This week on State of the Arts NYC we have artists Rashaad Newsome and Sherrill Roland. Rashaad Newsome is a multidisciplinary artist whose work blends several practices together including: collage, sculpture, video, music, computer programming and performance, to form an altogether new field. Best known for his visually stunning collages housed in custom frames, Newsomes’ work is deeply invested in how images used in media and popular culture communicate distorted notions of power.

The Jumpsuit Project by Sherrill Roland challenges ideas around mass incarceration and works to generate a safe space to process, question and share. Prior to his own incarceration, Roland maintained a very general understanding about prisons and the justice system in our country – founded heavily in the media’s own depiction of imprisonment. Roland  was unaware of the growing numbers of individuals incarcerated in the United States (both those proven guilty and wrongfully accused). The Jumpsuit Project provides a window into the lives that have been impacted by incarceration. Through sharing his own story, and creating a space for others to share, light is being shed on the enormous darkness incarceration brings.

Harlem-based storyteller Malika Lee Whitney will read this classic story LIVE during the broadcast of the show. 

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Watch video

Phantasm installation footage from RASHAAD NEWSOME on Vimeo.