Portrait Of a Free Man
stewart connor
By Ellis Henican, AlterNet
Posted on October 27, 2004, Printed on October 28, 2004
http://www.alternet.org/story/20331/
It took a while, a whole lot longer than it should have. But Tony Papa
finally got to see his painting hanging where it belonged. Thirty-five
miles and 16 years from the prison cell where he painted it. Displayed
in a gallery at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
This wasn't the first time that Papa's self-portrait, which he titled
"15 to Life," was shown at the Whitney. But the last time Papa wasn't
able to make the museum show. He was otherwise detained, serving an
absurdly long prison term at the Ossining Correctional Facility on a
nonviolent drug conviction under the state's harsh Rockefeller laws.
"That portrait changed so much for me," Papa said. "I was sitting in
my cell, three years into my sentence. I picked up a mirror. I looked
in the mirror. In the mirror I saw an individual who was gonna spend
the most productive years of his life in a six-by-nine-foot cage. Then
I went to the canvas, and I captured that look."
The picture Papa painted was foreboding and dark, acrylic paint on an
18-by-24-inch canvas. He was holding a paintbrush. His fingers were
spread. His hands were resting on his head. His right eye was in a
shadow. His left eye was wide open, staring ahead.
"I created this painting, and seven years later an angelic letter
arrived from the Whitney Museum, asking me to put a piece of my work
in an upcoming show," he said. "From that point on, I knew that was
the key to my freedom. If I could show my work at the Whitney, I could
paint myself free."
It wasn't quite that easy, of course. People inside and outside the
prison admired Papa's talent and recognized the injustice of these
counterproductive laws. Various friends interceded on his behalf. And
in that roundabout fashion, Papa's confidence in the power of his art
was ultimately borne out.
The painting was shown, him still at Sing Sing. The story got some
media play. That generated a second look at the drug conviction and
his long prison term. Finally, in 1997, Gov. George Pataki signed the
executive-clemency order that set Papa free. For a single cocaine
sale, his first conviction, he'd served 12 years of his 15-to-life.
"I really did paint my way out of prison," he said.
He never gave up on the broader cause. He has spent the past seven
years working to change the law that locked him up. He co-founded a
group the New York Mothers of the Disappeared, organizing relatives of
Rockefeller-law inmates, trying to push Pataki to expand his one-man
clemency into a more sensible drug plan.
It's slow going, but the signs of hope are real. Again this year, Papa
and his drug-reform allies will take their case to Albany.
He's written a book about it, being published next month by Feral
House, "15 to Life: How I Painted My Way to Freedom" by Anthony Papa
with Jennifer Wynn. There's a website, www.15tolife.com, and the
story's already been optioned for Hollywood.
But Tony Papa had one piece of unfinished business. He had never been
able to see his portrait on the museum wall.
So the other night, there was a party at the Whitney to celebrate the
new book. Hors d'oeuvres were passed. Wine was served. Mario Cuomo
turned up. So did most major players in the drug-reform movement.
Several of Papa's paintings, including the famous self-portrait, were
hanging in a beautifully lit space on the gallery wall.
People kept saying what an inspiration Tony Papa is.
"Tony is the human face of these inhumane laws," said Andrew Cuomo,
the former federal housing secretary who has been championing the
drug-reform cause in New York. "Here is what a Rockefeller prisoner
looks like. Here is his art. He was locked in a cage for 12 years. Was
he really such a threat to us?"
Miele Rockefeller, the granddaughter of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, for
whom the laws were named, was there to support Papa. "The Rockefeller
laws should be renamed the Pataki laws," she said. "My grandfather
would have changed them by now, and George Pataki won't."
After the museum show, the group retired to an after-party in the
Waldorf Towers apartment of hedge-fund director Lawrence Goldfarb, a
Republican. Wealthy Wall Streeters mixed with freshly released
ex-prisoners. It was about as far as you could get from Sing Sing.
"I'm a Republican businessman," said Goldfarb, whose company is called
Baystar Capital. "In dollars and cents and in social devastation,
these laws make no sense at all."
All evening long, Papa, who is 49 now, looked humbled but also
energized. "So many people are reaching out with love," he said.
"They're walking up to me, crying, asking, 'What can I do?' "
He had an answer for all of them. "Speak to your political leaders.
Put pressure on the governor. We have to change these laws for
everyone.
"One person really can make a difference," he'd say each time.
"Believe me. I know."
This article originally appeared in Newsday (New York).
© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/20331/
"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is a merge of
State and Corporate power." ---Benito Mussolini, the father of modern
fascism.