The Bell Gallery at Brown University unveils ‘Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom,’ an exhibition by the acclaimed artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, known for their work in sound, video, and installation art. Curated by Kate Kraczon, Director of Exhibitions and Chief Curator at the Brown Arts Institute (BAI)/The Bell, alongside Thea Quiray Tagle, PhD, this exhibition is the sole U.S. presentation of the project, running in Providence, Rhode Island, until May 31.
Inspired by interviews with former political prisoners in Palestine, the exhibition delves into the use of poetry, music, and other artistic expressions as means of collective survival and resistance against global incarceration systems. Abbas and Abou-Rahme aim to build a “vast counter-archive” that captures the essence of Palestinian life and political resistance, going beyond the limitations of official archives.
The installation features sound and video projections on concrete, fabric, and weathered steel surfaces, materials reminiscent of prison environments. A focal point is Samih Al-Qasim’s poem “Enemy of the Sun” (1970), discovered in George Jackson’s cell after his death in San Quentin Prison in 1971. The poem was erroneously attributed to Jackson by the Black Panther newspaper, a misconception that persists today, symbolizing the enduring solidarity between Palestinian and American political prisoners.
The exhibition was commissioned by Kraczon in 2020, with Quiray Tagle joining the project in 2023. It builds on Abbas and Abou-Rahme’s previous collaborations with Kraczon, who organized their first U.S. exhibition in 2015 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Contemporary Art. Since 2020, the artists have worked with Brown University’s academic community, including the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the John Hay Library’s Voices of Mass Incarceration in the United States project.
In Spring 2025, Abbas, Abou-Rahme, and Quiray Tagle co-taught a course that expanded on their research, inviting students to explore family archives and community histories related to mass incarceration. At The Bell, ‘Prisoners of Love’ serves as more than just an exhibition; it is a dynamic platform for collective memory, research, and political discourse.
