The hidden lives of incarcerated women, illuminated by art
NEW ORLEANS — A new exhibit that recently appeared at the Newcomb Art Museum in New Orleans forces us to engage a side of society normally out of sight: the lives of incarcerated women.
Until last year, Louisiana was the prison capital of the world. The state incarcerated one out of every 75 adults. According to a 2016 report by the Vera Institute of Justice, 80 percent of the women in the prison system are mothers. Additionally, 82 percent of women are in jail for nonviolent offenses. Women in jail are also disportionately black and Latina. Regarding the incarceration of women, former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lyench has said, "When you incarcerate a mother, you actually incarcerate a family."
For Dolfinnette Martin, being a parent was the "hardest piece of being in prison."
"Every day, I worried about my kids, every single day," she told LPB's "Art Rocks," adding "my crime isn't who I am."
To illuminate these women's experiences, curators at the Newcomb Museum connected artists with current and former inmates to create the traveling exhibit "Per(Sister)." They went out and interviewed 30 formally incarcerated women in the community and documented their stories. The museum then asked 30 artists to interpret these women's stories through various mediums of art.
"Art is a very benign, safe vehicle to talk about things that we may not talk about with our families, we may not talk about in our communities," the museum's director Mónica Ramírez-Montagut said, adding that the exhibit is "informally educating the community about the issues around incarcerated women and to build better empathy and understanding on the root causes for the high incarceration rates in the state.
The exhibit is expected to travel to other cities this year.
This report originally appeared on LPB's "Art Rocks."
Support Canvas
Sustain our coverage of culture, arts and literature.
The writer, director and producer revolutionized prime time television with such topical hits as "All in the Family" and "Maude"…
The Roots are one of hip-hop's most important and influential groups and lead lyricist and emcee Tariq Trotter, better known…
A Manhattan prosecutor and a defense attorney offered competing versions of a violent confrontation in the backseat of a car…
The newest group of Kennedy Center honorees, including comedian Billy Crystal, actor Queen Latifah, prolific hitmaker Dionne Warwick, opera singer…
Stephanie Land's 2019 memoir, "Maid," recounted her struggles as a single mother, cleaning houses to earn money and wrestling with…
An appeals court has upheld the disorderly conduct convictions of actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of staging a racist,…
President Joe Biden will head to Los Angeles next week for a big-dollar event that will be his first since…
Last year, artist Simone Leigh represented the U.S. at what is widely considered the world's most important exhibition of contemporary…
The great painter John Singer Sargent, an American expat, is the subject of a new show at Boston's Museum of…
Ordinary people with extraordinary stories. That's the ethos behind the Louisville Story Program which is celebrating ten years of amplifying…
Authentic cuisine. Authentic voice. Authentic self. Authenticity as artifice. Lookups for the word are routinely heavy on the dictionary company's…
Irish writer Paul Lynch won the Booker Prize for fiction on Sunday with what judges called a "soul-shattering" novel about…
Daryl Hall has sued his longtime music partner John Oates, arguing that his plan to sell off his share of…
In leading museums these days, women artists are gaining more prominence. But studies of acquisitions and overall exhibitions show just…
Jonathan McCrory has served as the artistic director at the National Black Theatre for over ten years. Along the way,…