Aron Pines
Aron Pines is a returning citizen dedicated to championing the rights of those impacted by mass incarceration. Since his release from prison in 2015, Mr. Pines has gone on to complete his B.A. at Rutgers University, with a degree in English and minor in Creative Writing. He is a recipient of the Pen America Writing for Justice Fellowship, as well as a contributing author in the Fordham Law Review Journal. He currently works in the Public Health sector while continuing to work on his memoir titled, "The Miseducation of Icarus" which captures his journey as a pro-se litigant in the American Judicial system.
Gilberto Rivera
Gilberto Rivera is a visual artist who makes narrative works which use paint and collage, drawing from newspaper and magazine articles that describe issues and sentiments such as Latin activist movements alongside other key people who are making change. He uses materials that relate to his work in construction. His last showing was in October at Martos gallery in New York City, and he has an upcoming show at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is also one of the artists featured in a traveling exhibition called Marketing Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration (April 22, 2022–August 7, 2022).
Marcus Manganni
Marcus Manganni is a New York based artist whose current works began during his time in solitary confinement when a sliver of passing natural light entered his cell. He began creating multiple structures out of toothpaste, toilet paper, and the reflective insides of chip bags. By placing these structures throughout his cell he scattered the natural light, allowing him to explore his physical and social isolation. After his release he continues to use natural light to explore isolation within our physical and societal systems of hierarchy. Marcus’ installations and public sculptures are centered around his experiences with the prison system. Within his installations the public is faced with their own reflection and a re-informed environment, becoming participants in these experiences. This allows for a larger, visceral conversation to be had about the devastation and crisis of mass incarceration.
Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez
Victor "Marka27" Quiñonez is an international street artist who works at the intersection of contemporary art, graffiti, vinyl toys, fashion and design. With paintings, murals, drawings, mix-media pieces and private commissions for major brands, his robust palette blends elements of street and pop culture with Mexican and indigenous aesthetics—a signature look the artist has coined “Neo Indigenous.” Marka27’s work has become part of graffiti and street art history, but he has flourished as a product designer, gallery artist, toy designer and more. Marka27 has emerged as one of the most sought after muralists in the world, mastering his craft since before “street art” was even a term. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY where he and his wife and creative partner, Liza, run their award-winning creative agency, “Street Theory Gallery”.
Ky Peterson
Kyle (Ky) Peterson grew up in a small South Georgia farming town. His down to earth nature comes from the love of his Grandma Molly and the support of his Mom. Ky loves to stay busy. Even as a child, Ky worked hard to help his family and in his free time, he volunteered at a local assisted living home, and the American Red Cross.
When Ky turned 17, hard times hit the family, and he was forced to drop out of school, getting a job to help support his 3 younger siblings. His life was forever changed in 2011 when he fell victim to, not only a violent attacker but also the “American Justice System”.
Ky Peterson is a trans Advocate who served 9 years in prison for self-defense. During his incarceration, he fought for trans prisoner's rights to medical care. Ky is vibrant, intelligent, and uncommonly kind with a genuinely loving nature, and a passion for promoting Human Rights and Transgender Equality.
Ky Peterson is the literal personification of nearly every civil rights injustice we have seen in the media in recent years; transgender rights, police brutality, rape culture, criminalizing victims, courtroom misogyny, systematic racism. Ky’s case draws into sharp relief the ways that racial and gender discrimination make acute the routine lapses in due process, medical negligence, and dehumanization that characterize the U.S criminal justice system and the Prison Industrial Complex.
His story is entrenched in institutionalized discrimination, systemic failures, and the denial of basic human rights. Ky's experiences with the criminal justice system epitomize the complex intersection of contemporary race and gender politics within the prison industrial complex.
In 2017, Ky co-founded Freedom Overground with his partner, Pinky Shear. Today, Ky shares his story of courage and perseverance with TGNC communities across the country.
Tameca Cole
Tameca Cole is a 49 years old artist and lifelong resident of Birmingham, Alabama. Currently, she’s serving life on parole after serving approximately 26 years in the Alabama Department of Corrections.
Tameca went into the prison system at a young age, but always with a hopeful attitude that a better future awaited. Most of her time was spent going to trade-school to upgrade my job skills and reading. She signed up for a creative writing class sponsored by Auburn University and that’s when she found her purpose in life. Once she reconnected with her creative side she never looked back.
Art and writing allow her to address my personal demons in a way that doesn’t hurt others. It gives her an outlet to express how the cruelty of my incarceration, injustice, and experience with racism has affected her. It gives her the power to show other human beings how degrading it feels to be Black in America and still live under systemic racism.
Tameca considers her art to be an educator, a weapon, and a thought-provoking conversation about change. She would be grateful for any support that allows her to continue to elevate as an artist as well as a civil rights soldier.