Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis by Newcomb Art Museum

A CREATIVE RESPONSE TO THE JUVENILE JUSTICE CRISIS

A CREATIVE RESPONSE TO THE JUVENILE JUSTICE CRISIS

Abdul Aziz

Nic[o] Brierre Aziz

Adrienne Brown-David

Nya Carolington Skipper

Aubrey Edwards

Dave Greber

Robert Jones

Ivy Mathis

Demond Matsuo

Louise Mouton Johnson

COMMISSIONED ARTWORK BY ART PROJECTS CREATED WITH YOUTH, IN WORKSHOPS LED BY TEACHING ARTISTS

Pat Phillips

McKinley “Mac” Phipps, Jr.

Sheila Phipps

Nik Richard

Vitus Shell

Mariana Sheppard

Sha’Condria “iCon” Sibley

Maxx Sizeler

Charm Taylor

Breanna Thompson

Langston Allston

Jose Cotto

Cherice Harrison-Nelson

Linda A. Reno with Nic[o] Brierre Aziz

Sheila Phipps

marta rodriguez maleck

AND FEATURING

G’yanni Paris

UNTHINKABLE IMAGINATION: A CREATIVE RESPONSE TO THE JUVENILE JUSTICE CRISIS

January 21 – June 10, 2023

Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University

Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis is a collaborative exhibition steered by an advisory panel made up of Syrita Steib, Dolfinette Martin, Gina Womack, Aaron Clark-Rizzio, and Ernest Johnson and with the support of their respective organizations Operation Restoration, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, and Ubuntu Village.

This brochure acts as a companion to Newcomb Art Museum’s exhibition Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis. It is an introduction to the community and voices involved in the exhibition, a catalogue of the artists featured in the show, an outline to the creative process, a deeper understanding behind the curatorial method, and an initial guide to the policies, history, and terms of the juvenile justice system. Just as this show has been an iterative, creative response, this brochure acts as the same, a part one to a diverse array of literature accompanying the show. We invite you to email museum@tulane.edu to sign up to be on our email list to stay in the loop about the next edition of this brochure, upcoming events, and more.

Adrienne Brown-David, detail of Run, 2022, oil paint on canvas. This artwork creatively interprets the experience of LaZariah

Unless otherwise noted, all images in this publication appear courtesy of the artists.

ON THE COVER

FROM THE DIRECTOR

Maurita N. Poole, PhD

Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis is the second iteration of Newcomb Art Museum’s exploration of the carceral system in Louisiana. In contrast to per(Sister): Incarcerated Women in Louisiana, the lens of the curators and the community partners has been applied to youth—arguably, the most vulnerable citizens in our nation-state. Utilizing a multilayered curatorial approach and methodologies, this project strives to illuminate and make palpable an experience that remains murky, if not completely obscure, to many of us. Yet, it is done with the understanding that very few can create an artistic space and imagery that captures the depth and breadth of emotions, brutalities, and alienation that an imprisoned person might experience.

The narrative arc of this show starts with vital, contextual information for understanding Louisiana’s carceral system and shifts to a range of visual experiments developed in community spaces, and through dialogues between artists and youth, so that we can begin to envision new futures. To frame the different visual registers and artistic transitions that were developed collectively and independently, the curators and artists drew upon the words of experts— youth with direct knowledge of Louisiana’s extensive carceral system. They decided that the primary argument of the exhibition should not revolve around a sustained meditation on the injurious events. Instead, they yearned for an exploration of that which can exist in worlds beyond the humiliations of prison life and America’s failed justice system.

These dreams and yearnings of the youth participants, community partners, and curators are firmly situated in the vision for Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University. We craft each new

Aubrey Edwards, detail of Overﬂow, 2023, photographic print on aluminum, stereo sound. Music by Renee Benson. Running time: 4 min., looped. This artwork creatively interprets the experience of N’Shavia

artistic experience to facilitate a creative exchange of ideas and provide opportunities for civic dialogue and community transformation. The exhibition has been generously supported by The Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis would also not have been possible without the leadership of Miriam Taylor Fair, former Interim Director, and current Special Projects Curator; Laura Blereau, Curator and Coordinator of Academic Programming; Jennifer Williams, Guest Curator; Hanan Al-Bilali, researcher, and Alex Landry, Curatorial Assistant. Their curatorial vision has been supported by the entire Newcomb Art Museum staff, and particularly the efforts of Lexus Dawn Jordan, Andrew Mellon Community Engagement Coordinator; Tom Friel, Coordinator of Interpretation & Public Engagement; Sierra Polisar, Collections Manager and Assistant Registrar; Sherae Rimpsey, Andrew Mellon Art Writing and Editor; Kendra C. Thompson, External Affairs and Communications Manager; Marylin Mell, Administrative and Budget Coordinator; and Ariana T. Hall, former Finance Manager.

EXHIBITION STEERING COMMITTEE

Syrita Steib serves as the Executive Director for Operation Restoration, an organization she started 2016 to eradicate the roadblocks she faced when returning to society after incarceration. At the age of 19, Syrita was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison. After serving nearly 10 years in prison, she was released into a community vastly different than the one she left. Cell phones and computers had evolved beyond recognition and even personal dress and social norms passed her by while she was incarcerated. Other formerly incarcerated women helped her to re-adjust to the world she had left behind. Despite her academic accomplishments while incarcerated, Syrita was initially denied admission at the University of New Orleans due to the criminal history question. Two years later she reapplied unchecked the box and was granted admission. Syrita went on to earn her BS from Louisiana State University’s Health Sciences Center in New Orleans and is a nationally certified and licensed Clinical Laboratory Scientist. In 2017, Syrita wrote and successfully passed Louisiana Act 276 which prohibits public post-secondary institutions in Louisiana from asking questions relating to criminal history for purposes of admissions, making Louisiana the first state to pass this type of legislation. In 2018, she was a co-chair for the healthy families committee for New Orleans Mayor Cantrell’s transition team. Syrita was also a panelist on the Empowerment stage at Essence Festival in 2018 and 2019. Syrita is 2020 Rubinger Fellow and Unlocked Futures Fellow, a policy consultant for Cut50’s Dignity for Incarcerated Women campaign and worked tirelessly on the passage of the First Step Act. Syrita was appointed by the Governor to the Louisiana Justice Reinvestment oversight council and is the Vice-chair for the Louisiana Task Force on Women’s Incarceration. She also helped create and was featured in the Newcomb Art Museum’s per(Sister) exhibition, which shared the stories of currently and formerly incarcerated women.

Dolfinette Martin, Housing Director at Operation Restoration, is a strong community leader. She manages all housing programming provided by Operation Restoration and supervises staff, interns and volunteers working for Operation Housing. Dolfinette earned a college degree in 2015 after her release from prison in 2012. She serves on the Formerly Incarcerated Transitional Clinic Advisory Board, a clinic created for formerly incarcerated people, as a panelist on the Criminal Background Check Review Board for the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) and as an Advocate of safe and affordable housing for people touched by the criminal legal system.

Dolfinette was appointed to New Orleans’ first female mayor Latoya Cantrell’s transition team and in 2019 was appointed to the New Orleans Audubon Zoo Board of Commissioners. She was a founding member and former president of the New Orleans chapter of the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. She is a recipient of the John Thompson Leadership for Change Award and The Graduates’ Freedom Fighter Award. Dolfinette is an equal partner in Tulane University’s Newcomb Art Museum’s per(Sister) exhibition, and was instrumental in creating the first Women’s Gathering Fellowship for women of color with the Center for Community Change and was one of the first ten cohorts. She also contributed her expertise to help create The Power Coalition’s She Leads Fellowship which also focuses on women of color doing on-the-ground organizing. Based on her legislative advocacy, Governor John Bel Edwards appointed her to sit on the Louisiana Women’s Incarceration Task Force in 2018.

Gina Womack is the executive director and co-founder of Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, a state-wide membership-based organization dedicated to creating a better life for all of Louisiana’s youth, especially those who are involved or at risk of becoming involved in the juvenile justice system. Gina is the proud mother of three children, a member of Pleasant Zion Missionary Baptist Church and Sanctuary Choir as well the Joyful Gospel Choir. She is honored to be a 2006 Petra Foundation Fellow, 2009 Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana Advocate of the Year, 2009 Ms. Foundation Women of Vision award, and 2011 Alston Bannerman National Fellow.

Ernest Johnson is co-founder of Ubuntu Village. He has a passion and energy for advocacy and volunteerism that spans a period of 10 years. He has traveled around the country speaking on navigating the criminal justice system, family engagement, and leadership building. He is a recipient of the National Juvenile Justice Beth Arnovists Gutsy Advocate for Youth award.

Aaron Clark-Rizzio is co-executive director of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights. Prior to joining LCCR, Aaron acted as Chief of Staff and Legislative Director to New Orleans City Council member Jason Williams. There, he advised Council member Williams on a wide array of policy initiatives, including improving the conditions of detention for juveniles and reforming the District Attorney’s juvenile transfer policy. Previously, Aaron served as a staff attorney for the Orleans Public Defenders for five years, practicing client-centered advocacy and team-based defense. He is a graduate of Vassar College and New York University Law School.

Louise Mouton Johnson, detail of Hope Moves Us Forward, 2023, quilted paper, netting, buttons, thread. This artwork creatively interprets the experience of Semaj.

BUILDING THE EXHIBITION

Miriam Taylor Fair, Curator of Special Projects

The U.S. incarcerates more people than any country in the world, with Louisiana imprisoning more of its citizens, than any other state. Of the stories that circulate in the popular imagining about the impacts of the carceral system, too few are expressed by those directly experiencing the system. In January 2019, the Newcomb Art Museum, in partnership with Syrita Steib, Dolfinette Martin, Operation Restoration and Women with a Vision, opened per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana. The exhibition utilized the storytelling power of art to shine a light on one of the most critical issues facing our communities—mass incarceration. Through interviews with formerly incarcerated women, artworks from more than 30 artists, and a myriad of programs with community partners, stakeholders, and advocates, the exhibition aimed to build awareness of the situations arising, before, during, and after incarceration, as identified and expressed by those who’ve experienced it. per(Sister) sought to find common ground and new pathways for society to empathetically and equitably move forward together.

The exhibition Unthinkable Imagination is the next step on that pathway.

At the close of per(Sister), artists, advocates, activists, scholars, community stakeholders, and individuals directly impacted by the carceral system came together to discuss next steps. What role does a privileged art museum at a largely white institution play when it comes to creating programming that addresses the injustices at the center of the carceral system? From those

FREEDOM IS AN UNTHINKABLE IMAGINATION OF HAPPINESS AND JOY AND OPEN SPACE OF OPPORTUNITY.

AARON, UNTHINKABLE IMAGINATION YOUTH COLLABORATOR

conversations came a recognition of what Newcomb is—and what Newcomb isn’t. We are a contemporary art museum that engages communities both on and off Tulane University’s campus, working to foster the creative exchange of ideas and cross-disciplinary collaborations with experts of all fields from within and without the academy. We aim to operate as a “third space” on campus, where art can act as a vehicle for truth, beyond art’s sake, and towards a social and civic healing for all. We recognize that art has power beyond the visual, it touches the spiritual and in doing so can hold space for restorative moments for the soul. Beyond that, art coupled with the direct stories of impacted individuals and researched, informative texts about the state of our state can provide new avenues and access points to issues critical to our communities.

Time and again in the meetings at the close of per(Sister), conversations about the impact of the carceral system on the young people of New Orleans and Louisiana came up—driving home the importance of building awareness on this topic. Why is it that in a moral society we accept the fact that young people in desperate need of community support, access to mental health resources, and an educational system that empowers them, are locked away in jails and prisons, separated from family, friends, mentors, and the support of their communities at the time that care and connection is needed most? Why is it that the federal judge who recently approved the transfer of eight boys to be housed in the former death row cells at Angola called “locking children in cells at night at Angola… untenable,” instead of what it is—intolerable? Why do we find it okay to we lock children up?

It is important to note that this exhibition, Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis, has been in the works since 2019—before a global pandemic upended the way we work, live, and advocate; before the summer uprisings of 2020 brought to light, yet again, systemic injustices against African Americans and communities of color across the United States.

Unthinkable Imagination is a collaborative exhibition steered by an advisory panel made up of Syrita Steib, Dolfinette Martin, Gina Womack, Aaron Clark-Rizzio, and Ernest Johnson and with the support of their respective organizations Operation Restoration,

Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, and Ubuntu Village. Lexus Jordan, the museum’s Coordinator for Community Engagement tirelessly worked with directly impacted young people to center their voices and their stories—and reminded us that there is no story about young people without young people, that there is no future for Louisiana without the youth of Louisiana. From those conversations, new artwork came to being, whether directly created by the youths themselves or by artists from across Louisiana and the Gulf South interpreting the experiences of the young people through a variety of mediums. The curatorial team led by me, Jennifer Williams, Laura Blereau, and our curatorial assistant Alex Landry, weaved together these diverse stories into one collective—utilizing color, sound, and material to craft a visual language that speaks to the potential of each young person impacted by the justice system. Writer Hanan Al-Bilali aided in shaping the exhibition text throughout the show, addressing the history of the youth justice system in Louisiana, the root causes of the system, and the direct harm it does to young people and their families, while highlighting what is truly lost when we give up on the youth of our city—their humanity. Their joy.

Each young person involved in this exhibition—Jessi’, Jiyah, Aaron, Jai’Lynn, Kirious, Deshawne, Ahmad, Rashad, Taijah, Lamaj, Anika, Alella, Deontae, Christopher P., Lokell, Christopher S., Michael, Keymon, Slick, Rayqine, Raynell, Jaquan, Aamond, Donny, JyHarin, Lazariah, N’Shavia, Ronnisha, Kiore, Ne’Eviah, Semaj, Troy, Ivan, Alvin, Kyla, Aaliyah, Gyanni, Stephon, Daytanya, Zedrick, Rob, Nariya, Ivan, Jonathan, Kira, Kori and Vanti, among many others (who asked to remain anonymous)—held space for their future, their unthinkable imaginings by contributing to this show in so many ways. By lending their voices, their talents, their experiences, and their creativity they have fashioned a space for themselves within this show. A place of belonging and ownership, a place where their joy takes precedence—where their dreams are center stage. We invite you to see, hear, and feel these stories, to be reminded of what it is to be young, and to remember the pure potential that time of life informs. We hope that you to leave here changed. To be moved to

action on behalf of the youth of our state, to ensure that they have the freedom to be kids—the freedom to shape their own future.

Miriam Taylor Fair serves as the Curator of Special Projects for the Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University. She originally came to Newcomb in 2016 as the external affairs manager before stepping into the role of deputy director and finally interim director (2020-2021)—overseeing the museum through the pandemic closures. While at Newcomb, she has assisted in developing programs, events, and community partnerships and aided in producing, publicizing, and fundraising for such exhibitions as Laura Anderson Barbata: Transcommunality (2021), Brandan ‘Bmike’ Odums: Not Supposed 2-BE Here (2020), LaToya Ruby Frazier: Flint is Family (2019), per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana (2019), Fallen Fruit: Empire (2018) and Clay in Place (2018). Before coming to Tulane she worked as the communications director at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans after an early career in journalism in New York.

Fair holds a BA in Journalism and a BA in English from the University of Mississippi and master’s in Journalism from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She is currently pursuing her PhD in the Urban Studies track of the City, Culture, and Community doctoral program at Tulane University where her research focuses on the intersection of engaged museum practices, identity formation, informed histories and cultural memory, with an emphasis on communities across the Gulf South. Fair is a Sawyer Seminar Fellow and Mellon Fellow for Community Engaged Scholarship. Her writing has appeared in Theory and Practice: The Emerging Museum Professional’s Journal, Cultural Vistas, 64 Parishes, the New Orleans Times Picayune | Nola.com, the Syracuse New Times, Mississippi Magazine, Yall.co, and Fast Company, among other publications.

NOTES ON COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Lexus Dawn Jordan, Community Engagement Coordinator

I joined this project in April 2022 as Community Engagement Coordinator, by which time much of the groundwork had been done in forming partnerships with Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, Operation Restoration, and Ubuntu Village, allowing the steering committee to lead this work. An initial component of the project included summer art making workshops for young people, but we struggled to get engagement. Justice for young people demands real time response. This is work that cannot and should not be put on hold to maintain an exhibition timeline. Life presents its own challenges and beauty. Life can be further burdened by the bureaucratic maze and oppression of the carceral system that strains human connection. Our young collaborators were not always a phone call or text away. We reached a moment that reminded us, emphatically, that this project must continue to be grounded in youth experience and insight. To do so, we initiated a cohort of youth museum interns to participate in curation and programming of the exhibition. I’ve had the pleasure of working with the inaugural Newcomb Art Museum Youth Internship Cohort: Ne’vaeh, Ivan, Robert, LaZariah, G’yanni, Nariya, Jonathan, and Troy. It has been a beautiful experience. The collective will remain with us until the show’s end. In addition to the steering committee and community gatherings (open to participating artists, community members and organizations, youth collaborators and their families), these young people have consulted oncuratorial design, featured artworks, marketing, and programming. At every turn, we continue to ask, whose voice should be present here. How are young people centered here? And of course, when people share, making sure we listen.

Nik Richard, detail of A Dream Detained, 2022, illustration print on aluminum composite. This artwork creatively interprets the experience of Alvin

This exhibition is inextricably tied to community. As an art museum, we recognize the limits of our capacity to engage in activism. As the Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University, we recognize our position. We accept the challenge to be good partners, good neighbors. We honor our partners and community members who are fierce advocates of young people. Most importantly, young people remain at the center of this work. We invite the most vulnerable and brilliant voices to have this conversation. Our responsibility is to center and to support those voices, to co-create space for them to tell whole stories. This exhibition may bring in all sorts of audiences with varying points of entry. We thank the voices that made this work possible.

To every young person, caretaker, community member, advocate, and artist, thank you with much gratitude and joy.

Lexus Dawn Jordan holds an MA from Louisiana State University and a BA from Xavier University of Louisiana, both in Communication Studies with a concentration in Performance Studies. Her work has been focused on using identity and cultural narratives for community advocacy.

Previously, Lexus spent over five years as a youth advocate for a local, New Orleans-based non-profit organization. Lexus has also worked as an adjunct instructor at Xavier University and Southern University at New Orleans. Lexus currently serves as the youth director and a leadership advisor to her faith-based community.

In her community work, Lexus utilizes one-on-one mentoring and group facilitation as tools for programming and teaching. In her role at NAM, Lexus expands community partnerships and relationships while working to co-create sustainable programs. Lexus is an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow.

PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS

Operation Restoration was formed in 2016 and is led by formerly incarcerated women. Operation Restoration’s mission is to support women and girls impacted by incarceration to recognize their full potential, restore their lives, and discover new possibilities.

www.or-nola.org • INSTAGRAM operationrestorationtheor

Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children is a grassroots, state-wide, membership-based, inter-generational organization working to transform the systems that put children at risk of prison. Through empowerment, leadership development, and training they strive to keep children from going to prison and support those who have and their families. From the street level to the state level, from meeting rooms to the state capitol, they are working to build a society based on the principles of racial justice, human rights, and full participation through our tireless fight for justice for youth.

www.fflic.org • INSTAGRAM fflicla

Ubuntu Village fights for social, economic, and transformational justice for children and communities. They work primarily with families of youth who are involved in the juvenile justice system. They help families advocate for their rights and those of their children by educating them and helping them navigate the juvenile system. At Ubuntu, they believe that those directly affected by incarceration should be at the forefront of efforts to reform the system. They work with parents and young people to conduct participatory action research, analyze inequities in the juvenile justice system, and advocate for changes that would make the system more humane, antiracist, rehabilitative, and just. In all our programming, they prioritize providing immediate economic opportunities to participants and families as well as developing strategies for long-term economic sustainability.

www.ubuntuvillagenola.org • INSTAGRAM ubuntuvillagenola

The Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights is a nonprofit law office that stands with kids in the justice system no matter what. As the juvenile public defender in New Orleans, they represent over 90% of children in the city who come into contact with the juvenile justice system, providing each child with a holistic team—a lawyer, social worker, investigator, and youth advocate—to address both the causes and consequences of an arrest. They also represent the majority of children in Louisiana who are facing life without parole sentences, which the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional in all but the rarest cases. They provide holistic legal defense to address children’s needs both inside and outside the courtroom and tackle the systemic issues that criminalize mostly poor, Black youth in the first place. Their goal is to keep kids out of a harmful system so that they can thrive where they belong—at home, at school, and in our communities.

www.lakidsrights.org • INSTAGRAM lakidsrights

Robert Jones, detail of Let’s Play, 2022, acrylic paint on canvas. This artwork creatively interprets the experience of Kiore

RAISING THEIR VOICES: CENTERING YOUTH CREATIVITY

Laura Blereau, Curator and Coordinator of Academic Programming Jennifer M. Williams, Guest Curator and Program & Outreach Coordinator for Art Papers

Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis is an exhibition that gathers the experiences of Louisiana youth between the ages of twelve and twenty-two who are system-impacted, incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated. The show is a multifaceted social sculpture in flux, strengthened and nurtured by the community. It lives as a generative, restorative, and future-building space.

Our team’s selection of artists in the exhibit revolved around key ideas:

1 Only the folks who have lived in this region can truly understand and interpret the voices of New Orleans youth represented in this project.

2 Teaching artists have skills that are aligned with the goals of educators and advocates practicing care. They are sensitive to the youth mindset and a process of lifelong learning.

3 Collaborating partner organizations and youth would join us in the selection of artists and issues they raised. We’d choose artists who are strong leaders that can guide us toward a path of liberation.

4 Artists who are directly impacted by carceral systems embody wisdom and valuable insight—for the young people interviewed and academics, alike.

All the featured artists in the exhibition bear witness to the powerful change and development inherent to the human condition. They see the societal problem of punitive measures taken against children and address it holistically. The arts offer a wellness space for processing trauma, without causing further harm. We care deeply about that. The interior lives of youth are innately creative; they deserve visibility as a

healing force. Placing greater emphasis and resources into the social spaces of education and community-based programs—for treatment— is a viable alternative to youth incarceration.

In the exhibition, youth stories come to life in the hands of twentyfive artists—who engage traditional approaches in the fine arts as well as experimental techniques and technologies. These artists include intergenerational, cis, and gender-expansive identities. They come from diverse cultural backgrounds, some living in rural areas and others dwelling in cities or suburbs. As a whole, the artists use formally trained and self-taught approaches toward visual art, design, literature, and music.

Among the twenty artists paired one-on-one with youth, three stand out for their commitment to non-profit social justice work: Robert Jones, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the New Orleans youth mentorship organization Free-Dem Foundations; Ivy Mathis, an Outreach Coordinator in Baton Rouge for Voice of the Experienced, who serves on the state Council on the Children of Incarcerated Parents and Caregivers; and Abdul Aziz, Communications Director for the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana from 2006–2009 and a board member of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights from 2013–2017. Three artists have experience as New Orleans public school system educators: Louise Mouton Johnson, Charm Taylor, and Aubrey Edwards. Nine teach Louisiana and Mississippi youth in other educational and public contexts: Sheila Phipps and her son McKinley

“Mac” Phipps, Jr., Sha’Condria “iCon” Sibley, Mariana Sheppard, Vitus Shell, Nic[o] Brierre Aziz, Adrienne Brown-David, Dave Greber, and Nik Richard. The remaining five orient their practices poetically, in different ways, to address the impact of family life, economic opportunity, and wellness on youth: Pat Phillips, Maxx Sizeler, Breanna Thompson, Demond Matsuo, and Nya Carolington Skipper.

This exhibition amplifies the voices of system-impacted, incarcerated, and formerly incarcerated youth with a display of twenty recorded audio interviews that served as source material for all of the paired artists. Our curatorial process also offered an intentional platform for creative expression via youth workshops and seized a chance to continue the arts education efforts led by several local organizations

and schools.1 In the last year of exhibition development, approximately twenty invited youth energetically painted, collaged, photographed, and verbalized their ideas in workshops led by six artists: Langston Allston, Jose Cotto, Cherice Harrison-Nelson, and marta rodriguez maleck. A few workshops occurred at the museum while others took place off-site in local artist studios. Teachers affiliated with Arts New Orleans’ Young Artist Movement, Journey Allen and Gabrielle Tolliver, facilitated the production of a monumental forty-foot collaborative

1 Ashé Cultural Arts Center, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans Museum of Art, Antenna Gallery, Arts New Orleans, Travis Hill School at the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center, Bar None, Youth Empowerment Project, YAYA Arts, Guardians Institute,

Dance

Drum

the Woods, Better Family Life New

Recreation Development Commission, Kumbuka

Roots

Connection;

House

Annual talent shows and contests for local middle, junior high and high school students also spark a lasting feeling of joy and creativity instrumental to our exhibition, which leverages the educational and wellness resources on Tulane University’s campus.

the New Orleans African & Collective, The of Music, Electric Girls, Studio BE, A Studio In Orleans and Zulu and of the Young. Ivy Mathis, See, Listen, Act, 2023, original dance choreography. Music by Fearless Soul, written and performed by Rachael Schroeder, composed by Patrick Rundblad. Videography by Christine “Cfreedom” Brown. Photo by Kendra C. Thompson. This artwork creatively interprets the experience of Ne’Vaeh

Pat Phillips, detail of I Am My Brother’s Keeper / Matter Of Fact, You Going To Have Your Business... 2022-2023,

mural by Langston Allston, which hangs as a visual centerpiece of the exhibition. Prior to 2022, The Travis Hill School, located inside of New Orleans’ juvenile detention center and adult jail, served as the site of independent art workshops led by Sheila Phipps, Linda A. Reno and Nic[o] Brierre Aziz.

A paid internship program started by Newcomb Art Museum’s community engagement coordinator, Lexus Dawn Jordan, resulted in youth-led exhibition design strategies, including programming and messaging. For example, interns chose the bright neon colors in the exhibition’s palette, marking the popularity of sneaker and fashion design among this age group, and the influence of digital RGB screen-based color

acrylic, pencil, airbrush, aerosol paint on canvas stretched on wood panel; concrete and brick rubble. This artwork creatively interprets the experience of Vanti. Courtesy of the artist and M+B Gallery.

schemes. This program was open to all young people represented in the show through interviews, plus 7th to 12th graders who are systemimpacted. Seven of the interns worked with artist marta rodriguez maleck on the design of plush sculptures that contain magical symbols carrying their ambitions, joys and wishes for the future. The exhibition also features paintings and impactful words of youth at the Travis Hill School who participated in a workshop with Sheila Phipps in 2017, two years prior to the start of our exhibition’s curatorial process. Unthinkable Imagination, the exhibition’s main title, was drawn from a statement written by a young man participating in Phipps’s Steps to Freedom workshop while she served as the inaugural artist-in-residence for Bar None, a non-profit organization dedicated to transcending incarceration. Answering the question, “What is freedom?” he wrote: Freedom is an unthinkable imagination of happiness & joy and open space of opportunity. Additionally, the exhibition debuts a series of collaborative portrait photos that Linda A. Reno and Nic[o] Brierre Aziz created in an independent workshop with youth at the Travis Hill School in March 2020, just prior to the pandemic lockdown.

Some of the most challenging decisions and moments we faced while developing this exhibition grew from a desire to protect youth privacy rights. Interviews were gathered at informal spaces with the presence of social workers, counselors, or loved ones. Legally, parents and guardians control the circulation of images and likenesses of children under their care, up to age eighteen. We chose NOT to photograph most of the young people who shared their stories with us, and instead made audio recordings (with the proper permissions) to serve as primary documents to represent the youth. In some situations, personal information was redacted or obscured, when it was passed along to artists or colleagues. These and other concerns informed the museum’s visitor policy for the exhibition—such as discouraging photography in certain areas of display.

Because the content of this exhibit is complex and emotionally heavy at times, a printed Care Guide for all visitors contains wellness resources, a chronological timeline of juvenile incarceration in Louisiana, creative prompts and texts. Spaces for contemplation or

reading are placed throughout the exhibition. Multiple sites invite participation and reflection, for centering youth experiences.

At the museum entrance are artworks establishing the exhibition’s central themes of perseverance, hope, and creative transformation. Through audio clips, visitors are introduced to the interviewed youth who name personal heroes and offer gratitude for people who nurture them. In the adjacent gallery, a room titled Root Causes presents information on the school-to-prison pipeline and systemic inequities shaping Louisiana’s high rates of youth incarceration. Accompanying art and audio recount the challenges confronting specific youth and their families. In the next room titled To Do No Harm, youth narrate how they’ve coped with the conditions of confinement and navigating the juvenile legal system. The art in that space largely focuses on resilience and the full humanity of childhood.

In the larger rear gallery are a variety of objects and sound pieces that center belonging and the artistry of young people. It presents imagery created in workshops facilitated by Arts New Orleans, the City of New Orleans, Travis Hill School, and the Newcomb Art Museum. Here, youth share their joys of discovery and strengths, while also envisioning how to build a world where young people are not imprisoned.

How can understanding the stories of detained Louisiana youth help us create a more just world? We welcome your response to Unthinkable Imagination, as programming unfolds through June.

WORKSHOPS WITH ARTISTS & YOUTH

LANGSTON ALLSTON WITH YOUNG ARTIST MOVEMENT

Together, Towards Freedom

2022, Acrylic paint on wood

Together, Towards Freedom is a mural created by lead artist Langston Allston and twelve young artists from the YAM team. The mural depicts the harm of incarceration and the reimagining of a brighter future. Seen throughout the mural are messages of youth experiences in their day to day lives, and the history from which these issues are rooted. The first panel of the mural represents the slave trade, the beginning of the United States’ brutal policies, then transitions into a depiction of the terror and distrust that police and prisons inflict upon our communities today. Here people are fleeing police, followed by the stark landscape of a prison.

This bleak imagery is interrupted by an embrace, meant to show the power of community care. Behind this embrace, the same prison is now crumbling and overgrown. The next three pink panels illustrate a world being carved out of the rubble of the prison, with overgrowth turning into a flowering garden that can support a community. Woodcuts from the youth artists are placed throughout the piece to underscore specific historical moments. These moments are shared to showcase what brought our society here, and specific steps which can help to escape the current structures. The process of arriving at this design has taken several different forms. The YAM team started by drawing and discussing how they wanted to portray

a world without prisons. Artists elected to create a narrative arc that brought viewers from the roots of the prison system into a future without it. To that end, the mural begins in the dark of night and concludes with the sun setting on a new day.

Langston Allston (b. circa 1992, Urbana, IL; based in New Orleans, LA) is an artist and muralist. His work tells stories and explores hidden histories using a process of site-specific research and installation. Allston has created several public projects and collaborative murals in New Orleans including the Andre Callioux memorial at St. Rose de Lima church on Bayou Road, and the NOCCA Institute Homer Plessy memorial mural, with lead artist Ayo Scott. In 2018, his work was the subject of a solo exhibition with the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago. Allston’s paintings have also been presented at the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Art in Brooklyn and featured locally by Paper Monuments and the Contemporary Arts Center. His work has also been supported by an artist residency at the Joan Mitchell Center. He earned a BFA in painting at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2014.

www.langstonallston.com •

langstonallston

INSTAGRAM

Langston Allston with Young Artist Movement (YAM) youth artists Jessi’ Cage, Jiyah Davenport, Aaran Hogan, Jai’Lynn Allen, Kirious Anderson, Deshawne Cornelius, Ahmad Lumar, Rashad Bakewell, Taijah Thomas, Lamaj Mathis, Anika Binalla, Alella Binalla, John Davillier. Detail of Together, Towards Freedom, 2022, acrylic paint on wood. Journey Allen, YAM Lead Arts Educator. Gabrielle Tolliver, YAM Program Coordinator. Courtesy of the artists, The City of New Orleans Percent for Art Program, Arts New Orleans, and Newcomb Art Museum.

Langston Allston with Young Artist Movement, documentation of the creation of Together, Towards Freedom, Summer 2022. Photos by Jose Cotto, Gyanni Paris, Lexus Jordan, and Charlotte Milliken.

JOSE COTTO WITH YOUNG ARTIST MOVEMENT

In a Landscape Without Prisons, We Feel. 2022, Archival pigment prints

“Close your eyes and imagine waking up to a landscape without prisons. What feelings rush through your body as you walk through your front door and into this world? What shifts are visible in your immediate community? Who do you see and don’t see? What scents and sounds fill the air? How are people able to move, commune, and exist differently in this environment? How are you different in this landscape? How does it feel to be—here?”

These are images of Young Artist Movement participants who worked with artist Langston Allston on a community mural. The photographs resulted from guided meditations, conversations, and reflections on how we might physically, emotionally, and spiritually experience the world around us differently, in a society that rejects carceral systems. After discussing the themes and imagery explored in their collaborative work, I invited everyone to close their eyes and allow themselves to go through the motions of a full day, taking as much time as they needed, to inhabit a New Orleans without prisons. Once they returned to the space, we made these portraits to document their journey and capture the feelings that emerged from the process.

JOSE COTTO

Jose Cotto (b. 1989, Worcester, MA; based in New Orleans, LA) is an interdisciplinary artist and designer who grew up in Great Brook Valley. His creative practice explores relationships between people, place, and time—and often integrates poetry, carpentry, architecture, mark-making, and lens-based media. Cotto’s work has been featured by Paper Monuments, Antenna Gallery, and the Contemporary Art Center; and recognized by artist residencies at the Joan Mitchell Center and A Studio in the Woods. Calling New Orleans home since 2012, Cotto earned a Master’s of Architecture from Tulane University in 2014, following his studies at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is a 2018 Salzburg Global Seminar Cultural Innovators Fellow. In his current role at the Albert and Tina Small Center of Collaborative Design, Cotto leads a seminar course on public space in New Orleans, working with Tulane students to explore critical connections between our built environment and social fabrics.

www.jccotto.space • INSTAGRAM jccotto

JOSE COTTO WITH G’YANNI PARIS

The Circle of Life

2022, Photo collage

This project was supported by the Tulane University Mellon Program for Community Engaged Scholarship.

In The Circle of Life, I include pictures of my favorite people (my cousins) and sunsets. The Circle of Life also includes pictures from the photography workshop with Jose Cotto where we captured other young artists making the mural. I wanted to show progress. Everything in my collage shows progress of people, nature, and things that are happening in life.

G’YANNI PARIS

CHERICE HARRISON-NELSON WITH G’YANNI PARIS

Box of Love

2022, Shadow box with feather, charms, jewel stones

This project was supported by the Tulane University Mellon Program for Community Engaged Scholarship.

My pieces are inspired by my favorite things. I like sunsets. Sunsets are beautiful and change colors from day to day. My favorite sunsets have a little bit of blue and purple which are my favorite colors. I use those colors as the center of The Box

of Love. Queen Reesie taught me to sew a jewel patch and encouraged me to tell my story through her workshop. The peacock feather and “princess” charm represent who I am.

G’YANNI PARIS

G’yanni Paris, youth participant in a creative-expression workshop led by artist Cherice Harrison-Nelson, Box of Love, 2022.

G’yanni Paris, youth participant in a creative-expression workshop led by artist Cherice Harrison-Nelson, detail of Box of Love, 2022.

Cherice Harrison-Nelson (b. 1959, New Orleans, LA; based in New Orleans, LA) is a leader of the African-American Carnival dress art tradition which uses narrative beadwork, dance, featherwork and chanting with percussive instrumentation. She is the third of five generations in her family to participate in this authentic New Orleans art form, a ritual handed down from her late father, Big Chief Donald Harrison, Sr. She is perhaps best known locally as Maroon Queen “Reesie” of the Mardi Gras Indian Tribe Guardians of the Flame. A co-founder and curator of the Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame, Harrison-Nelson has published four books and coordinated numerous exhibitions focused on our region’s West African-inspired cultural expressions. Her work is part of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Museum and has also been recognized by a 2016 USA Artist Fellowship, a Fulbright scholarship and an award from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/cherice-harrison-nelson

Photo by Michael Weintrob

MARTA RODRIGUEZ MALECK WITH THE 2022–2023 NAM YOUTH INTERNSHIP COHORT

Wishes That Come True

2023, Embroidered soft sculpture; fabric, foam, thread

I think of myself as a transdisciplinary builder and artist with a background in construction, conversation, and filmmaking. My process starts with questions related to personal experiences and perceptions as a way of considering our singular selves as part of a greater whole, within a sociopolitical context.

In Fall 2022, I spent an afternoon with four young adults in the museum’s youth internship program, talking about ambitions, joys, and hopes for the future. We wrote our wishes for the coming years and used letters within those sentences to create sigils or coded symbols whose meaning is known by those who created them.

During their next group meeting, one of these super-inspiring youth interns led the same exercise for three additional participants, who were also interns. The personalized designs they created became the embroidery on each of the pillows that the youth will take home at the end of the exhibition, as their daily reminder of their wishes that can come true.

MARTA RODRIGUEZ MALECK

marta rodriguez maleck (based in Philadelphia, PA and Bulbancha / New Orleans, LA) is a builder working at the intersection of conversation, archives, documentary, and visual mediums including performance and sculpture. By creating environments of open mindedness and self-reflection, they engage people in participatory methods of storytelling that center comfort, communal accountability, healing, and understanding. rodriguez maleck has exhibited at the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Pensacola Museum of Art, the New Orleans Public Library, Chicago’s Hyde Park Art Center, Baby Blue Gallery and Anas Galley in Chicago, AnyTime Dept in Cincinnati, and Ground Floor Gallery in Brooklyn. Their bi-monthly podcast, Reports from New Orleans, was featured on Montez Press Radio in New York, and their work has been featured in New American Paintings, Burnaway, OnCurating, LVL3, Bad at Sports, and Bust, among other publications. www.martarodriguezmaleck.com

LINDA A. RENO AND NIC[O] BRIERRE AZIZ AT THE TRAVIS HILL SCHOOL

2020, printed 2022, Archival pigment prints

In the process of creating these portraits, the young men were asked to define their ideal space. They were asked to define what that space would look like, what songs would be playing, who would be present, and what they’d be wearing. While we could not actualize all aspects of their desired idyllic places, by simply asking the questions, we were able to help create a mindset conducive to their own visions of what freedom feels like. We gave the youth clothing to mask the orange jumpsuits that mark their incarceration, so that they were able to unmark themselves for the portraits.

As a teacher, I already had a previous relationship to many of the students as an Artist-in-Residence for Travis Hill Schools. We had a comfortable and familiar rapport—a true human connection that allowed us to create bold unique portraits. However, the images don’t define them. Rather, they serve as interpretations of who these young men were in that moment, in that space. An opportunity to see the young men beyond their circumstance.

LINDA A. RENO

Aamond, Christopher, Christopher, Donny, Jaquan, Keymon, Lokell, Michael, Rayqine, Raynell, Slick

Linda A. Reno (b. 1981, Detroit, MI; based in New Orleans, LA) is an American photographer, storyteller and educator. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where she earned an MA in Photojournalism. Reno is a visual storyteller using still photography, videography and multimedia production. She works as a youth photography educator and is particularly fond of this type of work. Her personal work focuses on documenting and exploring the manifestation of ancient collective memory within culture. Reno was born in Detroit, but early adulthood brought her down below the Mason-Dixon line and she has never looked back. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures, and culture of the Global South inspire all her work. Throughout all her endeavors, it is this visceral sense of culture that she seeks to both reveal and revel in.

www.larenophotography.com • INSTAGRAM prettyreindeer

“I feel like I’m back at home” is a quote that rings deeply in my subconscious whenever I think about my experiences with the Travis Hill School. I distinctly remember one of the students saying this as he tried on one of my jackets for his portrait. Notions of “home” and what creates this feeling, in relation to how our sense of home impacts how we show up in the world as individuals, were central ideas to this project and my practice in general as an artist. This was undoubtedly one of the most memorable projects I’ve ever been a part of—a chance for the Travis Hill students to “see themselves beyond” the orange jumpsuit they’re forced to wear every day. Those jumpsuits only amplify the layers of oppression you feel from the moment you walk into the building—so to use art as a means of combatting those barbaric vibrations is something that I will cherish. I so vividly remember the expressions of joy and excitement from the students as they tried on the different clothes. This project was especially resonant for me as an artist, as my practice has centered around exploring the ways in which Blackness exists as a construct, experience, and colonial-capitalist tool. As I reflect upon these young Black men—these beams of light—I can’t help but think about the ways in which their bodies are being used to perpetuate the carceral system. And of the oppression and exploitation that is the literal root of this country’s wealth—this country that is supposed to be our home.

NIC[O] BRIERRE AZIZ

Nic[o] Brierre Aziz (b. circa 1990, New Orleans, LA; based in New Orleans, LA) is an interdisciplinary artist of Haitian and American heritage. He describes his work as a historical-pop culture assemblage, drawing on existing narratives and materials to create a new narrative. His practice is community-focused and reimagines the collective future. Aziz’s work has been recognized by several awards,

including a 2020 Andy Warhol Foundation Curatorial Fellowship and 2021 Joan Mitchell Center Artist Residency. He has led numerous community-based projects with the Prospect.5 New Orleans triennial, Office of Mayor Mitch Landrieu, YAYA Arts Center, Arts New Orleans and most recently the New Orleans Museum of Art. He also manages the Haitian Cultural Legacy Collection, a collection of over 400 Haitian artworks started by his maternal grandfather in 1944. Aziz holds a BA from Morehouse College in Atlanta and an MSc from the University of Manchester in the UK.

www.nicbrierreaziz.com •

Photo by Lauren Ash

INSTAGRAM nicoelganso

SHEILA PHIPPS AT THE TRAVIS HILL SCHOOL

Steps to Freedom

2017, Twenty paintings; acrylic paint and pencil on canvas boards

This project was supported by Bar None.

In 2017, Sheila Phipps conducted the Steps to Freedom workshop at The Travis Hill School, located inside of New Orleans’ juvenile detention center and adult jail. This workshop offered space for creative expression, primarily through painting and writing.

Unthinkable Imagination, the exhibition’s main title, was drawn from a statement written by a young man participating in Phipps’s workshop.

Sheila Phipps (b.1957, New Orleans LA; based in New Orleans, LA) is an activist and self-taught artist best known for her stunning portraits and creative workshops. In her practice, Phipps addresses issues of justice and engages visual strategies that raise consciousness, empower, and educate. In 2017 Phipps became the first artist in residence at Bar None, a multidisciplinary initiative that aims to transcend incarceration by offering opportunities for healing through the arts to people who are directly impacted by the carceral system. Exhibited internationally, her work was featured in States of Incarceration, a 2016 traveling project of the Humanities Action Lab. Her work has also been presented locally at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Antenna Gallery, and Newcomb Art Museum. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including prizes from the National Conference of Artists and the National Arts Program in New Orleans. www.sheilaphipps.com

Sheila Phipps, in front of her painting It's My Time and My Freedom, a 2018 portrait of Danielle Metz; included in the 2019 Newcomb Art Museum exhibition per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana. Photo by Ashley Lorraine.

The 2022-2023 Newcomb Art Museum Youth Internship Cohort selected twenty of the Steps to Freedom paintings and designed their layout for the exhibition.

Steps to Freedom, 2017. Created by anonymous youth at the Travis Hill School, who participated in a creative-expression workshop led by artist Sheila Phipps. Pictured above: twelve of twenty paintings; acrylic paint and pencil on canvas board.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

Al-Bilali,

CHILDREN ARE NOT THE FUTURE BUT THE PRESENT. THE PRESENT IS WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR.

On October 18th, 2022, eight young people were transferred from the youth detention center in Bridge City to Angola Prison2—a maximum-security prison for adults located on the same grounds as a former plantation.3 Most Juvenile Justice systems nationally are moving towards models that center the needs of children, such as closer proximity to caregivers, mentors, mental health services, and appropriate educational support. The state of Louisiana continues to enact policies that leave the state’s most vulnerable children with fragile support systems. Despite the continuation of harmful practices that impact young people, communities have continued to be at the forefront of comprehensive reform. Through grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy, and community care, youth, families, and communities have continued to dream and create generative places for young people to gain access to the resources they need to be successful—despite the odds.

In 1989, the United Nations Human Rights Commission ratified the Rights for Children.4 It states that every child deserves the right to proper nutrition, shelter, and to be children. 5 In 2022 The state of

1 Omo Obatala Egbe Inc. 24th International Orisha Conference, October 29, 2022.

2 Paul Murphy / Eyewitness News, “Angola Receives the First Wave of Bridge City Juvenile Offenders,” wwltv.com, October 18, 2022.

3 Louisiana State Penitentiary.

4 The United Nations defines a child from birth until the age of 18.

5 “Convention on the Rights of the Child.” n.d. UNICEF.

Hanan PhD candidate in the City, Culture, and Community program at Tulane University

MEL ADUN

Louisiana ranked 49th in the nation as it relates to the overall quality of life for its young people.6 Massachusetts ranks first, followed by New Hampshire and Minnesota. Mississippi (48th), Louisiana (49th), and New Mexico (50th) are the three lowest-ranked states.7 Children and their families are at even greater risk once they enter the Juvenile Justice System. Youth who have had contact with the court system overwhelmingly suffer from mental illness or other challenges, ranging from learning disabilities to a history of trauma. Due to the gaps in services such as preventative mental health support and educational resources, the Juvenile Justice System often ends up being a landing place for the state’s most vulnerable.

6 https://www.aecf.org/interactive/databook?l=22

7 Ibid.

Maxx Sizeler, detail of Don’t Count My Mama Out!, 2022, wood: danta / African mahogany, cypress, cherry, sapele, purple heart; mirror glass. This artwork creatively interprets the experience of Symphony

Children of color, especially Black children, are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. Despite Black youth being only 40% of the population in the state—they comprise 70% of the youth in nonsecure care and 80% of the youth in secure care.8 This creates an environment where young people are removed from their communities when they need support the most. Secure care, the deep end of the juvenile justice system, is reserved for those youth deemed to be a risk to public safety and/or not amenable to treatment in a less restrictive setting.9 Youth are monitored 24 hours a day by Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ) staff and cannot leave the facilities. As opposed to non-secure facilities that are less restrictive,

8 “Louisiana DMC Update 2019 - Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency ...”

Accessed December 7, 2022. https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh176/files/media/document/ la-fy18-dmc-plan_508.pdf.

9 https://ojj.la.gov/serving-youth-families/youth-in-secure-care-facilities/

Robert Jones, Why Me, 2022, acrylic paint on canvas.

it is often the next step before a young person returns home. Although both options were designed to provide rehabilitation, these facilities are often retraumatizing.

Despite the overwhelming needs of young people impacted by the juvenile justice system due to lack of funding, many basic needs are not addressed while in custody. Many states with similar incarceration rates have moved towards a community-centered model based on cost alone. In the state of Louisiana, it costs $155,000 to imprison a child, while only $11,000 is designated for public education.10 Although alternative care options have been passed through state legislation, the reform efforts have been underfunded or lacked proper state oversight to be implemented successfully.

In 1916, the Baton Rouge State Times reported that an eight-yearold black boy was sent to Angola Prison for Adult Men for stealing canned goods.11 Despite the Juvenile Justice Movement that began in the early 1900s, Black children across the state of Louisiana continued to be sent to adult prisons until 1948.12 In 2022 children in Louisiana still experience high rates of poverty, inadequate schools, and a lack of appropriate resources that make them more susceptible to encountering the juvenile justice system. Much of what is seen in current incarceration trends for children results from a history of violence and structural racism in Louisiana. In general, many

10 “A Youth Justice Disaster.” Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children. Accessed December 7, 2022. https://www.fflic.org/a-youth-justice-disaster/.

11 Whitney, Sabrina Michelle, “Juvenile justice in Louisiana: an exploratory study of trends surrounding juvenile incarceration” (2012). LSU Master’s Theses. 4138.

12 Ibid.

BECAUSE IT WAS NEVER BUILT TO PROTECT US. IT STARTED AS SLAVE CATCHERS, LIKE YOU SAID. SO I DON’T TRUST THE POLICE SYSTEM. I DON’T TRUST THE JUSTICE SYSTEM. I DON’T TRUST NONE OF THEM. I DON’T.

ALVIN RICHARD, UNTHINKABLE IMAGINATION YOUTH COLLABORATOR

THE DISTRICT ATTORNEYS. THE WAY THEY TRY TO PROSECUTE US AS IF WE’RE JUST MONSTERS.

DAYTANYA, UNTHINKABLE IMAGINATION YOUTH COLLABORATOR

policies that impact families make being a child difficult, disrupting opportunities for a child to develop agency over their own lives.

Despite the lack of follow-through on ACT 1225, local activists, community members, and people impacted by the system have continued to write policies and advocate for safe spaces and opportunities for young people affected by the juvenile justice system. In 2020 eighty community stakeholders—including youth, organizers, and business leaders from various sectors—came together to dream and devise a road map for the future of young people in New Orleans.13

From this convening, the “Youth Master Plan” was conceived. This plan addresses a wide range of issues that impact young people and is a regional example of what is possible when youth voices are prioritized in imagining their own future.14

High rates of poverty and a lack of appropriate resources make the children of Louisiana more likely to encounter the juvenile justice system. The current landscape regarding the quality of life for children and their families in Louisiana is bleak. According to data collected by the Louisana Budget Project, the state ranked the highest in overall poverty in the nation.15 Child poverty was 26.7% in 2021. More than 146,000 children lived in deep poverty or below 50% of the official poverty line.16 A report by Save the Children on child well-being ranked Louisiana at 50th regarding their quality of life.17 These findings were based on child malnutrition, education, teen pregnancy, and early childhood deaths.

These high rates of poverty lead to a host of other problems, leaving schools throughout the state unable to meet the needs of their students academically. Along with the lack of access to essential academic resources, punitive policies further harm children of

13 The Youth Master Plan is facilitated by the New Orleans Children and Youth Planning Board (CYPB), the New Orleans Youth Alliance (NOYA), and the Mayor’s Office of Youth and Families (OYF).

14 “What Is the Youth Master Plan?” CYPB Youth Master Plan.

15 https://www.labudget.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/LBP-Census-2021Released-2022-2.pdf

16 Ibid.

17 “The Land of Inopportunity - Save the Children USA.” Accessed December 7, 2022. https://www.savethechildren.org/content/dam/usa/reports/advocacy/us-childhood-report-2020.pdf.

color. In one year alone, 41,689 black students were suspended from public schools in Louisiana.18 School suspensions or expulsions due to acting out or misbehaving are often unidentified or undiagnosed mental health diagnoses or developmental issues. In 2019 a lawsuit was brought against the Louisiana Department of Health for not providing proper mental health care for children on Medicaid. Instead of offering appropriate mental health services, the state has relied on psychiatric hotels and prisons to fill in the gaps.19 Because of historical and systemic inequity, children suffer the most from the government not prioritizing their needs. They are at the mercy of the state.

AS A YOUNG MAN, I WAS IN THE YOUTH STUDY CENTER. THAT SYSTEM DID NOT MAKE ME BETTER; THAT SYSTEM ACTUALLY HARDENED MY HEART EVEN MORE. AND IT TOOK OUR COMMUNITY FROM WHERE I WAS FROM, IT TOOK MY CHILDREN, IT TOOK ALL THOSE PEOPLE TO HELP [GET] ME ON THE RIGHT TRACK. I KNOW HAD I HAD A CITY THAT HAD MY BACK, IF I HAD PUBLIC OFFICIALS THAT HAD MY BACK, I WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER EARLIER.

KEVIN GRIFFIN-CLARK, FAMILIES AND FRIENDS OF LOUISIANA INCARCERATED CHILDREN

I THOUGHT IT WAS A DREAM. I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO WAKE UP AND JUST BE BACK AT HOME, GETTING READY FOR SCHOOL ... WHEN I WOKE UP IN THE HOLDING CELL, THAT’S WHEN IT REALLY SET IN.

SEMAJ, UNTHINKABLE IMAGINATION YOUTH COLLABORATOR

18 Harper, S. R. “[PDF] Disproportionate Impact of K-12 School Suspension and Expulsion on Black Students in Southern States: Semantic Scholar.” Undefined, January 1, 1970.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Disproportionate-Impact-of-K-12-SchoolSuspension-Harper/eeecca31a7ff960881a8481facadb03367279785.

19 Brad Bennett Interim Editorial Director. “SPLC Sues Louisiana for ‘Nonexistent’ Mental Health Services for Medicaid-Eligible Children and Families.” Southern Poverty Law Center, November 7, 2019. https://www.splcenter.org/news/2019/11/07/splc-sues-louisiana-nonexistent-mental-health-services-medicaid-eligible-children-and.

The juvenile justice system in America was created to protect and rehabilitate the state’s most vulnerable children. However, the relationship between children and the criminal justice system has been more harmful than helpful. The most recent example is the “War on Drugs” impact on juvenile justice laws throughout the 1990s. This shift in priorities criminalized hundreds of thousands of young people nationally. By the early 2000s, evidence had shown that incarceration is, in general, especially harmful for young people and their families. Advocates and policymakers began centering the developmental needs of children, and more holistic models of care were made available. Despite the success of these new models, the

McKinley “Mac” Phipps, Jr., detail view of IPSISSIMUS, 2023, acrylic paint on canvas. This artwork creatively interprets the experience of Troy

state of Louisiana continues to implement destructive policies and decades of failed promises.

In 1998, there were 2,000 children incarcerated in the state of Louisiana. That summer, a lawsuit was brought against Tallulah Prison by the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL) stemming from accounts of abuse to children who resided at the facility.20 The work of JJPL, alongside many of the clients and their families, would result in the closing of the Tallulah Youth Detention Center. As a result of the organizing by JJPL, alongside many of the clients, Families, and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children was created.21 Through organizing a statewide coalition, not only was Tallulah closed but in 2003, ACT 1225 was passed. At the time, it was some of the most important juvenile justice legislation in the state of Louisiana to date.

ACT 1225 not only called for the closing of certain prisons and additional oversight, but more rehabilitative measures to be implemented, such as resources being funneled back into the community. Despite the legislation’s passing, the new law’s promises failed to be actualized—though there were significant decreases in youth incarceration at detention centers. Still, conditions were dangerous for children. As recently as 2021, two of the largest detention centers were deemed “structurally unfit” to implement the best practices outlined in ACT 1225.22 Due to the lack of funding, most changes did not happen.

Detention centers continue to be plagued with high staff turnover, which contributes to a lack of proper supervision for the young people in the facility. This gap increases the possibility of assault by other inmates or correctional officers while in custody. The state-run detention centers also lack adequate mental health and educational services, which are critical for community re-entry and is a legal right for minors. Education and career readiness are

20 “Act 1225 Mapping Project.” Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children. Accessed December 7, 2022. https://www.fflic.org/act-1225/.

21 Ibid.

22 “Next for Louisiana Juvenile Justice Reform? Improve Safety and Oversight at State’s Outdated Facilities.” The Advocate, March 4, 2019. https://www.theadvocate.com/ baton_rouge/news/crime_police/article_6986dd4e-3c62-11e9-b929-afd5d245d409. html.

essential indicators of long-term success for all young people. A recent report released by the Center for Louisiana’s Children’s Rights highlighted unconstitutional gaps in educational attainment in detention centers. Youth in custody are being denied fundamental rights to education—namely compliance with requirements of young people who have special education needs, adequate plans for transition out of the facility, and overall consistency in services.23 Detained youth reported going weeks and sometimes months without being in school.

The “Missouri Model” is a successful method of care that has seen results locally and nationally and was an integral part of ACT 1225. The legislation outlined plans for smaller facilities closer to the youths’ communities, coupled with coordinated care around mental health, as well as medical and educational institutions. The promises of ACT 1225 have continued not to be prioritized by local and state governments. Developmentally, children need caring adults to serve as role models and support. Instead, the current policies continue to disrupt a child’s ability to prepare for adulthood, leaving young people further traumatized and with fewer options once they return to their communities.

Despite the clarity and vision of the young people in the state of Louisiana, the juvenile justice system and other government-led institutions continue to shape the experiences of young people throughout the state without their input. Regardless of the missed opportunities of state

23 “Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights.” Louisiana Center for Childrens Rights. Accessed December 7, 2022. https://lakidsrights.org/.

I WAS FEELING HAPPY, BECAUSE [I WAS] GOING HOME TO MY FAMILY WHERE I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AT AND NOT IN NOBODY’S SYSTEM.

ZEDRICK, UNTHINKABLE IMAGINATION YOUTH COLLABORATOR

THE CHILDREN AND YOUTH OF NEW ORLEANS ARE NOT BROKEN OR DAMAGED. WE CAN RISE ABOVE CIRCUMSTANCES AND HAVE THE ABILITY TO DEFINE OUR OWN PATH

JOHN D., NEW ORLEANS CHILDREN YOUTH PLANNING BOARD (YOUTH ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER)

government, the advocates and community-based organizations have remained committed to upholding the dignity of children.

Youth and their communities already have envisioned a pathway to justice. This understanding is happening within a larger national cultural shift. Court systems that work directly with social service agencies to provide mental health services and restorative justice have been integrated into the court system and schools. More collaborative responses between various sectors have proven effective, impacting hundreds of thousands of young people throughout the United States. Solutions are present. Space needs to be created for young people and their families’ voices to be elevated.

Coordinated care and community-based solutions have long provided solutions that work for the youth in the form of Louisiana. ACT 1225 has given the state Government a roadmap of what sweeping change could look like for the juvenile justice system in Louisiana.

Local organizations have continued to advocate for things that they know are working.

Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, Operation Restoration, Ubuntu Village, and Center for Louisiana’s for Children are leading the charge for a better way to protect the state’s children. The solutions are embedded in the voices of the youth and the community.

Hanan Al-Bilali has committed her career to supporting Black and Latinx communities through arts, education, and mentorship.

Al-Bilali is currently a Ph.D. Student in the City, Community, and Culture program at Tulane University. Her primary research interest is the role of black art and ritual as tools for transformation. She began studying the relationship between art institutions and community engagement after enrolling in a Museum Educator Practicum at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Al-Bilali went on to explore the role of arts and community with institutions such as No Longer Empty, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), and the New Orleans African American Museum.

ARTISTS PAIRED WITH YOUTH

ABDUL AZIZ

A Maddening Perception of a 15-year-old creatively interprets the experience of Deon Tae

2023, Archival pigment print.

For nearly two decades, I have documented social issues, conflict, and war with my camera, to tell stories of marginalized voices. Only recently have I considered myself an “artist,” as the primary goal of my work has been to raise awareness and improve the human condition. Photography has been the tool I have used to capture and convey emotion, pain, destruction, and beauty. With the advent of the rapidly developing technological marvel of Artificial Intelligence, lines begin to blur between reality and fiction. Our ability to perceive what is real is quickly shifting!

Just as our perceptions of reality can be altered by new information, so can the reality we create for others. During my time as Communications Director at the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, I understood the

Abdul Aziz, A Maddening Perception of a 15-year-old, 2022. Photo by Eric A. Waters.

importance of creating narratives highlighting the humanity of children involved in the Juvenile Justice System. We often forget the mistakes of our childhood. We elevate ourselves above those who have made life-altering decisions. Understanding that the Juvenile Justice System was specifically designed to be rehabilitative is key to understanding that juvenile offenders are indeed children, even when they make adult-sized mistakes.

This work merges my passion for photography, technology, and Juvenile Justice Advocacy. It was created using digital photography as a base. I then fed prompts into Artificial Intelligence that were taken directly from an interview conducted with a young man who is determined to find himself on the right track. A Maddening Perception of a 15-year-old challenges the idea that children are disposable or irredeemable. Nothing can be farther from the truth. I hope that this piece resonates with the viewer to counter such perceptions.

Abdul Aziz (b. 1978, New Orleans, LA; based in New Orleans, LA) is an artist and media designer best known for his work as a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker. Early in his career, he served as a Communications Director for the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (2006–2009) and a board member of LCCR

(2013–2017). Aziz has chronicled human conflict and urgent social issues in the Middle East and Africa to the far reaches of the Himalayas and US for over two decades. His most recent work focused on the rise of American white nationalism and the Black Lives Matter movement has been widely circulated by leading new agencies such as The New York Times, Der Spiegel, and NPR. In 2021, Aziz was recognized for capturing Louisiana’s history, culture, and peoples with the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Documentary Photographer of the Year Award. He studied at Loyola University. www.photoaziz.com

NIC[O] BRIERRE AZIZ

Maroon, Mawòn (2 Sides II A Book) creatively interprets the experience of Jy’Harin

2023, Diptych, collage; graduation tassel fibers, cowrie shells, Dogon Tribe beads, and silkscreen on American Target Company shooting range target posters, colonial maple pine.

Depending on which of history’s sides you resonate with most, “maroon” as we know it today has French and/or Taino roots. According to one book, the word comes from the French “marron” which meant “feral” or “fugitive.” Another book would state that

Nic[o] Brierre Aziz, Maroon, Mawòn (2 Sides II A Book), 2023. Photo by Eric A. Waters.

maroon as we know it originates with the Spanish “cimarrón”, via the Taino people, meaning “untamed.” This layered multiplicity is a microcosm of the construct of Blackness—especially within a country such as the United States.

When I hear the word maroon, I think of enslaved people who escaped and liberated themselves to establish their own communities in countries such as Haiti, Brazil, Jamaica and the United States. This term and color, which has these varied meanings and relationships to “freedom,” instantly came to mind when I familiarized myself with Jy’Harin’s story. With that, I intended to create a piece influenced by some of his specific feelings and desires—his love of football, his desire to go to college and be an air traffic controller, his eight sisters. I also sought to illuminate the Black body, expression and image’s relationship to aspiration, captivity, control and capitalism.

In 2019, I found and purchased these original arrest reports featuring Black men from the 1930s–1960s and their eyes were, ironically and eerily, listed as maroon. The composition of these arrest reports juxtaposed with Black men from Morehouse College from the same time period, all screen printed onto a Black body silhouette produced by the American Target Company, intend to question the ways we might continue to be “targets” in our respective quests for liberation. The presence of elements such as the Dogon tribe beads, the cowrie shells and the loosely strung Black and Maroon fibers within the Colonial Maple Pinewood frame additionally reference the fortitude and eternality of African aesthetics along with the tensions that those of the diaspora must navigate within an imperialist based world.

•

Nic[o] Brierre Aziz’s biography appears on pages 44–45. www.nicbrierreaziz.com

INSTAGRAM nicoelganso

Photo by Lauren Ash

ADRIENNE BROWN-DAVID

Run creatively interprets the experience of LaZariah.

2022, Oil paint on canvas.

Adrienne Brown-David, Run, 2022.

Much of my work focuses on Black freedom and challenging the narrative of what Black youth looks like to much of society. This piece represents breaking free of past constraints and sprinting toward a future of growth. Each step brings the possibility of something new, something fresh.

Adrienne Brown-David (b. 1978, St. Louis, MO; based in Water Valley, MS) is a painter who focuses on children’s portraiture. As a mother of four children, she depicts life in African American communities and in her own family. Brown-David’s work preserves childhood moments of beauty, growth, innocence, and joy for Black and Brown youth. Her practice intentionally resists the racial prejudice of adultification bias and mainstream society’s urge to psychologically cut short the time in which minority-identified children develop, thus subjecting them to expectations of maturity. An arts educator in her local community, Brown-David studied at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Her work is part of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York and several prestigious Mississippi private collections. It has been exhibited at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, Walter Anderson Museum, Southside Gallery, and 100 Men D.B.A. Hall, among other art spaces.

www.adriennebrown-david.com • INSTAGRAM adriennemeschelle

NYA CAROLINGTON SKIPPER

Retrospectare creatively interprets the experience of Stephon. 2022, Charcoal on Bristol paper.

Retrospectare was created on Bristol paper using charcoal of various forms such as willow, powder, and compressed sticks. Charcoal was used to ensure a consistent tone that enhances a vacant atmosphere. The piece does not illustrate desperation, but hope. The idea of “missed opportunities” is a driving force in the work. Stephon’s story describes a system that can pause a person’s life—sending them into a loop of overlapping days where time is meaningless. The hands frozen in time at first glance yearn to touch the chairs and are very close to doing so. They don’t quite, just yet, but when time finally catches up to them, I believe that they regain hope. And in doing so, pulls them out of the pit of confinement into

Nya Carolington Skipper, Retrospectare, 2022.

earth and sky—setting off something great in the world—change. I’m confident that Stephon’s testimony will invoke empathy for those who are locked away from their loved ones. Retrospectare means “retrospective” and expresses a linear timeline of repetitive actions happening all at once.

Nya Carolington Skipper (b. 2001, Baton Rouge, LA; based in Baton Rouge, LA) is an emerging artist who works primarily with drawing and digital media. In her work, Carolington Skipper creates surreal spaces that merge realism with fantasy. She is a graduate of Baton Rouge Magnet High School and is currently in her junior year at Louisiana State University studying art and design.

www.nyaskipper.com • INSTAGRAM nyasuis

AUBREY EDWARDS

Overﬂow creatively interprets the experience of N’Shavia.

2023, Photographic print on aluminum, stereo sound. Music by Renee Benson. Running time: 4 min., looped.

I craft images to be vessels—visual invitations encouraging the viewer to expand and learn more about the person, the landscape, the object, the ritual, the story. It is deeply humbling to work alongside community members to collaboratively tell stories of experience, as these stories fundamentally build spaces of commonality and connection.

Place is inseparable from the story. I pull profound inspiration from the awe of the natural world, the brackish beauty of our bayous and waterways, and the spirit of this place—ancient and modern.

Aubrey Edwards, Overﬂow, 2023.

Overflow centers the grounding practices of emotional and sensory calming.

Such practices include spending time with the water, listening to music, breathing, being still. This piece encourages the viewer to embrace those same grounding practices in relation to each other inside the gallery space.

Aubrey Edwards (b. 1979, Loma Linda, CA; based in Laramie, WY and New Orleans, LA) is an award-winning photographer, youth advocate, and healingcentered trauma-informed arts educator. Over two decades, she has co-created space with young people in an array of capacities—utilizing her background in collaborative anthropology to connect organizations, policy makers, artists, and teachers—to jointly amplify youth voices. Edwards is presently working alongside journalist Tennessee Watson in Wyoming, hosting an annual youth justice institute where young folks learn about their rights while making public art and media, centering their voices in conversations around juvenile justice reform. Exhibited internationally, Edwards holds a MS in Urban Studies from University of New Orleans, a Bachelor of Journalism from UT Austin, and an AAS in Photography from Austin Community College. Currently she is enrolled in a master’s program at the University of Wyoming focusing on anthropology, the environment, and natural resources.

www.aubreyedwards.com • INSTAGRAM aubreyedwards

DAVE GREBER

Ronnisha’s Armour creatively interprets the experience of Ronnisha.

2023, Augmented reality sculpture; custom iPad display, vinyl. Technical support by Cole Wiley.

Dave Greber, Ronnisha’s Armour, 2023.

Listening to Ronnisha’s interview, I tried to intuitively draw out the activities she enjoyed and how she pictured herself in the world. On a fundamental level, I felt she was drawn to the physical and the grounded. I tried to take that vibe and create a sculpture that represented her aspirations in a medium which is both other worldly and malleable—Augmented Reality. Likewise, the textures are sampled from the everyday—NOLA streets and sidewalk surfaces were used to create a suit of armor that is regal and heroic. I imagine the suit as an adaptable video game “skin” that anyone can wear and share Ronnisha’s special skills and abilities.

Dave Greber (b. 1982, Philadelphia, PA) is a new media artist best known for immersive site-specific installations. His work manifests as surreal, psychologically charged narratives that mix video, animation and 3D design to reflect on consciousness shifts in the Anthropocene age. Past displays of Greber’s work include a 52-screen animation for the Fulton Center MTA transit hub in Lower Manhattan, the Crystal Bridges Museum inaugural 2014 State of the Art exhibition, solo exhibitions at the Odgen Museum of Southern Art and Arthur Roger Gallery, and artist Lorna Mills’ collaborative video project Ways of Something, which is in the permanent collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Greber is also an arts educator and earned an MFA from Tulane University and a BA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University. His work has been recognized with artist residencies and partnerships in Norway, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, and throughout the US.

www.thesculpted.com • INSTAGRAM davaygrebere

ROBERT JONES

Let’s Play creatively interprets the experience of Kiore.

2022, Acrylic paint on canvas.

Robert Jones, Let’s Play, 2022.

Let’s Play is a piece that displays the concept that when guys play checkers they are playing a game of reactions, but when they learn how to play a game of chess they learn how to play a smart game of responding. In short, Let’s Play is the black boy responding to the game of life.

Robert Jones is an innocent exoneree from New Orleans, Louisiana who served more than twenty-three and a half years in prison for crimes he did not commit. Since his exoneration in 2017, Jones has been diligently working in the greater New Orleans area as an activist, trying to bring about real changes in the criminal legal system that caused him and his family so much harm.

Jones is currently the Director of Community Outreach at the Orleans Public Defenders (OPD). He joined OPD soon after his exoneration because he understands the importance of providing effective legal representation to all, regardless of race and wealth. Jones is also the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Free-Dem Foundations, a nonprofit organization that mentors young men at the cusp of young adulthood. Additionally, he is an entrepreneur, published author, public speaker, and a respected community activist. Jones serves on several boards and committees. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Innocence Project New Orleans, an advisory board member of the Center for Racial Justice at Dillard University of New Orleans, a member of the New Orleans City Council Advisory Committee, and a member of New Orleans Voices, a community advisory committee developed to further the goals of the McArthur Safety and Justice Challenge.

www.freedemfoundations.org • INSTAGRAM robertjonesofnola

IVY MATHIS

See, Listen, Act creatively interprets the experience of Ne’Vaeh. 2023, Original dance choreography. Music by Fearless Soul, written and performed by Rachael Schroeder, composed by Patrick Rundblad. Videography by Christine “Cfreedom” Brown. Editing by Kendra C. Thompson. Running time: 8 min.

At the age of 17, I was given a LIFE sentence. After serving 26 years, I was released December 11, 2018, at the age of 43. I not only left prison with a heart to reach back and help my sisters that were still incarcerated, but also help the youth to understand—“in the blink of an eye, being in the wrong place at the wrong time can cost you more than you are willing to pay and keep you longer than you want to stay.”

Meeting Ne’Vaeh was not only a privilege but an opportunity for me to share in our future. The youth—telling her story is A MUST!!!!

Ivy Mathis, See, Listen, Act, 2023. Photo by Kendra C. Thompson.

Ivy Mathis (b. circa 1975, Louisiana; based in Baton Rouge, LA) captivates audiences with storytelling and movement that blends African tradition with contemporary styles of dance such as hip hop. Her work has toured in special theatrical productions by The Graduates, a performing arts troupe which was formed at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, and has been presented at the Newcomb Art Museum, Contemporary Art Center and the Ford Foundation Gallery. Mathis was the youngest woman serving a life sentence in Louisiana when she entered jail as a teenager. She served 26 years of a juvenile life sentence and was paroled in 2018—as Louisiana’s first female juvenile lifer to be released on parole following a 2017 Supreme Court decision about the unconstitutionality of life sentences for juvenile offenders. In 2020 Mathis was appointed by Governor Edwards to the state Council on the Children of Incarcerated Parents and Caregivers.

www.voiceoftheexperienced.org

DEMOND MATSUO

Samples for Z: I’ll Grow New Wings creatively interprets the experience of Zedrick

2022, Mixed media collage; paper, gold leaf, copper paint and patina on canvas.

The collage was intentionally created for Zedrick. It opens a space of elevation and direct visual conversation with him, using rhythm and sampling techniques.

Demond Matsuo (b. circa 1973, Morgan City, LA; based in New Orleans, LA) is a self-taught painter and mixed-media artist. As a child, Matsuo studied martial arts which helped him manage anger and led to his developing a deep appreciation for Asian art and philosophies. His creative practice is informed by unsupervised travels to Spain, India and Turkey at a young age; as well as absorbing American videogames, Japanese anime and manga. Matsuo’s practice of reading and collaging grounds his images in poetry, pattern, and global textiles. Abstracted figures such as ghosts, gods, stags, and warriors recur in his art. Matsuo’s work is held by private collections and has been exhibited regionally at the Arthur Roger Gallery, Degas Gallery, Ann Connelly Fine Art and the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge, where his work won First Place at Art Melt 2017.

www.demondmatsuo.com • INSTAGRAM demondmatsuo

Demond Matsuo, Samples for Z: I’ll Grow New Wings, 2022.

LOUISE MOUTON JOHNSON

Hope Moves Us Forward creatively interprets the experience of Semaj. 2023, Quilted paper, netting, buttons, thread.

In my piece entitled Hope Moves Us Forward, I was inspired by Semaj’s response to some of the questions he was asked in an interview that was shared with me. Despite being in a youth detention center, with feelings of loneliness and regret, Semaj said that he was motivated and inspired by several of the adults who worked with him and the other youth during this time. Through their mentoring and counseling, he

Louise Mouton Johnson, Hope Moves Us Forward, 2023.

maintained a sense of hope. He felt that if he maintained a positive attitude and remained mentally strong, he could reclaim his life.

My artwork is stitched paper that is constructed in the same manner as a patchwork quilt. It is composed in different shades of blue, which Semaj indicated was his favorite color. A “cool” color on the designer’s color wheel, blue is also said to stimulate calmness. In the artwork, I chose to use Adinkra symbols that expressed many of the thoughts and ideas that Semaj spoke about. These abstract symbols were created by the Akan people of Ghana, a country in West Africa, and can be used to depict aspects of a person’s character as well as a complex belief system on ritual and daily life. The symbols I chose represent hope and inspiration, having heart, wisdom and ingenuity, reconciliation, and peacemaking, and learning from the past to build toward the future.

Louise Mouton Johnson (b. 1954, New Orleans, LA; based in New Orleans, LA) is a fiber artist and printmaker whose art lies at the intersection of painting, quilting, and assemblage. Her works often combine pattern and symbols with imagery of the human figure and landscape. A frequent collaborator, Mouton Johnson has created art that is widely circulated regionally and part of the City of New Orleans permanent collection. Her art was recognized by a Joan Mitchell Center Artist Residency in 2018 and by the National Conference of Artists New Orleans in 2003. She was the first woman artist invited to design the official New Orleans Jazz and Heritage poster in 1990 and her art appears on multiple album covers for Rounder Records recording artists. She holds an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and earned a BA at Xavier University of Louisiana after briefly studying at Tulane University.

www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/louise-mouton-johnson

PAT PHILLIPS

I Am My Brother’s Keeper / Matter Of Fact, You Going To Have Your Business... creatively interprets the experience of Vanti

2022–2023, Acrylic, pencil, airbrush, aerosol paint on canvas stretched on wood panel; concrete and brick rubble.

When I was asked to be part of this project, I listened to a shy, reluctant, 17-year-old share his interest in video games, making music, and his excitement about graduating from high school. Typical stuff you might hear any American kid talk about. Vanti wanted to start his own business. Vanti also talked about survival and wanting to help people.

Pat Phillips, I Am My Brother’s Keeper / Matter Of Fact, You Going To Have Your Business..., 2022–2023. Courtesy of the artist and M+B Gallery. Photo by Eric A. Waters.

I Am My Brother’s Keeper is about our collective responsibility to one another. In the painting, two figures embrace, and a small Rajma plant emerges through the chaos. Notes, phrases, mark-making, and the raw edges of the canvas inform a message of families healing in the face of a system hellbent on punishment rather than rehabilitation.

Pat Phillips (b. 1987, England; based in Philadelphia, PA) is a painter who grew up in central Louisiana, where his father worked as a corrections officer. Phillips found his way to art through painting and photographing boxcars. Phillips’ work draws upon his experiences to craft surreal juxtapositions of personal and historical imagery to meditate on complex questions of race, class, labor and a militarized culture—as well as the violent underpinnings of this country and its institutions. His art was featured in the 2019 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and can also be found in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Block Museum of Art, Evanston; and New Orleans Museum of Art. He is a 2017 Joan Mitchell Foundation grant recipient and has attended residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the Fine Arts Work Center.

www.patphillips.com • INSTAGRAM vito_farinola

MCKINLEY “MAC” PHIPPS, JR.

IPSISSIMUS creatively interprets the experience of Troy.

2023, Acrylic paint on canvas.

McKinley “Mac” Phipps, Jr., IPSISSIMUS, 2023.

Young Black men are denied the inalienable right to simply “Be.” Their environment teaches them to suppress every emotion except anger—to survive.

I therefore titled this piece IPSISSIMUS, which in Latin means He who is most himself.

I want to visually, and unapologetically, convey the strength and vulnerability of this young Black man.

McKinley “Mac” Phipps, Jr. (b. 1977, New Orleans LA; based in New Orleans, LA) is a musical recording artist whose talent for drawing was nurtured from a young age by his mother, Sheila Phipps, even before he released his first solo album at age thirteen. Mac signed to the No Limit Records and released two more albums before contributing to a collaborative project titled Goodfellas with the 504 Boyz in 2000. At age 24 he was convicted of manslaughter in a controversial trial where his lyrics from different songs were used as primary murder evidence. Mac served twenty-one years of a thirty-year sentence at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, and in 2021 he was granted clemency by the Louisiana governor. Currently a volunteer at Son of A Saint and a music instructor and mentor at the Youth Empowerment Project, Mac recently released his first solo album in 23 years, Son of the City.

www.linktr.ee/MacPhipps • INSTAGRAM macphippsofficial

SHEILA PHIPPS

Put Your Weapons Down creatively interprets the experience of Ivan. 2022, Acrylic paint on canvas.

My love for portraiture has always been a way for me to capture someone’s persona on canvas. Portraits also tell a story. The subject in this painting is an African American teenage boy growing up in New Orleans. In the city, there are many distractions, temptations, and crime all around our young people’s lives. It’s sometimes very easy for them to fall victim to their environment. The inspiration behind this painting came from a young man’s story. After listening to him, I was inspired to title this piece Put Your Weapons Down. In this painting, you can see that various weapons are laying on the ground at his feet, as he holds up a book.

It’s been my mission to teach, to learn, and to inspire others through my art.

Sheila Phipps’s biography appears on pages 46–47.

www.sheilaphipps.com

Sheila Phipps, Put Your Weapons Down, 2022.

NIK RICHARD

A Dream Detained creatively interprets the experience of Alvin.

2022, Illustration print on aluminum composite.

Nik Richard, A Dream Detained, 2022.

Communicating the story of a Black man who has served time behind bars is a delicate task for an artist. I understand the need to depict the harrowing reality of the incarcerated experience—while at the same time, wanting to move away from traditional images of Black men behind bars, in chains, as a narrative. My practice as an illustrator allows me to be literal yet sensitive with my imagery, using subtle detailed lines and contrasting color. Nik Richard (b. 1986, New Orleans, LA; based in New Orleans, LA) is a poet, illustrator and urban planner. He designs temporary and permanent public art installations to empower local residents and neighborhoods, by amplifying the history of their spaces and reclaiming their influence on the urban landscape. Recently, Richard created outdoor murals for 3322 Lasalle St. and 4930 Washington Ave. In 2019, he completed a series of Corten steel sculptures for the Arts Council of New Orleans with Monica Rose Kelly called The Spirit of Lower Mid-City at 119 S. Galvez St. His work has also been featured by Paper Monuments, 2-Cent Entertainment, the Contemporary Art Center, and New Orleans African American Museum; and recognized with awards including a 2021 Joan Mitchell Center artist residency. Richard holds a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of New Orleans, and currently teaches advanced illustration at Loyola University.

www.nikcurated.com • INSTAGRAM nik.curated

VITUS SHELL

Chain Reaction creatively interprets the experience of Aaliyah.

2023, Acrylic paint, canvas. Painted text reads: “It was just crazy. Everyday something happened and the guards didn’t really care.”

Vitus Shell, Chain Reaction, 2023. Photo by Eric A. Waters.

A good chain can reference hip hop culture but can be traced back centuries. A chain, by definition, describes a link between another object or event. Gold is a precious metal that shows value—and in this piece it demonstrates the power of Aaliyah’s testimony on incarnation, and the longer effects on a person and their community.

Vitus Shell (b. 1978, Monroe, LA; based in Monroe, LA) is a mixed- media collage painter. His work is geared toward the Black experience, giving agency to people from this community through powerful images deconstructing, sampling, and remixing identity, civil rights, and contemporary Black culture. Named the 2021 Louisianan of the Year by Louisiana Life magazine, Shell has circulated his work widely across the US, including artist residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Anderson Ranch Art Center, Hermitage Artist Retreat, Mass MoCA, Joan Mitchell Center, Skowhegan School of Art, and Masur Museum of Art. Past exhibitions of his work also include the Cue Art Foundation, New Orleans African American Museum, the Langston Hughes Center and painted murals at the National Civil Rights Museum. Shell earned a BFA from Memphis College of Art and an MFA from the University of Mississippi. He currently teaches at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston.

www.theshellofvitus.com • INSTAGRAM theshellofvitus

MARIANA SHEPPARD

Someplace Else creatively interprets the experience of G’yanni. 2023, Video installation with sound, projection on canvas. Running time: 2 min., looped.

Someplace Else is a multimedia installation that explores themes of escapism, imagination, and self-representation. Inspired by prison visiting room backdrops of idealized landscapes such as tropical beaches, mountain views, and cityscapes, this work interrogates how portraiture offers an escape from the culture of confinement. The act of standing inside a prison while in front of a picturesque locale is a unique duality of being both here and there. Therein lies the struggle and freedom of living in one’s reality and engaging in one’s possibility simultaneously. As the inmates and their visitors pose for photos in front of these backdrops, they pretend, for just a moment, that they are elsewhere.

Mariana Sheppard, Someplace Else, 2023.

My conversations with G’yanni made it increasingly clear that her future is grounded in possibility. She expressed the desire to move away from New Orleans and live in a big city like Los Angeles or New York. She wants to become a nurse, pediatrician, actress, and/or dancer. G’yanni, at 13, despite being so intimately impacted by the criminal justice system, has permitted herself to dream of a world outside of her immediate circumstances.

Mariana Sheppard (b. 1985, Houma, LA; based in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, LA) is a documentary and conceptual photographer. Inspired by Black culture and portraiture, she uses the camera to create pathways to understanding and compassion. Sheppard has served as a community-engaged arts educator, and her photographs have also appeared in films such as Sister Hearts (2017, directed by Mohammad Gorjestani) about Maryam Henderson-Uloho, and Intersection (2017, directed by Angela Tucker). Sheppard’s work has been exhibited at the McKenna Museum of African American Art, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, and the Stella Jones Gallery, among other cultural spaces. Her practice was recognized in 2019 with an artist residency at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Sheppard holds a BA from Louisiana State University and an MA from Columbia University. A 2017 Salzburg Global Fellow, she is presently the Managing Director at Junebug Productions.

www.marianasheppard.com

SHA’CONDRIA “ICON” SIBLEY

Blk Girl Dream In Color creatively interprets the experience of Kyla.

2023, Original spoken word composition, stereo sound. Videography and editing by Kendra C. Thompson. Running time: 5 min. 37 sec.

I am a daughter of the deep South, of rural Louisiana, of “the country.” I am an (evolved) daughter of the southern missionary baptist church tradition. I am a former aspiring cardiothoracic surgeon and obstetrician/gynecologist. I am also my mother’s (only) daughter, my grandmothers’ and great-grandmothers’ daughter, and the daughter of all the women in my community and bloodline.

As an artist, I now like to say that I am still a heart doctor and a “baby deliverer,” I just have a different operating room. I am a believer that our collective condition is a direct reflection of how we treat girls, women, and nature—the things that birth and bring us forth—and first and foremost, a reflection of the relationship we have with ourselves and the Divine. Through writing, poetry, live spoken word performance (often containing musical elements such as vocals and a loop pedal), visual art (acrylic paint on canvas, hand and digital drawing,

Sha’Condria “iCon” Sibley, Blk Girl Dream In Color, 2023.

and crafts), and singing and songwriting, I create medicine in the form of art and experiences that are meant to ground, affirm, empower, celebrate, and evoke examination of my own experiences and the experiences of Blk/Indigenous people in America (more specifically Blk/Indigenous Women and even more specifically Blk/Indigenous southern Women) in an effort to contribute to our holistic healing, wellness, and wholeness, and eventually, that of us All.

My artistic practice is spiritual, ancestral, and intentional. I allow my voice and hands/body to be a vessel to channel ancestral recollection, present acknowledgement, and future possibilities. My work is my ministry. It echoes the drawl of small-town Louisiana Blk folks with a reverence for both the people and the Divine in a way that resonates beyond the walls of both church and body.

Sha’Condria “iCon” Sibley

(b. Alexandria, LA; based in New Orleans, LA) poet and artist of many mediums whose work spans across visual art, theater, music, and film. A multiple-time national poetry slam champion, iCon is also the author of a critically acclaimed poetry collection, My Name Is Pronounced Holy, and uses her work largely to speak on her lived experience as a Black woman as it relates to her deep Southern/ Louisiana roots, reclaiming names/identity, spirituality, and healing. Her work has been featured in outlets such as Huffington Post, For Harriet, Teen Vogue, BET, and BBC World Radio, as well as in several exhibits, documentaries, and anthologies. Recently in 2022, iCon released a multimedia love letter to Black women called The Here Women produced by Junebug Productions. She studied Biology at Xavier University of Louisiana and Community Health Sciences at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

www.icontheartist.com • INSTAGRAM icontheartist

MAXX SIZELER

Don’t Count My Mama Out! creatively interprets the experience of Symphony

2022, Wood: danta / African mahogany, cypress, cherry, sapele, purpleheart; mirror glass.

It’s so important that our society reflect on how incarceration affects families. In my interview with Symphony, the 12-year-old youth with whom I am paired for this project, I considered the many hardships her family has experienced, with two family members having been incarcerated. When children live with certain insecurities, it can produce anxiety and fears of abandonment. I was most struck by how protective Symphony is of her mother. Her closing message to me in the interview was “don’t count my mama out!”—very powerful words.

Maxx Sizeler, Don’t Count My Mama Out!, 2022.

Despite her mother’s past incarceration separating her from her daughter Symphony, their relationship is very strong. This is central to Symphony’s future and emotional growth.

I built this piece around Symphony’s words and literally carved them into the wood. The piece is both functional and sculptural. Conceptually, it is about the relationship between a mother and child. In the center, is a horizontal mirror in which two viewers can see their own reflections simultaneously. Placed at the bottom of the mirror are two carved cherry wood hands of a mother and child. The work is divided into two halves—the child side and the mother side. The mother side has a large circular shape with flower petals of “wise” oldgrowth cypress. The child side is a small circular shape with petals of “young” new-growth cypress. The circular shapes are made of danta wood and the banner with Symphony’s words is old cypress. The pink mirror frame is sapele wood with purple heart banding.

Maxx Sizeler (b. 1965, New Orleans, LA; based in New Orleans, LA) is an artist of many media and fine woodworker who explores subjects close to his heart: post-Katrina New Orleans history and being trans and living between the gender binaries. Recently, his work has also focused on the epidemic of gun violence in America. Past exhibitions of Sizeler’s installations have been featured at the Leslie-Lohman Foundation, New York; Femina Potens, San Francisco; College of the Holy Cross, Worcester; and the Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette; as well as locally at the Contemporary Arts Center, UNO Gallery, Barristers Gallery, and Delgado University. Sizeler holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans and a BFA from Parsons School of Design New York. He also attended Parsons at the American College in Paris 1986 and briefly studied at Tulane University. www.maxxsizeler.com • INSTAGRAM maxx.sizeler

CHARM TAYLOR

Inﬁnite Chances for Freedom Forevermore creatively interprets the experience of Daytanya

2023, Video installation with sound, text, and mixed media elements. Running time: 44 seconds, looping.

Charm Taylor, Inﬁnite Chances for Freedom Forevermore, 2023. Photo by Eric A. Waters.

I am Charm Taylor, Olútító Amonà Koní, a multidisciplinary artist, mama, educator, and spiritual guide. I am the creator of She is the Future (2021) and The Road Within, both music albums explore themes of transformative & restorative justice, generational healing, as well as Afro-Futurism. Infinite Chances for Freedom Forevermore (2022) is in conversation with the song “Right or Wrong” and the voice of a young person who dreams of surviving his childhood mistakes despite growing up in the incarceration capital of the world.

Charm Taylor (b. circa 1985, St. Louis, MO; based in New Orleans, LA) is a transformative multidisciplinary artist, curator, culture-keeper and change-maker. As an independent vocalist and songwriter, Taylor first gained recognition as the lead singer of the electric soul rock band The Honorable South. She has collaborated with Galactic, Spirit McIntyre, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Mononeon, and more. Her music is genre defying and her dynamic performances are infused with ancestral memory, wellness, and deep feminine strength, which is also evident in her bold visual creations meditating on pathways to liberation. In 2015 she released a critically acclaimed first solo EP, The Road Within, followed by several albums with local indie imprint Sinking City Records, including her most recent 2021 record, She is the Future. Taylor has served in the community as an activist and educator, and taught writing and history, as well as coordinated arts programs for elementary, middle, and high school students. She is a graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles and University of New Orleans. charmtaylor.bandcamp.com

• INSTAGRAM charmtayloristhefuture

BREANNA THOMPSON

Not Broken creatively interprets the experience of Alvin.

2023, Mixed media; acrylic resin, paint, muslin, natural fiber cord.

Breanna Thompson, Not Broken, 2023. Photo by Eric A. Waters.

Alvin spoke of his aspirations and his will to move past his mistakes. Alvin also expressed that he would like the artwork to discuss how the system was never designed to protect him. This piece honors the parts of ourselves that we see as broken. There is a Japanese technique called Kintsugi. It treats the “breaks” of a piece as something to be admired rather than obscured. Painted layers of resin depict Black New Orleanians full of joy communing together over a meal. The piece is broken speaking to our joy being broken through state sponsored violence. Like any trauma response, pieces of our joy are obscured and can be lost indefinitely, but like the legacy of Blackness in America, real beauty is the result.

Breanna Thompson (b. circa 1992, Pass Christian, MS; based in New Orleans, LA) is a multidisciplinary installation artist and sculptor whose practice incorporates painting, moving images, design and carpentry. Her work examines the metaphysical and explores the relationship between place and form. Thompson’s art has been featured in public spaces such as the Lafitte Greenway as well as in film festivals and galleries including Studio Be and JAM Nola. In 2019 she art directed the short film Pillars, which premiered at Sundance and was an American Film Institute Grand Jury Prize Winner. Thompson attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and earned a BA at Xavier University of Louisiana.

www.btart.org • INSTAGRAM onewhopaints

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GLOSSARY

In having a conversation around the carceral system and its impact on our communities we need to take a critical look at what comes out of our mouths and is put on our walls. Language matters. Words matter. How a person is named matters. The glossary below, written in collaboration with community, is an imperfect guide to understanding the terms (those preferred and those systemic) surrounding the world of juvenile justice. It is critical to understand this is a living document, not set in stone, but responsive to new understandings of how we can have conversations where care is constantly centered. In the same manner this brochure is part one of a continuing line of companion documents for this exhibition, this glossary deserves sustained attention and updates. If you see a term that needs correcting, we invite you to let us know at museum@tulane.edu.

Incarcerated

Time spent punished for a crime by serving time in a secure facility.

System-Impacted

A person who is legally, economically, or familially negatively affected by the incarceration of a close relative. System-impacted also includes people arrested and/or convicted without incarceration.

Systems-Involved Youth

Young people involved in the juvenile legal system, child welfare system, or both systems (i.e., crossover youth), sometimes with specific emphasis on youth who are incarcerated, in foster care, or youth exiting or having exited these systems. This term is interchangeable with “multisystem-involved youth.” In 2010, the Center for Juvenile Reform at Georgetown University developed the Crossover Youth Practice Model to address the unique needs of youth at risk of or fluctuating between the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

GENERAL TERMINOLOGY Mass Incarceration

Whether called mass incarceration, mass imprisonment, the prison boom, the carceral state, or hyper-incarceration, this phenomenon refers to the current American experiment in incarceration, which is defined by comparatively and historically extreme rates of imprisonment. (The US incarcerates 737 people per 100,00; Russia incarcerates 615 per 100,00; China incarcerates 118 per 100,00, and Louisiana incarcerates 1,052 per 100,000.)

Jail

Also known as “detention facilities,” jails are operated by a county (parishes in Louisiana), city government, or private company. A jail is a secure facility that holds three main types of people:

1. People who have been arrested and are held pending a plea agreement, trial, or sentencing.

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People who have been convicted of a misdemeanor criminal offense and are serving a sentence of (typically) less than one year.

3. People who have been sentenced to prison and are about to be transferred to another facility. In Louisiana, the Department of Corrections has contracted with local parish jails to house people convicted of felonies and sentenced to less than 13 years.

In the state of Louisiana, the limits for spending time in jail without actually being charged with a crime are 45 days for a misdemeanor, 60 days for a felony, and 120 days for any offense that would result in automatic life in prison or death, which under Louisiana law is reserved for murder, aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping. After those time limits, an accused person is supposed to be released without bail to await the results of their case outside a jail cell unless prosecutors can show “just cause” for the delay. But no sole agency is responsible for tracking defendants once they are booked.

Prison

Compared to jails, prisons are longer-term facilities owned by a state, the federal government or a private company.. Prisons typically hold those convicted of felonies and persons with sentences of more than a year; however, the sentence length may vary by state.

Federal Prison

Federal prison facilities operate under the jurisdiction of a federal government, as opposed to state prisons, parish/county prisons and private prisons. Federal prisons are used for incarcerating those who violate federal law.

State Prison

State correctional authorities run state prison facilities. Incarcerated people housed in these facilities are under the legal jurisdiction of the state government and generally serve a term of more than one year.

Angola Prison, Angola, LA

The Louisiana State Penitentiary is a maximum-security adult prison farm operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is

named “Angola” after the former plantation site it occupies and the country of Angola, where many enslaved inhabitants originated before arriving in Louisiana. Angola is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States.

On October 18th, 2022, eight young people were transferred from the youth detention center in Bridge City to Angola Prison.

Private Prison

Also known as a “for-profit prison,” a private prison is a place in which individuals are physically confined or incarcerated by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with governments that commit incarcerated people who pay a per diem or monthly rate for each incarcerated person in the facility or for each place available, whether occupied or not. Private prisons are not held to the same standards and are regulated differently than state or federal facilities. On January 25, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order to stop the United States Department of Justice from renewing further contracts with private prisons.

Prison Industrial Complex

The prison industrial complex is a term that attributes the rapid expansion of the US incarcerated population to business profit. Private prisons supply goods and services to government prison agencies for profit. The most common agents in this industry are: corporations that contract cheap prison labor, construction companies, surveillance technology vendors, companies that operate prison food services and medical facilities, prison guard unions, private probation companies, lawyers, and the lobby groups that represent these entities.

SELECTED JUVENILE LEGAL SYSTEM CONCEPTS Juvenile

A person at or below the upper age of juvenile court jurisdiction in a particular state, which is 18 in Louisiana. Informally, this term is interchangeable with “minor,” “adolescent,” “child,” “young people,” and “youth.”

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Juvenile Justice / Juvenile Legal System

In Louisiana, the criminal law system for crimes committed by minors, persons under 18 years old. Using “legal” in place of justice demands that we consider the implications of the system and ask the question – where is justice? For the Newcomb Art Museum exhibition, “Juvenile Justice Crisis” is used because this is what the system is currently called; however, we invite you to consider a shift in language that centers the question above.

Juvenile Court

A court having jurisdiction over cases involving children who committed an offense when under a specific age, usually 18. Juvenile courts (sometimes called Family Courts) generally preside over delinquency and dependency proceedings. It is separate from the court system for adults. The Juvenile Court of the Parish of Orleans was created in 1908.

Juvenile Delinquency

The act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the statutory age of majority. This term is interchangeable with “juvenile offending.”

Adjudication

Youth are not “convicted”; they are “adjudicated.”

At the adjudication hearing, the judge hears the witnesses’ testimony and makes a decision. The youth does not have the right to a trial by jury. The judge may review evidence relevant to the case. After the hearing, the judge will determine if a young person should be adjudicated delinquent or FINS based on the evidence presented.

FINS or Families in Need of Service

FINS is a prevention program dedicated to the intervention of young people who are not attending school for a prolonged period of time, exhibit “ungovernable behavior,” which is defined as parents/guardians who no longer have significant influence over their children or a young person who has run away from home. These services also apply to young people in possession or consumption of intoxicating substances, and when caretakers fail to attend meetings regarding if their child has behavior issues in school.

Status Offense

A nondelinquent/noncriminal offense that is illegal for underage persons but not for adults, such as:

Curfew violation – Violation of an ordinance forbidding persons below a certain age from being in public places during set hours.

Incorrigible, ungovernable – Being beyond the control of parents, guardians, or custodians.

Running away – Leaving the custody and home of parents or guardians without permission and failing to return within a reasonable length of time.

Truancy – Violation of a compulsory school attendance law.

Underage drinking – Possession, use, or consumption of alcohol by a minor.

Travis Hill School, New Orleans, LA

In August 2016, BreakFree Education, an organization that focuses on improving educational services for adjudicated youth, opened a new school inside the Orleans Juvenile Justice Center, then known as the Youth Study Center. One year later, BreakFree applied to open a second campus inside the New Orleans adult jail - also known as the Orleans Justice Center.

Students at Travis Hill School are also supported upon community reentry through the Travis Hill Rises program. Upon students’ return to the community, support is offered to allow for a successful transition home and to begin the work of reducing the recidivism rate.

Juvenile Detention Center

A short-term jail facility for people under the age of majority who are: arrested for delinquent acts, awaiting pretrial, adjudicated and waiting for placement, or any pending short-term secure placement. Young people go through a separate court system, the “juvenile court,” which sentences or commits youth under 18 to a specific program or facility. This term is interchangeable with “youth detention center,” “juvenile detention,” “juvenile jail,” “juvenile hall,” or more colloquially as “juvie” and “ juvy.” It is sometimes referred to as “observation home” or “remand home.”

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Detention centers are throughout the state in the following parishes: Orleans, Jefferson, the Florida Parishes (encompassing Livingston, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington parishes all at one facility), Terrebonne, Ouachita, Calcasieu, Caddo, Sabine, Bossier, Red River, and East Baton Rouge. Find more information below on the centers referenced in this document.

Orleans Juvenile Justice Intervention Center

Opened on Tuesday, May 3, 2016, the Orleans Juvenile Justice Intervention Centeron Milton Avenue is a large campus that brings the Juvenile Court and related operations altogether in one location. The Juvenile Justice Intervention Center serves as the juvenile detention center for Orleans Parish, providing pretrial detention to youths charged with committing a “delinquent” offense.

Ware Youth Center, Coushatta, LA

Located in a rural area of Red River Parish on Highway 71, the Ware Youth Center opened at a time when Louisiana was earning a reputation for operating one of the country’s worst juvenile systems. The site serves as a detention center for children arrested and awaiting disposition of their cases, and also includes group homes for children with substance abuse and behavioral problems. Ware qualifies as a secure and nonsecure facility, due to the additional services it provides through its group home programming.

October 30, 2022, The New York Times published a major investigation detailing Ware’s history of abuse and lack of governmental oversight. The article cites 64 suicide attempts in 2019 and 2020, and 91 escape attempts since the beginning of 2019. It also explains how guards were not reported or held accountable following allegations of sexual and physical abuse, in multiple instances.

Super-Predator Myth

In 1994 Louisiana incarcerated over 2,000 young people. By 1995, a young criminology professor at Princeton University, John J. DiIulio Jr., coined the term “super-predator” for a November 1995 cover story in The Weekly Standard, a brand-new magazine of conservative political opinion. The theory posited “urban” youth would commit violent crimes without remorse, and many of these

narratives were racially coded with a specific focus on Black children. By the year 2000, the term was used nationally by journalists in 281 articles, including the 1996 Newsweek headline, “‘Superpredators’ Arrive: Should we cage the new breed of vicious kids?” As a result of such tough-on-crime thinking, between 1992 and 1999, most US states passed legislation that contributed toward the dismantling of transfer restrictions for youth, lowering the minimum age for adult prosecution, and increasing the usage of excessively punitive measures for adjudicated youth. Later in 2001, DiIulio admitted that his theory had been mistaken and was untrue, saying ‘’I’m sorry for any unintended consequences” and he later worked toward reform. He and other criminologists also began citing other reasons for the 1990s rise in youth crime.

Community-Based Program

A program providing treatment, services, and/or supervision to youth under the juvenile court’s jurisdiction as part of a diversion program or a youth’s probation conditions. The program is “community-based” because it provides services in the young person’s community rather than in detention or a secure confinement setting.

Conditions of Confinement

This phrase refers to the living conditions in juvenile detention and secure confinement facilities. It includes the physical conditions of the facility (cleanliness, temperature, light, plumbing, etc.), safety in the facility (the absence or prevalence of assaults, sexual abuse, and harmful practices such as the use of excessive force or isolation), and access to health care, education, programming, and visitation.

Placement

Placement generally refers to an out-of-home placement. Judges deciding what disposition best suits a particular young person who has been found “delinquent” have a range of options, the most severe of which is placement because it removes a child from their home and community. The term “placement” is used both for out-of-home placements designed to be therapeutic and for secure confinement facilities.

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Non-Secure Placement

Non-Secure Care, more commonly called Residential Placement, is a less restrictive means of providing custody for young people needing treatment and out-of-home placement but deemed not to pose a significant threat to public safety by the court. This also includes placement within a group home.

Secure Placement

Secure care, the deep end of the juvenile legal system, is reserved for young people deemed by the court system to be a risk to public safety and/or not amenable to treatment in a less restrictive setting.

Secure Facilities in Louisiana:

Bridge City Center for Youth, Jefferson Parish, LA

The Bridge City Correctional Center for Youth (BCCY) (formerly the Louisiana Training Institute - Bridge City) is a secure correctional facility for male court-identified youth who the court has adjudicated. Bridge City Correctional Center for Youth provides for the custody, care, and treatment of adjudicated youth through the enforcement of the laws and implementation of programs designed to ensure the safety of the public, staff, and young people and their reintegration into society.

Following a wave of escapes, in July 2022 Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards announced that the state would transfer young people housed at BCCY to Angola, as a short-term solution. Youth advocates and community stakeholders continue to fight against this decision and the human rights violations it represents.

Swanson Center for Youth, Monroe, LA

In 1902, legislation authorized the State Penitentiary’s Board of Control to establish an institution for white youth aged 7–18. This led to the 1904 Legislative Act 173 that created the State Reform School (also called the Louisiana Training Institute – LTI) for white male juveniles in Monroe. However, funds were not appropriated for the new institution until the 1906 legislative session.

Acadiana Center for Youth at St. Martinville, Bunkie, LA

Located in a rural area of Avoyelles Parish along Highway 71, the Acadiana Center for Youth at St.

Martinville (ACY) opened in March 2019.. ACY was built to be a state-of-the-art secure therapeutic treatment center for youth—and designed to be a “transitional treatment unit” for “youth who demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to discontinue violent and aggressive acts,” said Office of Juvenile Justice spokeswoman Beth Touchet-Morgan.

ACY houses up to 72 young people requiring intensive treatment in a therapeutic, secure environment. Despite using the “Missouri Model” (see entry under Policies) as a programmatic blueprint for ACY, violence and misuse of power by leadership and staff has been reported. A major investigation published by NBC News in March 2022 cited that young people were being held in solitary confinement without access to education or treatment services.

In response, House Bill 756 was passed in Summer 2022 stating, “No juvenile in the custody of the office of juvenile justice shall be placed in any form of solitary confinement for any reason other than a temporary response to behavior that poses a serious and immediate threat of physical harm to the juvenile or others.”

Jetson Center for Youth, Baker, LA

The Jetson Center for Youth is a former juvenile facility located just north of Baton Rouge. In 1900, the Louisiana Colored Teachers Association began advocating for a space due to the lack of facilities for Black children housed in adult prisons. In1948 the Louisiana legislature established the State Industrial School for Colored Youth. In 1956 this facility began housing both boys and girls. Following racial integration, in 1969 the name was changed to the Louisiana Training Institute - East Baton Rouge (LTI).

Before Jetson closed in 2014, the facility faced criticism and scrutiny amid burgeoning efforts to reform the state’s juvenile justice system in the early 2000s. The center finally closed on January 26, 2014. It would go on to house adult female persons displaced from the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW) in 2016, following historic flooding to the St. Gabriel region and its buildings.

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Tallulah Juvenile Prison, Tallulah, LA

The Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth was a private prison that opened in Louisiana in 1994. This detention center was located in a town of 8,000 people in the Delta region of Louisiana. The facility had a capacity for 620 inmates and was used to house system-impacted youth with the most severe offenses. Despite the high need for care, a management company with no experience was hired to run the facility. Within weeks of its opening, a federal judge placed the Tallulah prison under an emergency order due to rampant violence and incompetent management.

Delinquency Proceeding

A hearing in juvenile court to determine whether a young person is accused of committing a “delinquent” act, in fact, did it, and if so, what consequences should be imposed. Delinquency proceedings are adversarial and are similar in many ways to criminal proceedings. During the first stage of the proceedings, the adjudication hearing, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a “delinquent” act occurred and that the accused young person committed the act; the youth has the right to an attorney, the right to present evidence and cross-examine witnesses against them, and several other procedural rights. Suppose a young person is “adjudicated delinquent.” In that case, the second stage of the delinquency proceeding is a disposition hearing in which the judge determines what treatment, services, and consequences serve the best interests of the youth and the community.

Diversion

This term refers to procedures and programs designed to meet the needs of certain youth while channeling them away from the formal juvenile court process. States have created various ways for first-time offenders, non-violent offenders, and youth whose delinquent behavior stems from mental health or substance abuse needs to be diverted from the juvenile legal system and into community-based programs. These diversion programs provide treatment and services and hold youth accountable for their actions without burdening them with a juvenile record and the stigma of being labeled “delinquent.”

School-to-Prison Pipeline

This phrase generally refers to school discipline, attendance, and safety policies that act as gateways for youth to enter the juvenile and criminal legal systems. See also “Zero Tolerance.”

Zero Tolerance

School discipline policies mandate harsh punishments such as suspension and expulsion and, in many instances, referral to law enforcement for specific rule violations. Zero tolerance policies have been widely criticized for removing youth from classrooms and routing students into the juvenile justice system for behavioral problems that, in the past, were adequately managed by the school system. Historically, these policies have disproportionately impacted youth of color.

SELECTED POLICIES

Juvenile Justice Reform Act (Act 1225)

The state adopted reform legislation in 2003, also known as Act 1225, on the heels of highly publicized violence within youth detention facilities and litigation by the U.S. Department of Justice that found conditions of confinement for some youth in the system unconstitutional. Modeled after Missouri’s system that emphasizes rehabilitation and community-based programs rather than detention for troubled youth, Louisiana’s program was dubbed LAMOD—or the Louisiana Model.

Missouri Model

The state of Missouri has created a juvenile justice system that has proved so successful over the last thirty years it’s known as the “Missouri Miracle.” A number of practices combine to make Missouri’s system unique: It’s primarily made up of small facilities, generally designed for between ten and thirty youths, and located at sites throughout the state that keep young people close to their own homes. These facilities don’t look like jails with traditional cells; there are only eight isolation rooms in the entire state, which are seldom used and only for emergencies. They feature a highly trained and educated staff working in teams with small groups of youths. Youths are treated with respect and dignity. Instead of more traditional correctional

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approaches, the system uses a rehabilitative and therapeutic model that teaches young people to make positive, lasting changes in their behavior.

Solan’s Law

Passed by the Louisiana legislature in August 2019, House Bill 158, also known as Solan’s Law, requires screening before youth are detained and allows for alternatives to detention for young people. The bill was named in memory of 13-year-old Solan Peterson, who committed suicide while in custody at Ware Youth Center in February 2019, two days after Jordan Bachman committed suicide while in custody at the same facility.

SELECTED CRIMINAL COURT TERMS

Criminal Justice System

The criminal justice system encompasses a network directly involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those suspected or convicted of criminal offenses. It includes police and other branches of law enforcement, attorneys (prosecutors and defense attorneys), judges, courts, government agencies, and parole and probation officers.

Crime

A crime is an action or omission that constitutes an offense by the legal system that the state may prosecute and is punishable by law.

Punishment

Punishment is the infliction or imposition of a penalty as deterrence, retribution, rehabilitation, and incapacitation.

Prosecutor

A prosecutor is a lawyer or official, such as a district attorney or a US attorney, who initiates and pursues criminal charges against a person, including during plea bargaining or trial.

Overcharging

Overcharging refers to a prosecutorial practice that involves charging a person with a higher offense or “tacking on” additional charges that the prosecutor knows they cannot prove. This is used to put the prosecutor in a better plea-bargaining position.

Overcharging gives leverage to prosecutors to get individuals to accept plea-bargain deals.

Plea Bargain

A plea or sentence bargain is an agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant where the defendant agrees to plead guilty rather than go to trial to obtain a more lenient sentence and/ or to be convicted of a less severe charge. A very high percentage of individuals (95%) go to prison through plea deals.

Infraction

In general, infractions are the least serious type of crime. Typically, a police officer will write a ticket, and hand it to the person. The person then must pay a fine. Infractions usually involve little to no time in court (but in Louisiana, it may imply jail time) and include things like traffic tickets, jaywalking, and some minor drug possession charges in some states. However, if infractions remain unaddressed or unpaid, the law typically provides for an increasing range of fines and potential penalties. In Louisiana, the courts operate from the money made from these fines and fees.

Misdemeanor

Misdemeanors are more serious than infractions. They are usually defined as a crime that is punishable by up to a year of jail time. Sometimes that jail time is served in a local county jail instead of a high-security prison. Other states define a misdemeanor as a crime that is not a felony or an infraction. Prosecutors generally have a great degree of flexibility in deciding what crimes to charge, how to punish them, and what kinds of plea bargains to negotiate.

Felony

Felonies are the most serious type of crime. They are usually defined by the fact that they are punishable by prison sentences of more than one year. Since the punishment can be so severe, courtroom procedure must be strictly observed in felony cases so that the defendants’ rights stay protected. If a minor is charged with committing a felony when age 15 through 17, then their case may or must be transferred to adult court. Felony conviction results in the loss of voting/employment rights.

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Probation/Supervised Release

In criminal law, probation is a period of supervision over a convicted person, ordered by the court instead of serving time in prison or in addition to the time served and upon release. If probation or supervised release is violated an individual may go back to prison.

Parole

Parole is the conditional release of an incarcerated person before their sentence is fully completed. Paroled people are supervised by a public official, usually called a “parole officer.” If paroled people violate the conditions of their release, then they may be returned to prison. The federal system does not have parole.

Reentry

Reentry is a process by which incarcerated people have been released from institutional confinement and return to the community.

Recidivism

Recidivism relates to people who return to prison, to a previous condition or mode of behavior, particularly criminal behavior. Recidivism rates for formerly incarcerated people are impacted by many factors.

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The Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University builds on the Newcomb College legacy of education, social enterprise, and artistic experience. Presenting inspiring exhibitions and programs that engage communities both on and off campus, the museum fosters the creative exchange of ideas and cross-disciplinary collaborations around innovative art and design. The museum preserves and advances scholarship on the Newcomb and Tulane art collections.

The academic institution for which the museum is named was founded in 1886 as the first degree-granting coordinate college for women in America. The H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College was distinguished for educating women in the sciences, physical education, and, most importantly, art education. Out of its famed arts program, the Newcomb Pottery was born. In operation from 1895 until 1940, the Newcomb enterprise produced metalwork, fiber arts, and the now internationally renowned Newcomb pottery.

The museum today presents original exhibitions and programs that explore socially engaged art, civic dialogue, and community transformation. The museum also pays tribute to its heritage through shows that recognize the contributions of women to the fields of art and design.

As an entity of an academic institution, the Newcomb Art Museum creates exhibitions that utilize the critical frameworks of diverse disciplines in conceptualizing and interpreting art and design. By presenting issues relevant to Tulane and the greater New Orleans region, the museum also serves as a gateway between on and off campus constituencies.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The city known as New Orleans, including the Tulane campus and Newcomb Art Museum, occupies an Indigenous space at the confluence of many waterways and travel routes. The boundaries of this place have always been permeable; the land and water on which our city sits has witnessed trade and cultural interaction between various Indigenous Nations for centuries. These nations include but are not limited to the Chitimacha, Biloxi, Houma, Choctaw, Atakapa-lshak, Washa, Chawasha, and Tunica. To this day, Indigenous Peoples dwell in the city. Bulbancha is a Choctaw word meaning “the place of foreign languages,” and it is still in use as a word to define our urban locale.

Indigenous Peoples have contributed an enduring cultural legacy to New Orleans—a place where Indigenous and African Peoples have been trafficked, enslaved, and discriminated against; and where People of Color have fought for justice and equity for over 300 years. This statement embodies Newcomb Art Museum’s commitment to inclusion and understanding of our institutional history and responsibility to continue learning.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition

UNTHINKABLE IMAGINATION: A CREATIVE RESPONSE TO THE JUVENILE JUSTICE CRISIS

January 21 – June 10, 2023

Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University

ISBN 979-8-218-12808-1

Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University

Woldenberg Art Center

6823 St. Charles Avenue

New Orleans, LA 70118

Printed in the United States of America

Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis is supported in part by grants from the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Partial program support comes from the Dorothy Beckemeyer Skau Art and Music Fund at the Newcomb Institute and the Mellon Program for Community Engaged Scholarship.

ISBN 979-8-218-12808-1

9798218128081

90000>

Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis

A CREATIVE RESPONSE TO THE JUVENILE JUSTICE CRISIS

A CREATIVE RESPONSE TO THE JUVENILE JUSTICE CRISIS

UNTHINKABLE IMAGINATION: A CREATIVE RESPONSE TO THE JUVENILE JUSTICE CRISIS

FROM THE DIRECTOR

EXHIBITION STEERING COMMITTEE

BUILDING THE EXHIBITION

NOTES ON COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS

RAISING THEIR VOICES: CENTERING YOUTH CREATIVITY

RECOMMENDED READING AND VIEWING LIST

WORKSHOPS WITH ARTISTS & YOUTH

LANGSTON ALLSTON WITH YOUNG ARTIST MOVEMENT

Together, Towards Freedom

JOSE COTTO WITH YOUNG ARTIST MOVEMENT

JOSE COTTO WITH G’YANNI PARIS

CHERICE HARRISON-NELSON WITH G’YANNI PARIS

MARTA RODRIGUEZ MALECK WITH THE 2022–2023 NAM YOUTH INTERNSHIP COHORT

LINDA A. RENO AND NIC[O] BRIERRE AZIZ AT THE TRAVIS HILL SCHOOL

SHEILA PHIPPS AT THE TRAVIS HILL SCHOOL

Steps to Freedom

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

CHILDREN ARE NOT THE FUTURE BUT THE PRESENT. THE PRESENT IS WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR.

ARTISTS PAIRED WITH YOUTH

ABDUL AZIZ

NIC[O] BRIERRE AZIZ

ADRIENNE BROWN-DAVID

NYA CAROLINGTON SKIPPER

AUBREY EDWARDS

DAVE GREBER

ROBERT JONES

IVY MATHIS

DEMOND MATSUO

LOUISE MOUTON JOHNSON

PAT PHILLIPS

MCKINLEY “MAC” PHIPPS, JR.

SHEILA PHIPPS

NIK RICHARD

VITUS SHELL

MARIANA SHEPPARD

SHA’CONDRIA “ICON” SIBLEY

MAXX SIZELER

CHARM TAYLOR

BREANNA THOMPSON

GLOSSARY

Incarcerated

System-Impacted

Systems-Involved Youth

GENERAL TERMINOLOGY Mass Incarceration

Jail

Prison

Federal Prison

State Prison

Angola Prison, Angola, LA

Private Prison

Prison Industrial Complex

SELECTED JUVENILE LEGAL SYSTEM CONCEPTS Juvenile

Juvenile Justice / Juvenile Legal System

Juvenile Court

Juvenile Delinquency

Adjudication

FINS or Families in Need of Service

Status Offense

Travis Hill School, New Orleans, LA

Juvenile Detention Center

Orleans Juvenile Justice Intervention Center

Ware Youth Center, Coushatta, LA

Super-Predator Myth

Community-Based Program

Conditions of Confinement

Placement

Non-Secure Placement

Acadiana Center for Youth at St. Martinville, Bunkie, LA

Jetson Center for Youth, Baker, LA

Tallulah Juvenile Prison, Tallulah, LA

Delinquency Proceeding

Diversion

School-to-Prison Pipeline

Zero Tolerance

SELECTED POLICIES