In early 2023, The Naming the Lost Memorial Project invited Archive-Based Creative Arts (ABCA) to contribute a collectively-created memorial honoring those who passed away in prison over the ongoing pandemic, those who have survived the pandemic from inside prisons, and the loved ones we lost while we were incarcerated. While contributions came primarily from ABCA members and their networks, anyone experiencing the pandemic from inside prison was welcome to contribute.

The memorial was on view at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery (131 E 10th St, New York, NY 10003) from October 28th to November 12th, alongside memorials from Inside Change and Oye Group.

Together we gathered in the Church’s courtyard to “activate” the memorial during Mano a Mano’s annual Día de Muertos gathering, with participants reading excerpts from the contributors’ work in a ceremony hosted by Willie Kearse and La-Meik Taylor.

After the event, ABCA’s upstate collaborators Abode Farm provided free vegetables and herbs for our community members in the courtyard of the Church.

To our knowledge, there is no public, physical memorial honoring the lives of those lost and those surviving COVID19 from within prisons – no place for friends, family members and loved ones to visit, to grieve, to mourn; no place for the collective truth of the experience to be made public.

We’re grateful for the opportunity to ensure that the experience of those surviving the pandemic from inside will not be forgotten. Thank you to all the brilliant contributors who sent their writing and artwork, and made this memorial possible.

Coordinators: La-Meik Taylor, Sara G. Kielly, Leonard Wilson, George Smith, Peter McHugh, Willie Kearse, Tyler Morse

Contributing Artists: Curtis Parker, Roberto Bruno, Matthew Almond, Zarah Coombs, Pamela Smart, Lamarr Little, Louis Martino, Tracy J. White, Nigel Saunders, Al-Shariyfa Robinson, Peter McHugh, Maleek Johnson, Remy Trail, Willie Kearse, Michael J. Jova, Delroy Thorpe, Jermaine Estwick, Leonard Wilson

Covid Behind Bars

2ft away from my neighbor's sniffling,

In a cell, they promote social distance

I'm feeling miles away as i sit in

the front of my pen with my pen

screaming: Prisoner's Lives Matter, too!

Am I less human because I lock in a bathroom, a cage

even in a pandemic they come to an animals aide.

the only mask i'm allowed to wear is my fear my rage

beneath useless cloth with my voice muted in an open grave

& i weep at the thought of being forgotten

to rot in my caretakers hands without options

as men who typically stand tall are dropping

toppling like dominoes.

Lamarr Reid 2023