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Vol. 79/No. 20      June 1, 2015

 
Exhibit shows cell, ‘dream house’
of Angola 3 prisoner
 
BY LANIE FLEISCHER  
NEW YORK — “#76759: Featuring The House That Herman Built,” an exhibit at the Brooklyn Public Library, includes a full-scale model of the 6-by-9-foot cell where Herman Wallace lived in solitary confinement in the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Wallace, who the jailers called #76759, was imprisoned there for more than 40 years, fighting a frame-up murder conviction. Released on Oct. 1, 2013, he died of cancer three days later.

Wallace and fellow prisoners Albert Woodfox and Robert King, who helped organize a Black Panther Party chapter at the prison, became known as the Angola Three. Their imprisonment and treatment became a focus for protests all across the country. King was released from prison in 2001 after a separate murder conviction was overturned. Woodfox continues to be held in solitary confinement in West Feliciana Parish Prison, despite the fact his conviction has been overturned three times.

Counterposed to the prison cell, the exhibit features a model of Wallace’s “dream house” — developed over 12 years working with visual artist Jackie Sumell — that includes a display of 108 books Wallace picked for his library.

The selection includes The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon; books by Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, V.I. Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky; books by and about Marcus Garvey; and a large number of books from Pathfinder Press, including Democracy and Revolution by George Novack, Is Biology Woman’s Destiny? by Evelyn Reed and collections of speeches by Malcolm X.

Many of these books can be checked out from the library.

The exhibit shows “not only what’s wrong with the world, but also what’s possible — to end solitary confinement,” Sumell said at the April 15 exhibit opening. “Not only can we do it, we have to do it. Don’t get bogged down in the tragedy. Use art as a vehicle or whatever you use. Use your own power to talk about how to make the world more beautiful.”

The exhibit will be open to the public through June 5. For more information visit: bklynlibrary.org/events/exhibitions.
 
 
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Madison DA lets cops ‘get away with murder’
Family protests after judge frees cop who shot Rekia Boyd
 
 
 
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