In 2015, IJB worked for artist jackie sumell to produce the concept and design and to manage the publication of the third edition of The House That Herman Built. The book design and organizing principles were anchored by the Black Panther Party 10-Point Plan.
Herman Wallace spent 41 years in solitary confinement in a 6-foot-by-nine-foot cell for a crime he couldn’t have possibly committed. His incarceration, along with other members of the “Angola 3”, became an international symbol of the perpetuation of slavery by another name via the US Constitution’s 13th Amendment.
Jackie Sumell spent 15 years in collaboration with Herman, asking the question: “What kind of a house does a man who lives in a 6’x9’ cell dream of?” Her project to imagine and design Herman’s House became a platform for sharing the inhuman conditions of solitary confinement with the world. Herman Wallace was exonerated of his “crimes” in 2013 and released. He passed away three days later.
All images and texts on this site are the creations of Imani Jacqueline Brown, unless otherwise noted, e.g. photodocumentation of works or collaborative projects.
