PEACE!
Welcome to the Alternatives to Violence Project 50th Anniversary Virtual Art Show
The Alternatives to Violence Project was founded in 1975 by a group of incarcerated men in New York State who wanted to diminish violence in prisons. Today, a half-century later, our program has expanded from prisons to schools and community centers across the US and around the world, delivering workshops that build peace-making, communication skills, empathy and more.
As a special part of AVP’s 50th anniversary celebrations, Strawbridge Art League is hosting this two-month virtual exhibit of art by currently and formerly incarcerated AVP facilitators. Although AVP is not an arts organization, we recognize art as a unique form of communication that provides an outlet for powerful and difficult emotions.
Please enjoy our virtual gallery of art works on the theme of Peace.
Contact information is available for any that may be purchased.
Lamar Little
Artist Bio and Statement
Powerful Starkim Allah grew up as Lamarr Little in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn and came home after a 25-to-life prison sentence. From 2003 to 2007, Starkim was a member of the Reality & Pain Life Skills Peer Counseling Program at Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, New York, teaching workshops in drawing, painting, and poetry to fellow incarcerated individuals. From 2018 to 2019, while in Eastern New York Correctional Facility, he chaired the Inmate Liaison Committee. He is a facilitator with the Alternatives to Violence Project and recently founded The Erasure Project, which examines the racial roots of mass incarceration through images.The more than 2,000 images Starkim has created, ranging from pencil drawings to oil and acrylic paintings, vibrate with emotional power and positive messages that have power to lift the spirit.
Joseph Houston
Corey Devon Arthur
Omaha AVP Family Quilt
