Between The Lines
Florida • Rowan Renee
About the project
Between the Lines is a series of art workshops by correspondence with LGBTQ+ individuals currently incarcerated in Florida. The United States has the highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world with more than 2.3 million people in the prison system. And, LGBTQ+ people are three times more likely to be incarcerated than other individuals. In this context, the simple act of writing a letter becomes a profound way to breach the barriers created by prison walls. The workshop packages include drawing and writing prompts, blank paper, envelopes, and stamps. Over time, they expanded to include resources for advocacy and chapters from books. Correspondence was not only one-way: collaborators asked me to post personal ads online, forward complaints to state agencies, check on account holds, and connect them to new friends. What emerged was a much more expansive picture of how prison conditions are designed to deprive people of human dignity. Despite the harshness of prison environments, the artists and poets whose letters are included here expressed the complexities of their situation with refreshing frankness, humor, insight, and grace. As you read, ask yourself: “What does justice look like when it upholds compassion for all people?”
Participating Artists: Tiffany Ann, Kelvin Frazier, Willie McPhee, Lil Flip, Scott Munro, Bro. Truth, Maurice Young & Anonymous.
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
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About the Artist
Rowan Renee is a genderqueer artist who explores how queer identity is mediated by the law. Through image, text, and installation, they elaborate themes of authorship, representation, and erasure in state records and personal archives. Rowan's work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Aperture Foundation and Pioneer Works and they have received awards from the Aaron Siskind and the Rema Hort Mann Foundations. They grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida, and currently live in Brooklyn, New York.