he would later become to favor, pastel. Bolden learned the discipline of art, the tools of the craft and their usage, laying the fundamental foundation to be 2nd place winner for portraiture, in the Duke Ellington Art contest.

As time passed, Gregory continued to draw earning a reputation for his craftmanship creating t-shirts and hats for friends. However, along with that passage of time, something happened.Counted amongst the disenfranchised inner city youth, housed in an underdeveloped drug infested neighborhood, with a single mother who faithfully relied on public assistance, presented its own set of challenges. To add to the complexity of those challenges, one that would wreak havoc on the psychological well-being of all the siblings, the late revered Arnita Boyd, his mother (who later became clean) struggled with an all too common yet unrelenting crack addiction that extinguished all embers of his creativity. Instead of ripening into an auspicious and flourishing artist, those aspirations were quickly overridden with a desire to survive matriculating into a knack for making money by illegal means which was consistently being honed by the environment that he would eventually succumb to.

Now, after spending 14 years in prison and still presently incarcerated, Greg has had enough time to assess his situation involving his circumstances, irrational thinking and the negative influences that contributed to the life he once succumb to. The impact that it has had on his life, family, and the lives of others, to empathize with them showing remorse and accepting responsibility, to find purpose in this new life, live it out; and continue to be the change that he wants to see while evolving into the man, that you know today as #gregBOLDeNtheARTist.
#prisonart #justice

🎨✨ by John Zenc. View more #artwork by viewin

🎨✨ by John Zenc.
View more #artwork by viewing our galleries! Link in bio!
#incarceration #incarceratedart #prisonart #prisonabolition #transformthesystem

THURSDAY AUGUST 13th! Join us in learning about th

THURSDAY AUGUST 13th! Join us in learning about the experiences of incarcerated women, as well as stress management and rehabilitation with the International Association for Human Values prison mindfulness program! Link in bio to sign up and for more info!
#createandconncect #womenempowerment #incarceration #incarceratedwomen #incarceratedartists #prisonabolition #transformthesystem #art #justice #meditation #mindfulness
@thewiredc @prisonyogaproject @prisonyogaandmeditation @whincthemovement @womeninprison

THURSDAY AUGUST 6th @ 8PM✨🎤🎼 The Justice A

THURSDAY AUGUST 6th @ 8PM✨🎤🎼
The Justice Arts Coalition will be teaming up with @diejimcrow the first record label for formerly and currently incarcerated artists to hold an open mic night, celebrating the work and stories of individuals within our networks. Join us in celebrating the power of the arts to reimagine justice.
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Be sure to sign up in our bio to attend or perform during this event! Performers of all kinds are welcome, but system-impacted folx will be given first dibs on spots.***Sign up link is NOT ticket link***
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While this is a free virtual event, we strongly suggest donations to our amazing organizations!

Art by Gregory Bolden
#prisonabolition #incarceration #transformthesystem #prisonart #prisonartwork #openmic #performance

@onecommonunity @busboysandpoets @sdpoeticjustice @dcyouthslam @louderthanabomb @buttonpoetry @thepeacepoets @whaea_dee_bball_poetry @poetryforthepeoplemia @fistdc @thereturningartistsguild @voices_unbarred @prisonpoetryworkshop

Today we highlight the powerful work of Harry Elli

Today we highlight the powerful work of Harry Ellis 🙌🎨✨
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Be sure to view more work like Harry’s in our galleries! Link in bio!
#blm #prisonabolition #incarceration #transformthesystem #prisonart #incarceratedartists #justice

Meet the Utah artist crocheting and drawing her wa

Meet the Utah artist crocheting and drawing her way to a new life, Carole Alden.
…
Alden was released from prison on May 29 after serving a 13-year sentence for the 2006 shooting death of her third husband, Martin Sessions.“If I hadn’t done what I did, I would have died,” Alden says now about her crime. “He was reaching to grab me and had me cornered. He had described what he was going to do. Damned if you do, dead if you don’t.”
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At 59, an age when most of her peers are considering retirement plans, Alden is using her artistic abilities to build a new life.
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While serving her sentence, Alden was frustrated by the limited materials available for her art. She used tea and coffee to make dyes, mascara to draw on t shirts. She experimented with an ink wash applied on top of the gel found inside sanitary pads, and she designed intricate gingerbread villages every Christmas.
….
For her crochet pieces, Alden builds a series of inner and outer walls, then hand-stitches the layers together. “Very sturdy,” she says. “It takes a lot of yarn to do this, five to seven strands of yarn on the hook, which makes it solid, like carpet backing.”
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When Alden was released from prison last spring, her first stop was at an art supply store. She bought some sparkly yarn as well as a set of 72 colored pencils. The eight colors of pencils she had access to in prison simply hadn’t been enough. But in the first months after she was released, Alden hasn’t quite been able to use the pencils yet. She likes to look at them, still pristine and beautiful in their packaging, and imagine what she will make.
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Since her release, she has spoken about prison art at a corrections conference in California. Then in late July, New Orleans’ Blue House Civic Studio invited her to lead a workshop in creating art out of recycled materials. Using skills honed all those years ago at the Utah Arts Festival, she supervised the building of a 25-foot “Water Creature,” complete with “lighted innards,” that was launched in the city’s Bayou St. John.
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#prisonabolition #incarceration #transformthesystem #prisonart #prisonartist #art #crochet #justice

🎨✨ by Gary Harrall regram via @soyouwanttotal

🎨✨ by Gary Harrall
regram via @soyouwanttotalkabout
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“we need an entire upheaval of the current ‘justice’ system. Let’s talk about police and prison abolition”. #prisonabolition #incarceration #transformthesystem #prisonart

Amazing work by Corey Hayes🎨✨ ... Be sure to

Amazing work by Corey Hayes🎨✨
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Be sure to view our galleries for more work like Hayes'!
#incarceratedartist #prisonart #prisonabolition #art #transformthesystem #incarceratedart

Today we spotlight artist and poet Garly Farlow🎨✨🎭📃
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Farlow attended Guilford Technical Community College, majoring in Administration of Justice. He completed undergraduate studies at the John Marshall School of Law in Atlanta, and earned a Juris Doctorate from the Thomas Jefferson College of Law at Head University in Christianstead , St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands...He was also a Reagan and Bish Administration nominee for the African Development Foundation; served on the United Arts Council of Greensboro...He is a former Vice President of the Gate City Jaycees, the Lions Club, and the founder of the Senior Theatre Consortium.
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Mr. Farlow’s previous writings have appeared in “Chicken Soup for the Prisoner’s Soul”, “the Volunteers Soul”, as well as “Serving Time”, “Serving Others”, the “Journal of the American Health Care Association” and two poetic anthologies of the national library of poetry, as well as many more.
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Farlow is a recipient of the PEN award for prison writers and has written several play scripts.
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An accomplished artist, specializing in urban landscapes utilizing colored pencil, Mr. Farlow’s works have been on display with Art in Conviction in Tuscan, Arizona, the Prison Foundation and Safer Streets Foundation in Washington D.C., and the Durtland Alternatives Library at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

#transformthesystem #incarceration #prisonart #prisonabolition #blacklivesmatter #incarceratedartists #art #creative #coloredpencil

“Phoenix Rising” 🎨✨📃 by David Green .

“Phoenix Rising” 🎨✨📃 by David Green
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For more beautiful work like David’s, be sure to view our galleries and blogs! #incarceration #incarceratedartists #transformthesystem #art #poetry #creative #prisonart #prisonabolition

WORKSHOP ALERT!! 🎨🎭✨ ... Join us and teac

WORKSHOP ALERT!! 🎨🎭✨
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Join us and teaching artist Raina Greifer to learn how one harnesses their artistic voice in this day and age. Link in bio to sign up!
#transformthesystem #incarceration #prisonart #prisonabolition #prisonartist #art #creative

#regram @thebullmoosenote ... "The United States n

#regram @thebullmoosenote
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"The United States never stopped using slave labor, they just made it less obvious. The 13th Amendment states that 'Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any places subject to their jurisdiction.' The 13th Amendment & subsequent policies such as Jim Crow laws & the war on drugs criminalized people of color in America & effectively allowed a covert form of slavery continue.
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The United States is the only nation on Earth with a privatized prison system & this incentivizes private corporations that profit off of prison labor to keep the number of people incarcerated in the United States high. For example, since 1970 the United States prison population grew 700% more than the nations population, & even though Black Americans make up less than 30% of the overall population, they make up more than 60% of the prison population"'.
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Via: @soyouwanttotalkabout: “It’s important to know just how many things are wrong within our broken system. So let’s talk about prison labor.”
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#PrisonLabor #PrisonLaborIsModernSlavery #PrisonLaborIsSlaveLabor #AbolishPrivatePrisons #EndMassIncarceration #RacistCriminalJusticeSystem #TheNewJimCrow #13thAmendment

Artist Spotlight: Lori Lovely 🎨✨ ... Be sure

Artist Spotlight: Lori Lovely 🎨✨
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Be sure to view our blog and galleries to follow more artists in our network!
#incarceratedart #prisonart #prisonabolition #incarceratedartist #art #paint

Valentino Amaya's beautiful representation of #fri

Valentino Amaya's beautiful representation of #fridakahlo reminds us all to be "spontaneous and creative".
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"My name is Valentino Amaya. I’ve been incarcerated since I was 17 years old and ever since then I have been drawn to art. I appreciate all styles and mediums. Art has been a big part of my recovery in prison. There’s not a day that goes by when I’m not working.
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Teaching myself here has helped me train my eye to see not just the littlest details, but to also see anything as a possible art piece. Whether in painting or drawing it’s always a learning experience."
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Be sure to view our galleries to see more amazing work from artists just like Valentino.
#prisonart #incarceratedartist #transformthesystem #prisonabolition #art #fridakahlo #feminism

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