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Resisting Creatively

In Pittsburgh, a collective of incarcerated and non-incarcerated artists is dreaming of a world without mass incarceration.

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In 2005 I started working with an outside art collective to create a teaching tool that would raise awareness about mass incarceration. We called it the Prison Poster Project. The visual was a cross section of a prison cell block, and we had different artists creating a piece in each cell that spoke to different issues of prison. This was, in some ways, my introduction to how art could play a role in fighting the carceral state.

Fast-forward about a decade. In 2017 I was four years into activism work with the advocacy nonprofit Let’s Get Free: The Women and Trans Prisoner Defense Committee, which I had cofounded with Avis Lee and Charmaine Pfender—two incarcerated organizers serving life-without-parole sentences—and Donna Hill, Char’s mother. An incarcerated artist friend of mine, Todd “Hyung-Rae” Tarselli, who’d gotten famous for his paintings on leaves and other found surfaces, reached out to me about doing an art show. (One of his paintings is in the header of this article, and another is below.) I thought it was the perfect opportunity to not just showcase his work, but to bring back all the fantastic, amazing art from the poster project that had been in my house just collecting dust.

We didn’t know what to expect when we organized the first Let’s Get Free art show—featuring TR’s leaves, the poster project pieces, and some art collected from and donated by friends. We were blown away by the response. It was so wildly successful in terms of creating energy: we got a bunch of new volunteers and made $5,000 to support Let’s Get Free’s activism. This ignited a tradition of doing these annual art shows. That’s how Creative Resistance, Let’s Get Free’s arts organizing committee, was born.

Our seventh art show, This Is Me, will open on November 1 at the Irma Freeman Center for Imagination in Pittsburgh. There will be numerous public events connected to it throughout November. Click here for more information about how to see the show and attend events. Let’s Get Free also has a growing Permanent Art Collection, which can be borrowed for display.

Below, readers can see some of the incredible work that has been featured in previous Creative Resistance shows. This Inquest feature continues with a conversation between two formerly incarcerated artists connected to Let’s Get Free, Duane “DJ” Montney and James “Yaya” Hough.

—etta cetera, cofounder of Creative Resistance and Let’s Get Free


Redemption (2018), by Jenn Gooch, consists of “a weaving that stretches 10 feet wide, utilizing over 30 letters from prisoners.” The work was featured in Let’s Get Free’s 2018 art show.
This Life Is Killing Me (2020), graphite and charcoal, by Duane “DJ” Montney. This image depicts a person of color being eaten by a large clock while lying on their prison cell cot. The face of the clock is a wild animal, which is biting the prisoner and attempting to eat them.
Fawn (2017), by Todd “Hyung–Rae” Tarselli, who has served more than twenty-five years of a life sentence. From a series of paintings on leaves by the artist. According to Let’s Get Free, leaves are a form of contraband that’s forbidden in prisons across Pennsylvania.
What We Lose (2020), watercolor, by Elena House-Hay. The artist says the painting is about “the hardships that women experience in prison,” and about how they “are challenged and depleted in mind, body, and spirit, sometimes by those who are tasked with taking care of us.”
Bubblewrap Lockdown (2020), acrylic on canvas board, by Mark Loughney. The artist calls these “Botflies.” As he explains: “Their black and white stripes are indicative of a prisoner, but they seem to have an innate bouncy joyfulness that seems ready to bust out of their shiny chitinous exoskeleton. Prison is a land of repetition and regimentation, so I’ve depicted that in my paintings by organizing my Botflies into rows and columns.”
An Untimely Death (2020), ballpoint pen and manilla folder, by Shonda Walters. As the artist describes it: “This is what I’ve felt like my 17 years in prison. I survived death row to still be crushed by the sands of time of a life sentence without parole.”
Be Not Afraid of Change (2020), cross stitch, by Latosha Gross.
Forever and a Day, oil and plexiglass on wood and Masonite, by Ulric Joseph.
Who Learns from This? (2020), pen and pencil, by James Marschner. 
Doors of Freedom (2023), cross stitch, by Cyd Berger. As the piece notes, “Freedom is choosing the right keys to unlock the doors to your future while closing the doors to your past!”

All images courtesy of Let’s Get Free and Creative Resistance. To learn more about the collective, the images in this photo essay, and the broader collection, click here and here.

Header image: “Solitary” (2020), instant coffee in a paper bag, by Todd (Hyung-Rae) Tarselli.