DAD SAID TO PAINT SOMETHING
JAMAL MICHEL
Acrylic on canvas
My father’s first language is Creole. He never taught me growing up because he was afraid that, whatever accent I developed as a result, I would be bullied similar to how he and his brothers and sisters were when they first came to America in the 80’s. He and I always talk about police violence, Black Lives Matter and officer acquittals, and one day he found me painting and said “paint something”. He said to paint something for every moment those issues didn’t affect me, and so I created this piece with brighter colors, yet a center that was still trapped in what looked like bars. I used large, orange splotches in unnatural patterns to highlight the fact that these issues affect me more often than I like to admit.
WHEN I HEARD THE ACQUITTAL
JAMAL MICHEL
Acrylic on canvas
I decided to make this piece after learning the news of the acquittal of the officer who shot and killed Terrence Crutcher in Oklahoma. It was another case of excessive force deemed appropriate because an officer “feared for their life” in the presence of an unarmed Black motorist. I was furious, and so many of the brush strokes are intentionally erratic, sloping and curving away and into the larger, brown subject to the left. I used a lot of brown in the background to symbolize Crutcher and ultimately any other Black or Brown victim of police violence, as Philando Castile’s case ended in a similar verdict just a few weeks after. I wanted this piece to resonate with the moment it is viewed in. It’s a piece that will continue to fit the narrative of those irate with the slaying of Black and Brown bodies.
FUCKING PRISON
JAMAL MICHEL
Acrylic on canvas
Much like my first piece, Fucking Prison focuses on the violence against Black and Brown bodies through mass incarceration. One of my inspirations, Kalief Browder, committed suicide two years after being released from Rikers Island, where he was imprisoned for three years (two of which were in solitary confinement). The foreground has its large, thick white and yellow lines to symbolize prison bars and the supremacist system that has led to mass incarceration, as well as the yellow tape used to section off crime scenes in areas where Black and Brown bodies are brutalized. The brown and red background is intentionally struggling for space on the canvas where the blue overwhelms them, highlighting the excessive force used by law enforcement.
JAMAL MICHEL teaches English Literature at Northern High School in Durham, North Carolina. He received a Bachelor’s in English Literature at Florida International University. His work has appeared in The Sigma Tau Delta Rectangle and Forge Journal. He received a Master’s in teaching English Literature at the secondary school level from Duke University and has continued sharpening his craft ever since.
