.Seeing through Stone in San Jose

Apr 23, 2024

Over 80 artists have contributed work to Seeing through Stone, an exhibition that explores the core tenets of abolitionist world-building and imagines a future free of prisons. As part of the UCSC’s ongoing Visualizing Abolition series, the art show includes 16 brand-new commissions and works by formerly and currently incarcerated artists. While the art spans many mediums, the pieces are united by poet Etheridge Knight’s 1986 words about a prisoner’s unique power of perception: “he has the secret eyes/he sees through stone.” The show’s opening reception is Friday evening, but the exhibit will be on display through early January 2025.

Seeing through Stone

Fri, 6pm, $15

Museum of Art, San Jose

Visualizing Abolition is changing the narrative linking prisons to justice

Addie Mahmassani https://www.addiemahmassani.com/

Addie Mahmassani is a poet based in Santa Cruz. She holds a PhD in American Studies from Rutgers University-Newark and is currently an MFA student in creative writing at San Jose State University. There, she is a Teaching Associate as well as the lead poetry editor of Reed Magazine, California's oldest literary journal. She also surfs, sings and loves a part-sheepdog named Lou.