Freedom of expression is a freedom that is too often taken for granted. The Voice Project and a group of well-known artists, are coming together to raise their voices in honor of those who cannot. Lesser-known artists all throughout the world are currently imprisoned for raising their voices and opinions through artwork, and unfortunately, borders prohibit them from speaking out.
Peter Gabriel, Johnny Depp, Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, Edward Sharpe’s Alex Ebert, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Ana Tijoux are participating in The Voice Project campaign to stand up and speak out for those without a voice, proving that no matter the distance or borders, we all can stand up for each other.
As Nadya Tolokonnikova points out, “Unfortunately, America is about to start looking more like Russia under Putin, it’s already happening, and dissent is going to become a more dangerous business. But that just means dissent is more important than ever. The good news is we can learn from each other, help each other—that we are stronger than we think, both individually and collectively, we have more fight in us that we believe. I know this from being a person in prison, but also from seeing all the people who banded together to get me out.”
The “Imprisoned for Art” campaign is a movement created by Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, featuring a series of photos of the advocates wearing police boards. These photos are meant to look like a mug shot. Each well-known artist has been paired with a lesser-known artist (who is currently being imprisoned). Their police boards read the arrests and sentencing of those whom they are representing.
The goal of the Imprisoned by Art campaign is to encourage community members to step-up efforts in hopes to free those currently imprisoned, many of which are locked up simply for having used their art to start a movement.
Ebert explains, “Solidarity is all we have in a fight against systematic oppression. It is the one true super power within human reach. The privileged standing with the oppressed. The comfortable with the uncomfortable. To oppress art is to oppress the spirit that makes art, and if another’s spirit is oppressed, mine cannot rest. So we give this small token for our oppressed friends, in solidarity.”
The mug shot photos are being released on charity t-shirts in collaboration with Represent for purchase from 11/16 – 12/1.
Complete list of the pairings:
Johnny Depp with filmmaker Oleg Sentsov imprisoned in Russia
Alex Ebert with singer Trần Vũ anh Bình imprisoned in Vietnam
Peter Gabriel with author and journalist Dawit Isaak imprisoned in Eritrea
Tom Morello with painter and journalist Tom Dundee imprisoned in Thailand
Ana Tijoux with poet Ashraf Fayadh imprisoned in Saudi Arabia
Nadya Tolokonnikova with singer Nûdem Durak imprisoned in Turkey
The Voice Project does more than just raise awareness for causes like these. They do tons of behind the scenes work such as bringing warm clothes and food to those in prison and hiring local lawyers with access inside the prisons, to check on the well-being of those locked up.
“You can’t buy free speech, but you can give it away. You can also fight like hell for it.” – Tom Morello