James “Yaya” Hough

James “Yaya” Hough is from Pittsburgh. At seventeen he was sentenced to life without parole and was incarcerated for twenty-three years. While Hough regrets his actions and now fully understands how precious life is, he also has first-hand knowledge of how punitive and unforgiving the system can be. During his incarceration, Hough came to understand the root causes of what led him to prison. He also continued his education to better empower himself and others. In 2006 he began worked with Mural Arts Philadelphia; over the following decade, he completed over fifty projects in Philadelphia, State Correctional Institution (SCI) Graterford, and SCI Phoenix. He is involved in Decarcerate PA! and Project LifeLines and seeks to be part of changing the prison system in Pennsylvania and abolishing life without parole. In the summer of 2019, Hough was released from SCI Phoenix. Mural Arts Philadelphia, creating more than 50 works that have been installed at the State Correctional Institution–Graterford and the State Correctional Institution–Phoenix. In 2019, as part of a program supported by the Art for Justice Fund and Fair and Just Prosecution, Hough was selected to be the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Office of the District Attorney of Philadelphia. His work was included in Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, curated by Nicole R. Fleetwood, which opened at MoMA PS1, New York, and traveled to the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, Birmingham, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati.