Art and Writing from Tennessee's Death Row

Donald Middlebrooks – “Midnight” (acrylic on canvas board)

That wall isn’t there just to keep me in, but to keep you out. —Tyrone W., former prisoner and participant in the Inside Out Prison Exchange.

The United States incarcerates more of its own citizens than any other country in the world, and we are the only Western democracy to retain the death penalty.  As part of A Year of Rethinking Prisons, Sarratt Gallery presents artwork created by prisoners on death row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee. The art seeks to convey the prison environment and to explore possibilities for living, thinking, working, and creating while on death row.  This show grows out of a weekly philosophy discussion group facilitated by Dr. Lisa Guenther of the Vanderbilt Philosophy Department, in which prisoners and volunteers meet to discuss work by Plato, Martin Luther King, Michelle Alexander, and others.  We call ourselves REACH Coalition.  This art exhibition is the result of our collective effort to expand the discussion beyond the prison walls and beyond the language of philosophy.

Gallery Reception:

Monday, January 21, 5 p.m. at Sarratt Gallery, Vanderbilt University
Reception following to 6:30 p.m.

Presented as a part of Vanderbilt Martin Luther King Day, featuring a public lecture by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration and the Age of Colorblindness
Monday, January 21, 7 p.m. in Langford Auditorium, Vanderbilt.

Funded in part by a Creative Campus Innovation Grant Program from The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy.

Abu Ali Abdur’Rahman – Hummingbird (pastel on handkerchief) For more information on Abu Ali’s case, please see http://www.abu-ali.org/

Abu Ali Abdur’Rahman – Crane (pastel on handkerchief)

Abu Ali Abdur’Rahman – Hummingbird and Hibiscus (pastel on handkerchief)

Derrick Quintero – “If My Journey Were a Book Title” (mixed media. The figure’s head is made from toilet paper and glue.)

Derrick Quintero – “If My Journey…” Part 2

Derrick Quintero – “If My Journey Was a Book Title”

Richard Odom – Crying Dove (outside)

Richard Odom – Crying Dove (inside view)

Richard Odom – Chairs and Footstools (made from toilet paper rolls)

Kennath Artez Henderson – “Agape Love” (oil on canvas)

Kennath Artez Henderson – “Solitary Confinement” (pencil on paper)

Akil Jahi – “As My World Turned” (acrylic on canvas board)

David Duncan – “Do I Compel You?” (paint on white cotton sheet)

Donald Middlebrooks – “Silence is Compliance” (acrylic on canvas board)

Devin Banks – “Donna Summer Tribute” (leather folder) The lettering says, “Dwayne’s #1 Diva.”

Devin Banks – “Donna Summer Tribute” (leather folder) The quotation reads: “Love is the Mission Baby, It’s Always been the Only Assignment I’ve Ever Had.”

Devin Banks – “Justice” (2013)

Harold Wayne Nichols – “Prison: Outside the Box” (foam board, paint, balsa wood, mirror, collage) When you peer through the “pie flap,” you see your own eyes in the mirror, surrounded by images of Wayne’s community)

Harold Wayne Nichols – “Prison: Outside the Box” (detail)

Harold Wayne Nichols – “Prison: Outside the Box” (detail – looking through the pie flap)

Ron Cauthern – “No, You’re Out of Order!”

Ron Cauthern – “No, You’re Out of Order!”

Ron Cauthern – “No, You’re Out of Order!”

Dennis Suttles – Barnyard Scene (the farm animals are made from white bread and glue; the wood is from corn dog sticks)

Richard Odom – Ship

Don Johnson – Lighthouse

LeMaricus Davidson – “Holy Community”

Henry Hodges – “A Safe Place”

Henry Hodges – Violin and Piano (with Donald Middlebrooks’ “Open Interpretation”

Derrick Quintero – “Highway to Hell” (oil on canvas)

Donald Middlebrooks – “Open Interpretation”

Richard Odom – Chairs and Footstools (made from toilet paper rolls)

Abu Ali Adbur’Rahman: “Negligence: Indictment”

Kennath Artez Henderson – “Let There Be Light”

Kennath Artez Henderson – “Legacy”

Community Wall

Community Wall (detail)

Community Outreach Mailboxes

WUI Collective and REACH Coalition – Postcards from Death Row”

Please click on the artist’s name below to read their artist’s statement:

Abu Ali Abdur’Rahman, Akil Jahi, Devin Banks, Dennis Suttles, Derrick Quintero, Donald Middlebrooks, Gary Cone, Harold Wayne Nichols, Henry Hodges, Kennath Henderson, Richard Odom, and Ron Cauthern.

Poems, essays and stories by Derrick Quintero, Quintero and Abd-Al-Rafi, Donald Middlebrooks, Gary Cone, Harold Wayne Nichols, and Kennath Henderson are also available here.

Contact the artists directly at:

 

Riverbend Maximum Security Institution

7475 Cockrill Bend Blvd.

Nashville, TN 37209-1048

 

Be sure to include their full name, inmate number, and cell number:

 

Abu Ali Abdur’Rahman, #117262

Unit 2, A-102

 

Akil Jahi, #221001

Unit 2, C-106

 

David Keen, #157703

Unit 2, C-106

 

David Duncan, #99054

Unit 2, C-109

 

Dennis Suttles, #109165

Unit 2, A-212

 

Derrick Quintero, #165463

Unit 2, D-204

 

Devin Banks, #345637

Unit 2, C-205

 

Don Johnson, #109031

Unit 2, B-213

 

Donald Middlebrooks, #129769

Unit 2, D-104

 

Gary Cone, #96618

Unit 2, B-208

 

Harold Wayne Nichols, #146457

Unit 2, A-104

 

Henry Hodges, #102143

Unit 2, D-110

 

Kennath Henderson, #250126

Unit 2, B-109

 

LeMaricus Davidson, #328954

Unit 2, C-101

 

Olen Hutchison, #144432

Unit 2, B-102

 

Oscar Smith, #136424

Unit 2, D-206

 

Richard Odom, #215639

Unit 2, B-104

 

Ron Cauthern, #120258

Unit 2, C-110