Art at a Time Like This Launches 8X5 HOUSTON Exhibition

In early November, Art at a Time Like This will launch 8x5 Houston, a public intervention with artworks responding to the mass incarceration crisis. 8x5 Houston is named for the size of the average prison cell and encourages artists to speak out about issues of criminal injustice. Displayed on ten billboards and ten mobile billboard trucks throughout the city, the project will run from November 6th to November 30th.

To raise awareness and provide an outlet for community participation, 8x5 Houston will hold a panel discussion at the Houston Museum of African American Culture on November 4th at 2 PM, moderated by the museum’s Chief Curator Christopher Blay.  Speakers will include: Award-winning poet and performer Faylita Hicks; Houston artist Ronald Lewellyn Jones; and Jay Jenkins, Harris County Project Attorney at the Texas Center for Justice and Equity. 

ABOUT THE PANELISTS:

FAYLITA HICKS  was raised in Texas and living in Chicago. They were incarcerated for 45 days for failure to appear in court for a low-level, non-violent crime. Their personal account of time in pretrial incarceration was featured in the ITVS Independent Lens 2019 documentary 45 Days in a Texas Jail, and the Brave New Films 2021 documentary, Racially Charged: America’s Misdemeanor Problem. .  They are the author of HoodWitch (Acre Books, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry, the 2019 Julie Suk Award, and the 2019 Balcones Poetry Prize. Hicks also received awards and fellowships from the Art for Justice Fund,  Black Mountain Institute,  Tin House and The Right of Return USA. They are currently working on the forthcoming poetry collection A Map of My Want (Haymarket Books, 2024), and a debut memoir about their carceral experience A Body of Wild Light (Haymarket Books, 2025). 

RONALD Llewellyn Jones is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist based in Houston..  Over the course of a ten year prison sentence, Jones emerged with artworks that explore barriers between artists and audiences, individuals and their communities and the perceived normalcy of everyday life. He has most recently shown  at Art League Houston,  Hooks-Epstein Galleries,  Sayers Gallery,  University of Houston Clear Lake, Kirksey Architecture,   Partnership Tower, Galveston Arts Center.

JAY JENKINS is the Harris County Project Attorney at the Texas Center for Justice and Equity. Since joining TCJE in 2014, he has promoted broad youth and adult justice reforms in Houston and the surrounding areas.   Additionally,  Jenkins serves as co-founder and President of the Convict Leasing and Labor Project, which launched in 2018 to expose the history of the convict leasing system and its connection to modern prison slavery.

CHRISTOPHER BLAY,  moderator,  the Chief Curator of the Houston Museum of African American Culture. The Liberian-born American artist, writer, and curator was the News Editor at Glasstire Magazine from 2019 - 2021 and served as curator for the Art Corridor Galleries at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth for the ten years prior.  As an artist, Blay uses photography, video, sculpture, and performance in exhibitions, and his work considers the Black experience in America.  His ongoing series,“The SpLaVCe Program,”  an installation that juxtaposes slave ships and space exploration,  is on view at the Ion Complex in Houston.  

ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS:

Houston Museum of African American Culture seeks to preserve and collect the creative and intellectual culture of Africans and African-Americans in Houston, the state of Texas, the Southwest and the African Diaspora for visitors of all backgrounds.

Art at a Time Like This is a 501c3 not-for-profit arts organization that serves artists and curators facing the 21st century, presenting art in direct response to current events. Utilizing digital and public platforms, this organization presents art in a non-profit context, highlighting art as an invaluable conveyor of content, rather than commodity. Our mission is to show that art can make a difference and that artists and curators can be thought-leaders, envisioning alternative futures for humanity. 

SaveArtSpace is a non-profit organization that works to create an urban gallery experience, launching exhibitions that address intersectional themes and foster a progressive message of social change. By placing culture over commercialism, SaveArtSpace aims to empower artists from all walks of life and inspire a new generation of young creatives and activists.

8x5 Houston is funded by grants from BLD PWR, the Brown Foundation, the Barton Family Foundation, The Prisoner Wines and Ames Family Foundation. Generous donors include: Thomas I. O’Connor, Lea Weingarten, Judy Dyson, Kathryn and David Berg, Fairfax Dorn and Jorge Mora. Special thanks to independent curator Bridget Bray.

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