The opening reception for the nationally touring art exhibition ‘Makes Me Wanna Holla: Art, Death, & Imprisonment ’ will take place this coming Wednesday, November 15th from 6-8pm at The Nonviolence Institute’s Chapel Gallery. The exhibition centers the voices and art of incarcerated individuals with the aim to bring awareness to the moral costs and injustices of the carceral system.
The exhibit was created out of a yearlong “Artist for the People” Practitioner fellowship for Michelle Daniel Jones and Dorothy Burge. The two artists first presented the exhibit through a partnership between UChicago’s Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture (CSRPC) and the Pozen Center Human Rights Lab, and now have brought their art activism to Rhode Island.
The exhibition is presented through a partnership between the Nonviolence Institute and College Unbound. The two Providence-based nonprofits share the vision that education, whether it’s an experience-based college degree for working adults as offered by College Unbound or a Kingian nonviolence training with the Nonviolence Institute, is at the core for community renewal and growth. That shared vision is what brought this art exhibition to fruition.
The exhibition aims to raise awareness and mourn the loss of individuals unjustly impacted by the carceral system as well as foster discourse on:
● Restoring trust between community and institutions of public safety
● Acknowledging unjust histories and working to improve future outcomes
● Community mourning and healing
Nonviolence Institute’s Interim Executive Director, Keith Morton said, “When the [art] subject is socially and politically charged, as it is in this exhibit, it takes courage to view the art, to discuss it with others, to use it as a path for coming together rather than staying apart.”
About The Exhibit:
Makes Me Wanna Holla: Art, Death, & Imprisonment was initially conceived and realized at The University of Chicago, supported by a partnership of the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts; the Center For the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture; and the Pozen Center Human Rights Lab. The exhibition culminated Dorothy Burge’s and Michelle Daniel Jones’ 2022-23 “Artist for the People” practitioner fellowships. Practitioner Fellows are supported in part by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the Centering Race Consortium, a partnership between race studies centers at Brown University, Stanford University, UChicago, and Yale University to center the study of race in the arts and humanities. MOL’s Traveling Memorial is also supported by Illinois Humanities and the Prison+Neighborhood Arts/Education Project.