More Beautiful, More Terrible: Humans of Life Row is a counter narrative, a sustained act of resistance, an exhibition that reveals the intimate experiences, transformative ideas, and beautiful dreams of people facing the stark realities of life and de facto life sentencing in Illinois. These sentences are commonly described as death by incarceration because they condemn people to confinement until their death. Nevertheless, as contributing artist, Reginald BoClair, states, “Though sentenced to die in prison, we are alive.”Through personal narratives, artistic expressions, compelling installations, and poetic verse, this exhibition shines a light on the people who inhabit ‘life row.’
The exhibition is part of a broader Humans of Life Row initiative that emerged from the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project (PNAP) Think Tank at Stateville Prison. The Think Tank is composed of scholars, writers, and artists who seek to transform the material and ideological conditions created by carceral logics through in-depth research, policy analysis and advocacy, alongside creative cultural projects. The Think Tank seeks to make key interventions and offer critical insights to the broader movement to end mass-incarceration from within one of the most brutal geographies of the prison-industrial-complex. As Devon Terrell, an inaugural Think Tank member, put it: “[we] walk into the future by visualizing it today.”
Registration Link: https://mailchi.mp/p-
Beyond Prisons, a project of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture at the University of Chicago, is a teaching and learning initiative that interrogates, disrupts, and works toward moving beyond carceral logics and systems. The project engages and connects students, faculty, and community in work addressing the social injustices caused by mass incarceration alongside opportunities to support education inside prisons. https://csrpc.