Family & Community Day with Humans of Life Row @ UIUC

Join us for Community Day with the More Beautiful, More Terrible: Humans of Life Row Exhibition at the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign.

Community Day Events:

11:30 AM - 1:00PM — Tour of Exhibition @ Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (500 S. Goodwin Ave, Urbana, IL) with curators and artists

1:00 PM — Art-Making, Screenprinting, and Short Film Screening @ Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center (1212 W Nevada St, Urbana, IL 61801)

• Art-making with Heather Canuel and
• Screen printing w/ Aaron Hughes, co-curator of the Chicago More Beautiful, More Terrible Humans of Life Row exhibition
• Short Film Screenings: a preview of the "More Beautiful, More Terrible: Humans of Life Row" short film featuring the PNAP Think Tank + "Life Letter" animation featuring and authored by Michael Bell
• Lunch provided!

Gallery Hours, March 27 - May 8:

Mon & Thurs 1-4pm

Tues 9am-12pm

Or by appointment, email: c21zbWl0aDMgfCBpbGxpbm9pcyAhIGVkdQ==

The Spot at the Krannert Center for the Performint Arts (500 S. Goodwin Ave, Urbana, IL) will be open to the public, including classes, individuals, faculty and staff.

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More Beautiful, More Terrible: Humans of Life Row is a counter narrative, a sustained act of resistance, an exhibition that reveals the intimate experiences, transformative ideas, and beautiful dreams of people facing the stark realities of life and de facto life sentencing in Illinois. These sentences are commonly described as death by incarceration because they condemn people to confinement until their death. Nevertheless, as contributing artist, Reginald BoClair, states, “Though sentenced to die in Pr*son, we are alive.”

Through personal narratives, artistic expressions, compelling installations, and poetic verse, this exhibition shines a light on the people who inhabit 'life row.'

The U of I exhibition features select works from the original Chicago exhibition along with artistic works and programming from Project 9161— an initiative led by Dr. Rachel McMillian in the College of Education (UIUC) that explores the world of Afrofuturism, visionary narratives, and abolition through the lenses of Black system-impacted scholars.

More Beautiful, More Terrible was originally created by the Pr*son + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project's Think Tank (at Stateville Pr*son) and the Beyond Prisons Initiative in 2023-2024. It was co-curated and co-organized by Alice Kim and Aaron Hughes.

This exhibition is brought to you by:

UIUC College of Education

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

Beyond Prisons Initiative at the Center for Study, Race, Politics, & Culture

Pr*son Neighborhood Arts+Education Project

First Followers

Education Justice Project

Illinois Humanities Envisioning Justice

Project 9161 is generously funded by the Chancellor’s Call to Action Research Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Also check out other Exhibitions in Urbana, Arts events in Urbana, Entertainment events in Urbana.