himself as “the dangerous one,” and in 1998, it became apparent after he committed a senseless murder that earned him a life sentence.
Fast forward to 2016, now 36 years old, DeWeaver said that focusing on artistic expression empowered him to endure his 18 years of incarceration and ultimately to reconnect with his sense of humanity.
“Through art, I have been able to redefine how I see myself and understand my role in life,” DeWeaver said. “Art helped me find humanity and community and gave me the idea for the Prison Renaissance project.”
DeWeaver’s inspiration is to empower others to change how they see themselves through creative and artistic expressions.
“One thing Prison Renaissance represents is the idea of rebirth,” DeWeaver said. “We can change the world by changing ourselves. The goal is to use these individual rebirths to seed a culture of transformation that spreads through prisons and impoverished communities.”
Several other artists at San Quentin State Prison were similarly inspired when they heard about DeWeaver’s concept of Prison Renaissance.
“For us involved with Prison Renaissance, we recognize that through artistic expression, we have an ability to show personal transformation at its most rudimentary level,” said Jonathan Chiu, who is serving a life sentence for murder. “This transformation can be seen through all forms of art, dance, painting, sculpture—no form is left out.”
Adnan Khan has been incarcerated since age 18. He said for him writing is like therapy because expressing his innermost thoughts brings up self-reflective subjects he normally does not talk about.
“When I was arrested for murder/robbery and put inside that cell, I was so disconnected to myself and the rest of the world. There was a small pencil and book that had two blank pages at the end. I tore out those pages and began writing,” he added, “Getting those words on paper was like performing an exorcism to rid myself of the demons that had tormented me all my life.”
For incarcerated people, Prison Renaissance recognizes that self-transformation faces an extraordinarily oppressive force that attaches a negative stigma to crime and punishment by imprisonment.
“Of course being in prison is a bad thing,” DeWeaver said. “But the insistence on stigmatizing people who wind up in prison supports a culture of alienation which tends to underscore rather than eradicate criminality’s roots. Whatever the ultimate solutions to stigmatization are, they begin not with the way society sees us, but how we see ourselves. That’s why I stopped calling myself a prisoner. I’m an artist, a father, a teacher. I’m an Incarcerated-American with a passion for civic duty.”
“There wasn’t any other medium available other than art to show this expression,” said Prison Renaissance co-founder, Rahsaan Thomas, also serving a life sentence for murder. “There is a myth that separated us from our communities; Prison Renaissance seeks to reconnect incarcerated Americans with their stake in communities.”
Another goal of Prison Renaissance is a cultural shift in criminal justice policy, DeWeaver said, drawing from author Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow to explain how to reduce criminality and incarceration in our society.
“Ending the conditions that give rise to mass incarceration requires a collective buy-in from both free and incarcerated citizens,” DeWeaver said. “We achieve this buy-in by showing how committed we are to the society we once helped destroy. Not lip service but showing the world the money. That’s why we love art, why it’s our medium. It strips you down and shows everything.”
The incarcerated Americans involved with Prison Renaissance produce artistic works that emphasize honesty and vulnerability.
“I talk to a lot of free people, who have different lives than I do, but I’m continually humbled by the commonality between us,” DeWeaver said. “Prison Renaissance helps to show this commonality that we all have. Because art strips us bare, it’s the perfect medium for revealing our common stake in each other.”
“Transforming culture will always begin in the minds of people,” DeWeaver added. “People are constrained by the language they use. We can begin to change minds by using different language.”
“At San Quentin, we have answers,” Thomas said. “We have community, space and opportunity.”
By spring 2016, Prison Renaissance will have a website, (prisonrenaissance.org) that features incarcerated artists and mentorships for incarcerated artists. Both present roadmaps to redemption and explore solutions to criminality and mass incarceration. The website will be a platform to create community between incarcerated and free artists, activists and educators.
“Writing gives me power within myself,” Thomas noted. “Everybody has an innate power within themselves.”