November 22, 2018 

LAWT News Service 

 

The California Endowment recently announced its partnership with Ise Lyfe, an award-winning artist and social justice advocate, to launch a new statewide juvenile justice exhibit.

 

smallasaGIANT is a photography project and exhibition that will tell the personal, familial, communal, and historic story of young people that have been sentenced to over 20 years in prison when they were under the age of 18. It will feature over fifty current and formerly incarcerated people that were sentenced to adult terms before they were adults.

 

“I find it most important to bring forth work that can fill social voids and start conversations that lead to action,” said Ise Lyfe. “The core purpose of the entire project is to create a tangible tool and glaring statement through conceptual art that can be used to influence and empower voters, communities, politicians, and stakeholders to change the attitude, policies, and laws that fuel one of America’s most tragic and grotesque appendages: locking children in prison for their entire lives."

 

As the curating artist of smallasaGIANT, Ise Lyfe aims to bring further awareness to the ineffectiveness of our nation's Juvenile Justice System through this collaboration with TCE and uplift California's advocacy communities pioneering victories as an example and asset for the national resistance against mass incarceration.

 

“We must address institutional racism in order to end the overincarceration of young men and boys of color,“ said Leticia Alejandrez, director of Communications, The California Endowment. “In doing so, we will disrupt the prison pipeline that is devastating the health and well-being of these youth, their families and communities for generations.  Instead, rather than locking them away, we need to provide the appropriate evidenced-based services and interventions to address the trauma that put them there in the first place.”

 

Beginning in 2019, smallasa­GIANT will travel to seven different regions in California, including Oakland, Los Angeles, and Mall the Central Valley. Project leadership has affirmed that the project is confirmed to show at the esteemed research and art institution Museum of An­thropology in San Bernardino, Coachella Valley Arts Center, and other premier venues in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and the Bay Area.

Category: News