jackie sumell

jackie sumell is a prison abolitionist and multidisciplinary artist inspired most by the lives of everyday people. She has spent the last 2-decades working directly with incarcerated folx, most notably, her elders Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox. Her work, anchored at the intersection of abolition, social practice, and contemplative studies, has been exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe. She has been the recipient of multiple residencies and fellowships including, but not limited to a: 2021 Art Matters Fellowship & Joan Mitchell Studio Fellowship, 2020 Art 4 Justice Fellowship, S.O.U.R.C.E.

Fellowship and Creative Capital Grant, a 2019 A Blade of Grass Fellowship, MSU’s Critical Race Studies Fellowship, a 2018 Robert Rauschenberg Artist-asActivist Fellowship, Soros Justice Fellowship, Eyebeam Project Fellowship and a Schloss Solitude Residency Fellowship. sumell’s collaboration with Herman Wallace (a prisoner-of-consciousness and member of the “Angola 3”) was the subject of the Emmy Award-Winning documentary Herman's House (Best Artistic Documentary 2013). An ardent public speaker and organizer, sumell's work with Herman has positioned her at the forefront of the public campaign to end isolation in the United States, inviting us to imagine a landscape without prisons.