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In the U.S, 2.3 million people are imprisoned in the sprawling system of prisons, local jails, juvenile detention, ICE jails and more that make up the mass incarceration gulag. This system relies on caging, traumatizing and isolating people into submission. But freedom, healing and connection are the real pathway to a brighter, safer and kinder world. Whether we are inside, outside or in between, our bonds of love will outshine and outlast those of steel.

This poster features a large heart shape set against an orange, yellow and pink sunset background. Inside a heart is shown a detention center with razor wire fence, a guard tower, and a barred window lit up with yellow light. A leafy flowering vine snakes from the lower right of the poster, into the heart, above the razor wire and into the window. In bright blue around the edge of the heart shape, the text reads “Prison Walls Can’t Stop Love.”

I was born in the coffee growing mountains of western Puerto Rico and moved to the US at a time of great social upheaval. My art has grown up inseparable entwined with my activism and sense of community. Art, to me, is a collection of medicinal herbs and nutrients that can help individuals, communities and societies overcome the cultural toxins that keep them from making needed changes. I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where I work out of a storefront studio. I live in close relationship with the social movements, organizers and activists who inspire my work. Additional posters, notecards and buttons are available at my studio web store at www.rlmartstudio.com. You are welcome to browse both locations.