Inside the office of Dr. David Turner III, who is an assistant professor of Black life and racial justice at UCLA, as well as the faculty director of Imagining Freedom grantee Million Dollar Hoods. Photo: Carlos Jaramillo for Mellon Foundation 

An office space with a bookshelf with books and a poster in the window of a group of people huddled together

Professor Kelly Lytle Hernández, who is the founder and principal advisor of Million Dollar Hoods. Photo: Carlos Jaramillo for Mellon Foundation 

A headshot of Kelly Lytle Hernández

Headshot of Jesse Krimes

We create a space for artists and advocates to be in community  with each other… freedom and liberty to think, to strategize, to dream  and imagine.

Reginald Dwayne Betts, who is a poet, lawyer, and the founder and chief executive officer of Imagining Freedom grantee Freedom Reads. Photo: Alexander Saladrigas for Mellon Foundation 

A man in a brown jacket and green hat sits on a stool against a green background, touching his glasses with one hand and resting the other on his lap.

A bookshelf holding books that are a part of a Freedom Library, a signature project of Freedom Reads. Photo: Alexander Saladrigas for Mellon Foundation 

A wooden bookshelf filled with assorted books stands on a gray carpet. Hanging geometric decorations create a modern, artistic backdrop.

Photo: Alexander Saladrigas for Mellon Foundation

Wooden table with smooth, curved edges holds a stack of books, including "The Black Poets."

“Purgatory” (detail), 2009. Includes image transfers, prison-issued soap, toothpaste, and playing cards. Artwork: Jesse Krimes

An artwork comprised of dozens of bars of prison-issued soap, on which an artist has transfered faces from a newspaper.

Imagining Freedom supports artistic and humanistic work that centers the voices and knowledge of people who have experienced the impacts of incarceration.

Imagining Freedom

Artists as Catalysts

Artists as Catalysts Navigation Image

Beyond Incarceration

A side profile of a Black poet who is wearing glasses and a hat with a feather hat pin.

Borderlands Cultures

In portrait orientation, an aerial view of a major highway running parallel to a large border wall set on a hilly landscape

Civic Engagement

A man in a brown jacket stands in front of blue bulletin board that is covered with papers and advertisements  

Evolving Higher Education

A vertical image of an Indigenous person who is sitting on a chair in front of a backdrop.

Expanding Public Knowledge

An interior room filled with audio and video equipment 

Monuments and Memory

A multicolored painted totem pole set in front of a foggy forest landscape

Multivocality

Five people stand together in a group photo. They are laughing and smiling.

Power of the Word

Five colorful neon signs hang on the wall with messages that include, "Freedom cannot wait," "Brown owned," and "America is for Dreamers."

Public Places‚ Public Stories

A group of Indigenous Maskoke people stand and sit in the wooden frame of a structure in a woods

Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora

In a vertical image, a black leather vest is adorned with colorful pins across the front of it. Embroidery on the vest reads: "Felícitas "La Prieta" Méndez" 

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