jackie sumell

jackie sumell is a multidisciplinary artist and abolitionist based in New Orleans, LA. Her work has been anchored at the intersection of activism, education, and art for nearly two decades. sumell’s collaboration with Herman Wallace (a prisoner-of-consciousness and member of the Angola 3) was the subject of the Emmy Award-Winning documentary Herman’s House. Her work with Herman has positioned herself at the forefront of the national campaign to end solitary confinement and seek humane alternatives to incarceration. She continues to work on Herman’s House, Solitary Gardens, The Prisoner’s Apothecary, and several other community-generated, advocacy-based projects, maintaining her commitment to those directly impacted by mass incarceration through both art and advocacy.

Key Sites

Commentaries, Interviews, and Lectures

Academic References

  • Adsit-Morris, C. (2023). Using socially engaged art to teach environmental and social justice. In Teaching Environmental Justice (pp. 220-227). Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Anderson, J. (2012). Herman's House. Variety, 427(2), 37-38.
  • Bottinelli, S. (2023). Artists and the practice of agriculture: politics and aesthetics of food sovereignty in art since 1960. Routledge.
  • Brown, M. (2014). Of prisons, gardens, and the way out. In Special Issue: The Beautiful Prison (Vol. 64, pp. 67-85). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
  • Flattley, M. R. (2021). Community-Driven Curating in Per (Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana. Journal of Curatorial Studies, 10(2), 248-266.
  • Guenther, L. (2013). Solitary confinement: Social death and its afterlives. U of Minnesota Press.
  • Heynen, N., & Ybarra, M. (2020). On Abolition Ecologies and Making “Freedom as a Place”. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 53(1), 21-35.
  • Himada, N. (2012). Living in a Place With No Prisons. Fuse Magazine, 35(3), 18-23.
  • Jansen, S. (2016). Solitary Confinement:" Abandoned Every Hope, Ye Who Enter". LawNow, 41, 14.
  • Lara, E. (2023). Ambiguous Enclosures: Gardening at the Interfaces of California's Carceral and Abolition Geographies (Doctoral dissertation, Deakin University).
  • Léger, M. J. (2011). By any Means Necessary: From the Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas to the Art Activism of Jackie Sumell. Afterimage, 38(5), 8.
  • Mandela, N. (2000). Long walk to freedom. New York, NY: Holt Rinehart & Winston.
  • Polizzi, D., & Arrigo, B. (2018). CRUEL BUT NOT UNUSUAL: SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, THE 8TH AMENDMENT, AND AGAMBEN’S STATE OF EXCEPTION. New Criminal Law Review: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal, 21(4), 615–639. -Rhodes, L. (2004). Total confinement: Madness and reason in the maximum security prison. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Schnitman, S. (2014). ‘The Hole’Exposed: Voices on Solitary Confinement in the American Prison System.
  • Steele, C. (2015). Art exhibit on Black Panther challenges library patrons to face violence of mass incarceration. Collaborative Librarianship, 7(4), 3.
  • Welty, E. T., Sumell, J., & Cotto, J. Apothecarts: Mobilizing Abolition.

Quote

“The art critic would tell you I am a ‘social sculptor’; my calloused hands would tell you that is not a complete story. I build. For nearly two decades, I have rebuilt isolation cells based on drawings from prisoners I work intimately with. I bring their drawings to life through wood, metal, and organic materials. My work has required some fabrication, but the most fulfilling legacy is generated by relationships.”

Explore Works by jackie sumell

Herman's Library
Herman's Library
The Center for Faith and Action Garden
The Center for Faith and Action Garden
The House that Herman Built
The House that Herman Built
Imagine a Landscape Without Prisons
Imagine a Landscape Without Prisons
Grow Plants Not Prisons
Grow Plants Not Prisons