• Image: Samples of art made by inmates at Parchman Farm include drawings and paintings.

This display features art from workshops conducted at Unit 30 and Unit 29 at Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman Farm) from November 2021 until June 2024, as a continuation of Oxford based Prison Writes Initiative, which is an educational outreach program of the literary non-profit group, VOX PRESS. Implemented in 2014, the Prison Writes Initiative was the first of its kind to offer humanities-based classes to Mississippi inmates in which inmate writing from the program was published in a series of books, including, In our own Words (2014), Unit 30 (2016), Mississippi Prison Writing (2021), and the forthcoming Unit 29 (December 2024). The series is scheduled to continue in 2025 with Mississippi Prison Poetry and Mississippi Prison Writing Anthology.

In the fall of 2021, the P.W.I. began to offer art workshops at Parchman under the instruction of Sally Lott McLellan in Unit 30. The classes, held once a week, ranged from drawing and watercolor to mask-making and sewing projects. With an emphasis on Folk Art, the students were asked to reflect on their ancestry and roots and the practices of indigenous peoples.

• Image: Tribal masks

The masks are of independent design, depicting perhaps how the students imagined themselves, a process of personal empowerment.

• Image: Gulla and Yaya Dolls

The fabric Yaya dolls are of Native American design, and Gullah dolls are of South Carolinian origin, where African slaves settled. The dolls do not have faces, which reflect humility.

• Image: Tribal masks and shell necklaces

Shell necklaces were made using shells gathered from the beach at Tybee Island, Georgia. The necklaces were made to honor the indigenous people who made use of natural materials in daily life.

• Image: Honoring the Ancestors, quilt blocks

Kathy Neff of Oxford, a master quilter, joined the class in 2023 to assist with the sewing project. Because the students shared memories of their mothers, grandmothers and aunties making quilts together, the sewing project became a meaningful and therapeutic project. We most noticed how the students responded to color and texture of the fabric.

• Image: Projects include pencil drawings, paintings, and collages

In the fall of 2023 Sally Lott McLellan began a Creative Arts class in Unit 29 while Kathy Neff remained with Unit 30 to direct and support a student-led class model. The students in Unit 30 were successful in developing several projects on their own, such as making marionettes and small clay structures. Unit 29 continued some of the same projects as previously done in Unit 30, with mask-making and fabric wall hangings. This was completely a new exposure for this unit and to see their enthusiasm and personal development was powerful and affirming that Creative Arts builds confidence and self-esteem.

VOX PRESS is a Mississippi 501(c)3 corporation. Donations to the organization can be tax deductible. For more information on the program and/or to make a donation, contact VOX director Louis Bourgeois at louis-bourgeois@hotmail.com or call at 662-816-8058.