Comunoiwilla’s artwork will be featured in Stanford’s Prison Renaissance Zine. Prison Renaissance connects incarcerated people with a community of artists, forming a collaborative space in which art fills the divide between the general public and those who are in prison. To transform the ongoing dialogue of criminal justice reform, Prison Renaissance strives to center and amplify the voices, leadership, artistic practice and academic work of incarcerated people.

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These past few weeks have highlighted the corruption of our law enforcement and prison-industrial complex, but the system was never designed to protect Black folks. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery “except as a punishment for a crime.” This subtle exception was used as a loophole for Southern whites, opening a new door of imprisonment and forced labor. Our modern-day prison and policing system are built on racism. The land of the free stole from the indigenous and exploited Black bodies. It was designed to oppress.

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With the revelation of America’s ongoing exploitation and oppression, Bernie Sanders redefined the way our government must treat our human rights and deconstruct the errors of the past. Many painted him as a communist, but for the marginalized communities of our nation, he was a voice of hope and strength. He allowed us to reclaim our basic human rights through healthcare, education and the protection of our planet’s wellbeing.

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When reading about the United States’ AIDS epidemic in history textbooks and scholarly essays, human lives are reduced to numbers. Death rates become a reflection of the bitter, yet inevitable, fate of life. However, the complexity of life, death, happiness and sorrow during the AIDS epidemic could not be embodied by a single story, let…

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It is easy to feel imprisoned within the lines of society’s endless list of oppressive rules. For generations, LGBTQ activists have fought an ongoing battle against the intolerance and violence targeted towards the queer community. However, progress moves like rivers and streams — slow and steady, powerful and determined. With each and every step towards…

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