Creative Resistance

Abolitionist Expressions

Let’s Get Free’s Permanent Collection
Thursday, February 29 – Saturday, June 8
Kelly Strayhorn Theater | 5941 Penn Ave.

Abolitionist Expressions is on view at KST’s lobby gallery. The gallery is open to the public during and one hour before every KST Presents event. Arrive early and take a look!

Art Work by Mark Loughney

Gallery Guide




Call For Art & Poems
Let’s Get Free’s
7th Art Show

This Is Me: How can art help you express the complex parts of yourself, your world, and your experience? How does our unjust carceral system impact you? How can justice transform the way we see ourselves and others?

Full Submission Guidelines
Submission Form

Picture A Free World

Let’s Get Free’s 6th Art Show
to End Mass Incarceration

…was on view at Concept Art Gallery
July 5 – July 29th. Read coverage of the show from Pittsburgh City Paper and Visit Pittsburgh.

You can still view the artworks online!

Enter the Galleries



Across the Walls Filmed and Edited by Njaimeh Njie of Eleven Stanley Productions (2022)

Across the Walls is a documentary film that offers an intimate glimpse into the experiences of women sentenced to life in prison without parole in the state of Pennsylvania. After decades of activism and community building, recently Avis Lee and Paulette Carrington were released from life sentences after each serving over 40 years. As they adjust to life outside, they’ve kept their focus on organizing to end life without parole, and helping the women they left inside be released. Read this article that came out when the film was released.

This poignant 12 minute vignette features the transformative journeys of Tequilla Fields and Tameka Flowers who are both seeking commutation. This film radiates resilience and the power to change that is widespread amongst people with death by incarceration sentences. Listen to more stories here.

Let's Get Free's billboard on a street corner in harrisburg with five people standing underneath. "5,467 people in pa are sentenced to die in prison" The billboard has photographs of Tameka Flowers Charmaine Pfender and Sarita Miller.

The Creative Resistance Committee is just one part of Let’s Get Free.

Learn More


Let’s Get Free’s Permanent Art Collection

Our permanent art collection is meant to be borrowed to give voice to people in prison and create dialogue wherever it may be. The art has been gathered over the years from our annual art shows and years of collaborating with artists in prison.

View the permanent collection
  • A small brown and white spotted fawn lays curled among yellow ferns on the ground of a forest. The entire image is painted on a leaf.
    Fawn by Todd “Hyung-Rae” Tarselli
  • A 10-foot lilac-colored woven tapestry banner made with over 30 letters from people in prison. Spells out the word Redemption in large yellow letters
    Redemption by Jenn Gooch
  • The piece is a portrait of Sheena’ King. She has medium length black hair with highlights of blue and orange and is smiling. She wears a pink collared shirt with orange highlights. The background is yellow beams emanating from the portrait over a teal background. In a circle surrounding the portrait is the quote, “We are not what we have done, we are who we have become” in cursive, blue text with a white outline.
    Sheena’ King by Chris St. Pierre
  • The piece depicts an orange colored prison with grey doors chained shut on yellow gradient background. Above the prison there is text that reads, “What we lose.” Atop the prison, behind barbed wire, there are two grey cylinders from which two tubes with claws are holding the bodies of two women: the one on the left is colored in purple with long hair, the other is a skeleton of a person also colored purple. Along the tube to the left reads, “New Commit” leading down to the body, next to which reads “What will we do without her?” Along the tube to the right read, “LWOP” and “Medical Release.” Next to the skeleton on the right are the words, “What have they done with her?” Above the door of the prison are the words “…and what they say…” Above that are prison windows including three images: a green cross surrounded by the words, “Drink water, Lie down,” a grey brain next to the words, “You can read?” and red and pink depiction of the female reproductive system with the words, “Skank, Farry, Ugly, and Bitch.” In the foreground are four hands colored in purple. The hands are in various positions and each has a yellow rectangle with a word inside. From left to right they read, “No,” “Please,” “Why,” and “No.”
    What We Lose by Elena House-Hay
  • The piece depicts a closeup profile view of the face of a beautiful Black woman. She has brown eyes, dreads, and pink lipstick. She has a small shining stud in her nose. In her hands, she holds a yellow and orange key that emanates a bright light. The background is black and maroon with white speckles and some additional gold swirls. You can see that she is in the dark, the key in her hand a warm glowing light. This piece is emotional.
    The Key by Todd (Hyung-Rae) Tarselli
  • Still Hoping (For that ‘Wake Up Free’) by Darrell Van Mastrigt
  • 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. The numbers “11”, “12”, and “1” are visible on the animal’s forehead–the top of the clock. Looking over the prisoner in the top right corner is a hooded skeleton wearing a crown. A skeleton key hangs on a chain around the robed skeleton’s neck. The text “Coronavirus” is written on the left side of the skeleton’s hood. A bunch of letters are on the cell floor near the image’s bottom left. One letter is in the animal’s mouth. It says “Motion for relief Denied.” The other letters read “Pandem strikes US”, “Commutation Denied”, “Diabetes, Stroke, High Risk”, and “Grandpa, I hope that you are safe from Covid.” The image background is the prison cell’s stone wall, along with the cell door and its grated window
    This Life is Killing Me by Duane Montney

by the numbers

women with life sentences

188

women sentenced to die in PA prisons

5

people who identify as transgender with DBI (that we know of)

13

women have been commuted since 2015 (3 women were commuted between 1992-2015)

36

women have died in custody since 1982

We got issues

There are many facets to the issue of death by incarceration in PA and how it intersects with gender. Here are some of them explained.

  • Aging in Prison
  • Life Sentences are Death Sentences
  • Commutation
  • Domestic and Sexual Violence
  • Transformation, Resilience & Redemption
  • Compassionate/Medical Release
  • Public Safety