Using Art to Fight for Justice.
Using Art to Fight for Justice
Students create art program to elevate the voices and stories of incarcerated women
With a combined passion for serving historically marginalized communities, a group of MPH students is organizing a project called Women of HeART to serve the women’s unit in the South Bay House of Correction.
Funded through an Activist Bucks grant from the Activist Lab, this eight-week program is designed to generate an open creation space for incarcerated women to tell their stories and express their feelings through different art mediums, such as sketching, painting, and collage. Group discussion—where the women will have the opportunity to share their art and the stories behind it—is a critical component.
“We are hoping to show these women that art is a sustainable and therapeutic way of releasing their emotions and building social support,” says team leader Nisha Puri. “We are also hoping the marketable skills they gain through their participation in this project can help stabilize their transition back into society post-release.”
To demonstrate that art can be a form of income for the women while also shining a light on the prison system’s systemic issues, the team will promote and sell the art to the public through social media, with any funds raised going directly to the artists’ commissary funds.
“We really want to focus on using narrative and storytelling in ways that uplift and give agency back to the communities that have so often been stripped of it through the system and processes of incarceration,” says team member Evelyn Gonzalez.
To ensure that this project remains a sustainable, community-building opportunity for those interested in this work, the team aims to leave Women of HeART for future SPH students to participate in and build upon. They envision the project inspiring others to continue fighting for justice within the prison system and encouraging more conversations around the mental and emotional health needs of those incarcerated, especially women. “We do not want this work to be isolated,” Puri stresses. “We want to show that innovative projects like this are at the core of public health, and they are here to stay.”
In addition to Puri and Gonzalez, Women of HeART team members include Shaanel Badani, Maria Rios, Mirva Modi, Nandini Agarwal, Mayuri Dharne, and Lynn El-Chaer. The team intended to begin the project in fall 2020, but due to the COVID19 pandemic, the project has been postponed until at least spring 2021.
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