Talk is easy, but turning words into action is, well, hard, at best.
On Feb. 1, the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas hosted a panel discussion in the Catherine M. Bellamy Theater, focusing on topics centering around the arts, activism and community outreach.
The talk was scheduled before the 5:30 p.m. opening of the “Parking Lot Space: Artworks by Kenneth Reams” exhibit.
It’s designed to start a conversation, said Kevin Haynie, ASC curator.
“To consider the impacts of the choices we make, the lasting impacts they create and how you can use that insight to guide your pathway more positively within your family, community and, most importantly, yourself, through art, when confronted with the critical decisions that many youths are confronted with daily in our society,” Haynie said.
The Parking Lot Space exhibit and the panel discussion were funded by a Kenneth Reams Arts for Justice grant.
Tavante Calhoun, director of the Boys and Girls Club of Jefferson County, moderated the panel.
“Good evening to you all,” Calhoun said to the approximately 40 people attending, before introducing the panelists.
These included Nick Brown, adviser for the Arkansas State Personnel Development Grant at the Office of Innovation program; Saskia Keeley, photojournalist; Patrice Williams, actor and Little Rock Central High School teacher; and Ndume Olatushani, a Colorado man who spent 20 years on death row.
Haynie, who curated the Parking Lot Space exhibit, was also on the panel.
Early in the discussion, Haynie said: “Art can build bridges. There are benefits that art can make in a young person’s life.”
Williams said, “Theater saved my life.”
The theater teacher led a 2024 summer camp at the ARTx3 Campus, focusing on the children’s book “Kenneth’s Big Choice,” by Reams and his wife Isabelle Reams.
A single decision can be a total life-changer. Whether a child ends up in prison or college “is only one choice away,” Williams said.
Keeley, who is also friends with Reams and uses photography workshops to bridge societal divides, mentioned the devastating impact “a lack of resources” can have on an individual or entire community.
Keeley said, “I wish people and kids could see their own potential through others’ eyes.”
Poverty creates a ripple effect of depression, hopelessness, apathy, poor health and more that’s hard to remedy.
For example, Haynie added, “When self-esteem is stripped away from you, it’s hard to gain it back.”
Brown, who previously taught high school communications, speech and debate, and science in Arkansas and Louisiana, said many at-risk kids “don’t always have the resources” they need to succeed, but one person working with them can be “life-changing.”
At-risk youth aren’t limited to a particular skin color and include kids of all races in America, Calhoun said.
Olatushani, who was convicted of a crime that it was later proven he didn’t commit and spent a total of 28 years incarcerated, said many at-risk youth, the impoverished and the incarcerated are viewed as “throwaways” by the larger society.
This isn’t going to change, Olatushani said, “until we get to the point where we want for others’ kids what we want for our own.”
THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE PANEL
From 1993 until 2017, Kenneth Reams sat on death row for capital murder as an accomplice to a felony that resulted in a murder.
He turned to art, honing his craft as a means of expression and escape, and as a cautionary tale for the upcoming generations.
One bad decision, like robbing a man at an ATM, can change the whole course of your life.
At 18, Reams, who is Black, was convicted of capital murder for the killing of Gary W. Turner, a white man, during a robbery at an ATM in Pine Bluff.
His accomplice, who actually fired the weapon, received a life sentence. However, Reams became the youngest man sentenced to death.
From 1993 until 2017, Reams sat on death row for capital murder as an accomplice to a felony that resulted in a murder. His death sentence was vacated by the Supreme Court, but he continues to serve a life sentence behind bars.
Parking Lot Space: Artworks by Kenneth Reams includes a collection of artwork created by incarcerated artist and the Pine Bluff native. His work, developed over decades, includes drawings, paintings, sculptures and various other creations made during his time incarcerated.
OUTSIDE THE STATE
Reams’ work has been exhibited in the United States and Europe, and his poetry has been published in several publications. He was named a semi-finalist in the 2013 National Amateur Poetry Competition and placed second in the 2016 Lifeline Poetry Competition.
The New York Times, the BBC and the 2018 documentary Free Men, directed by Anne-Frédérique Widmann, have told his story.
He is the founder of Who Decides, Inc.
Parking Lot Space: Artworks by Kenneth Reams is free and open to the public through July 26 in the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas’s William H. Kennedy Jr. Gallery.
ASC is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and closed Sunday and Monday.
For more information about this exhibit or the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, call (870) 536-3375 or visit to www.artx3.org.
The Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas hosted a Feb. 1 panel discussion prior to the opening of The Parking Lot Space: Artworks by Kenneth Reams. (Special to The Commercial/Deborah Horn)This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
