JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Act­ing Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er Hay­den Forde says that art has be­come a “bea­con of light” for the prison ser­vice, of­fer­ing hope in what he de­scribed as a dark pe­ri­od for the in­sti­tu­tion.

He was speak­ing at the 12th in­stal­ment of the prison art ex­hi­bi­tion at Long Cir­cu­lar Mall last Tues­day, where in­mates dis­played their work to the pub­lic.

“At this time in our ser­vice, we are at what is con­sid­ered a dark place. We are placed be­fore so­ci­ety where we have rogue of­fi­cers who have been do­ing all man­ner of ill. We have in­mates who are do­ing all man­ner of ill. But I can tell you in Gen­e­sis, when God formed the earth, it was with­out shape, it was with­out form, it was emp­ty, it was dark. And then he said, ‘Let there be light’,” Forde said.

He added that the “light” is the art min­istry, brought to the pris­ons through the Ra­ja Yo­ga Prison Min­istry.

“The light we are see­ing is in the in­mates who are pre­sent­ing these won­der­ful mas­ter­pieces this morn­ing. When oth­er in­mates choose to do wrong things, we have sev­er­al in­mates who fo­cus on mov­ing them­selves out of dark­ness.”

Forde said the ex­hi­bi­tion showed what in­mates can achieve de­spite in­car­cer­a­tion, es­pe­cial­ly with sup­port from out­side or­gan­i­sa­tions. He called on the pri­vate sec­tor to part­ner with the prison ser­vice to help “add to the light.”

One of the in­mates, Kim­lee Cezair, said art gave her a voice. She ex­plained that each piece tells a sto­ry of re­flec­tion, re­silience, and the hu­man spir­it, which she said re­fus­es to be si­lenced even be­hind prison walls.

“Art is more than paint on can­vas, art has be­come my voice, it is my free­dom of speech ex­pressed with colour and form. It is a mir­ror of my heart to re­lease what words alone can­not car­ry,” she told the gath­er­ing.

Cezair de­scribed art as her ther­a­py and said the ex­hi­bi­tion was mean­ing­ful be­cause it al­lowed her to re­claim the pow­er of sto­ry­telling in her work. She said it re­mind­ed her that great­ness lives with­in her, and that be­yond prison there is re­demp­tion, free­dom, and change.

“Let art con­tin­ue to be your out­let and change, a bridge to a brighter fu­ture as the art in­spires oth­ers and your­self,” she said.

Fel­low artist and for­mer in­mate Al­ladin Mo­hammed al­so cred­it­ed art and med­i­ta­tion with trans­form­ing his life.

“I am able to build stronger val­ues. In places where peo­ple may feel for­got­ten, such as prison, art gives them vis­i­bil­i­ty. In com­mu­ni­ties where self-es­teem has been dimmed by hard­ships, art re­stores light. Every paint­ing is trans­for­ma­tion­al.”