Voices on the Inside

Central Library- Popular Library Fairway

April 29 – July 31, 2024

Voices on the Inside is an interactive art exhibition of self-portrait poetry and photography created by incarcerated artists in collaboration with photographer Lisa Loftus that engages visitors in active conversations around self-portrait poetry and photography, mass incarceration, gender-based violence, poverty, addiction, and mental illness. Over 3 months, guests to the Central Library will observe the self-portraits of incarcerated women, read their poetry, and hear them speaking in recorded interviews for the first time. The approach is uniquely centered in their humanity, and all are welcome to this free exhibit.

Voices on the Inside was chosen by the San Diego-Tijuana World Design Capital as an Impact Partner, to unite our community with design thinking strategies rooted in the urgent need for a collaborative solution to amending punitive approaches to incarceration and to increasing personal and community healing and harm reduction.

Poetic Justice is a community within and beyond women's prisons, working alongside one another with a shared belief in the power of self-expression to change lives. We provide data-driven, trauma-informed, and gender sensitive restorative arts programs in women’s prisons, jails, and drug rehabs.

Exhibition Opportunities

Interested in exhibiting your art? Apply today! Go to mysdpl.org/visualarts

Application will be considered on a first-come basis. Organizations and individuals based in San Diego or serving primarily San Diego residents, which have not used exhibit space within the past year, will be given priority.