{"id":106728,"date":"2023-09-30T21:55:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T04:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=106728"},"modified":"2023-09-30T21:55:55","modified_gmt":"2023-10-01T04:55:55","slug":"womens-prison-inmates-use-art-to-fight-for-systemic-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/womens-prison-inmates-use-art-to-fight-for-systemic-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s prison inmates\u00a0use\u00a0art to\u00a0fight\u00a0for systemic changes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"Chantell Jeannette-Black’s “I Dream” is among the artworks in the exhibit \u201cThe Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison Through Art and Poetry.” (Photo courtesy Minoosh Zomorodinia)<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Chantell-Jeannette Black laments that, as an inmate, she is \u201c100 percent exposed, under constant surveillance\u201d and has no sense of privacy.<\/p>\n

Tomiekia Johnson insists she\u2019s imprisoned for an accidental homicide that wasn\u2019t a crime and has been character assassinated. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a fighting chance in court,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Interviewed by phone, Black and Johnson are artists who use their creations as springboards for activism and co-curators of the exhibit \u201cThe Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison Through Art and Poetry.\u201d The display, which spotlights six artists and three poets, all serving time or recently paroled, will be on view immediately before and after Flyaway Productions\u2019 apparatus-based dance performance \u201cIf I Give You My Sorrows\u201d at Project Artaud in San Francisco from Oct. 6-15.<\/p>\n

In addition, the collection, which can be viewed on the Museum of the African Diaspora\u2019s website <\/a>through March 3, 2024, is the subject of a panel discussion at the museum on Oct. 4.<\/p>\n

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Chantell Jeannette-Black (Photo courtesy the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Tomiekia Johnson (Photo courtesy the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

Art in the exhibit was prompted by the question \u201chow is your bed an antidote?\u201d and based on the notion that beds are the only peaceful place about 2,200 inmates at the Central California Women\u2019s Facility at Chowchilla (one of the world\u2019s largest women\u2019s prisons) can find \u2014spots where they \u201ccan create the illusion of privacy,\u201d according to the curators\u2019 written statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI Dream,\u201d Black\u2019s acrylic and sand (from the prison yard) painting, reflects missed time with her \u201cprecious daughter and family\u201d and features a night sky that is hopeful, she says, \u201cbecause no matter the distance between us, my daughter and I look up at the same stars every night.\u201d<\/p>\n

A strong believer in restorative justice, Black, 38, thinks it is possible, especially for some inmates whose parents sold them for sex or gave them drugs at a very young age.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Johnson, 44, uses \u201cwordart,\u201d her term, for some of her writing because, she says, it \u201cmay not be poetry but may be poetic prose; not fitting in a traditional style, but out of the box.\u201d She focuses on \u201cracism, slavery, false imprisonment, religion, sports, trauma and restorative justice\u201d in her messages.<\/p>\n

Johnson, who says working on the exhibit made her feel \u201cvalued by people on the outside that I never felt valued before,\u201d is dismayed that the pandemic halted visits from her family.<\/p>\n

Anger permeates her poem \u201cHitting the Bar Ceiling: The Only Door I Can\u2019t Open,\u201d from which the exhibit\u2019s title was taken. It stridently charges, without apparent validation, that \u201cfemale inmates are getting pregnant, inmates are burying their unwanted fetuses in the ground, diseases are spreading.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibit, which was established in connection with Empowerment Avenue, a nonprofit formed in San Quentin aiming to \u201cnormalize the inclusion of incarcerated writers and artists in mainstream venues,\u201d features artwork for sale ($50 to $250) by Black, Vegas Bray, Elizabeth Lozano, Sarah Montoya, Anna Ruiz and Crystal St. Mary.<\/p>\n

Featured poets, in addition to Johnson, are Sydney Whalen and Lovelyocean Williams.<\/p>\n

Black, who is Caucasian and has been confined for four years after being sentenced to 91-years-to-life, looks at the juxtaposition of dance with the exhibit \u201cas hamburger and fries. It\u2019s a match made in heaven, two different kinds of art\u2026sort of cake with icing on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting that CCWF prison cells house eight people even though they were designed for four, Black supports Empowerment Avenue\u2019s mission to connect \u201cpeople who were incarcerated with people in the free world, which is what we call the world outside prison, to help humanize us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson, who is Black, has become a self-styled \u201cjailhouse lawyer,\u201d she says, not only dealing with her own appeal but helping other inmates legally. Regarding her situation, she says, \u201cI got railroaded,\u201d adding, \u201cI\u2019m a pawn for the system. My case was to further the district attorney\u2019s career.\u201d<\/p>\n

She contends the system is rigged against people in the lower socio-economic category, saying, \u201cThe prosecution has every resource at their disposal when others have a public defender with very limited resources and too many caseloads. It\u2019s not a fair game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson, whose words are part of the musical score for the Flyaway Productions\u2019 performance, has served 12\u00bd years of a 50-years-to-life sentence and has a plea for commutation (accompanied by an online petition with 22,300 supportive signatures) on Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Whalen, a poet, says her style is greatly influenced by her experience as a homeless youth in Hawaii and the culture shock when she left. Another poet, Williams, who identifies as \u201cnon-binary trans man,\u201d emphasizes that \u201calthough we are incarcerated, we do have hopes and dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lozano, who\u2019s been locked up 28 years, says she tries through her artwork to \u201cbring awareness to my status as a 16-year-old that was sentenced to die in prison. I hope to bring more awareness to the long history of mass incarceration, the despair in marginalization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montoya says, \u201cThe longer I spend here, the more I feel that I\u2019ve become one with the brick and bars that hold me captive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Vegas Bray\u2019s \u201cVegas in Paradise\u201d is part of \u201cThe Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison Through Art and Poetry.\u201d (Photo courtesy Minoosh Zomorodinia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And Bray writes of her art: \u201cAlthough I may be physically imprisoned, my mind and soul are free to evolve, learn, grow and exist outside of these walls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruiz ponders her art in connection with dreams \u201cof the day that we can run to our families, who are waiting for us outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Mary is an outlier. For her, bed represents \u201ca symptom of being depressed\u2026a dangerous river with a vicious undercurrent that constantly threatens to drag me under.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, in her artist\u2019s statement, Johnson claims that \u201cArt is power. Art is self-defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flyaway Productions\u2019 \u201cIf I Give You My Sorrows\u201d performances are Oct.6-Oct. 15 at Space 24 at Project Artaud, 401 Alabama St., San Francisco. For tickets, $25-$35 and free for systems-impacted people, visit flyawayproductions.com\/upcoming<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

To register for the panel discussion \u201cCurating from the Inside: Women Exposing Prison through Art and Poetry\u201d at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 4 at the Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission St., S.F., visit moadsf.or<\/a>g<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This story was first published on\u00a0<\/span>LocalNewsMatters.org<\/a>, a nonprofit site supported by Bay City News\u00a0Foundation\u00a0<\/span>http:\/\/www.baycitynews.org\/contact\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Woody Weingarten, a longtime member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at\u00a0voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a>\u00a0or on his websites,\u00a0https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0https:\/\/vitality press.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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