Artist, activist and SVA faculty member Sophia Dawson (BFA 2010 Fine Arts) has long focused her practice on addressing real-life injustices. Her paintings and murals are often dedicated to political prisoners and victims of state violence, and she regularly works with nonprofits and disinvested communities as a creative collaborator, arts administrator and mentor. Tomorrow, February 27, she will discuss her work—and mark the launch of her new book, Correspondence—in a talk and panel discussion at the Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center in Queens, where her art is currently on view.

Correspondence is published by Maria Editions, an independent imprint co-founded by artist and SVA faculty member Marysia Gacek (BFA 2009 Fine Arts). It debuted this week, in connection with the Printed Matter Virtual Art Book Fair, and comprises letters, photos and ephemera from Dawson’s exchanges with political prisoners of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Movement. These communications have informed, inspired and even been incorporated into “To Be Free,” her series of portraits of incarcerated activists. Sales of the paintings have helped fund advocacy efforts on behalf of their subjects; to date, 11 activists affiliated with the movements have been freed. (Proceeds from Correspondence will be donated to the Black Panther Party Commemoration Committee and the Jericho Movement.)

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