roots: Herman Wallace

Artist, activist &  abolitionist jackie sumell  began her abolitionist  journey in 2001 with her elder, Herman Wallace, through their project The House That Herman Built (Herman’s House).  Herman, a  Black Panther and political prisoner,  spent 41-years in solitary confinement in the  state of  Louisiana. Herman’s House is an ongoing exhibition,  book, advocacy campaign, and Emmy Award winning documentary (Outstanding Arts and Culture, 2013). 

The House That Herman Built a collaborative social practice project, is bolstered by a community of support- an incredible network of architects, designers, builders, artists, friends, activists and others. The beauty of this project is undeniably contaminated by the hideous place from which it originates. The house is scarred by the experience inside Angola Prison, and unmistakably indicative of the extreme duress Herman endured. Herman Wallace, like so many other prisoners, suffered greatly at the hands of a corrupt system that tortures prisoners. His resolution is an inspiring testament to the human spirit. Through The House That Herman Built, the viewer is invited to participate in Herman Wallace’s imagination. It is the imagination of resistance, of resolution and of hope.

Herman Wallace wrongfully spent 41-years in isolation in the state of Louisiana. He was released from prison on October 1, 2013. He joined the ancestor just three days later. His life and legacy are central to jackie’s work.

Fueled by the desire to keep Herman’s legacy alive, jackie’s next project, the Solitary Gardens, turns solitary prison cells into garden beds constructed from the ancestral byproducts of sugarcane, cotton, tobacco and indigo, exposing the illusion that slavery was abolished in the United States. 

“I have tried many times to grow flowers and other seasonal plants here in this cell and it just won’t work! The concrete and steel and particularly the small closed-in area stifles the growth of plant life and causes the plant to die long before it develops.”

-Herman Wallace, excerpt from a letter with paper flowers to jackie sumell