Chantell-Jeannette Black
Since my incarceration I have explored creative art as a coping tool to my circumstances. I never wrote poetry before prison and my words have been inspired by my sorrow as reflected in my poetry. I enjoy painting sceneries or landscapes, typically imagery from my imagination of where I have been, or want to be, or places and things that remind me of my family. I have remained disciplinary free and thus participate in handicraft activities—acrylic painting, drawing, and beading/jewelry making.
I am a self-taught artist and use art books to learn new techniques. This exploration has brought me to a meditation art called Zentangle. It is repetitious pen strokes for mindfulness, and conducted only in pen so that one learns to accept their mistakes. Any good poetry I created was written in the heat of the moment. I enjoy writing styles that can have more than one interpretation. My number one inspiration that keeps me going day-by-day is my precious daughter…whom I am determined to return to one day!
Chantell-Jeannette Black was born and raised in California and started drawing from a young age. She is self taught in painting, beading, jewelry-making, scrapbooking, dance and a plethora of other arts and crafts. She graduated Cum Laude from California State University, Sacramento in 2013 and was teaching an art class in the Central California Women’s Facility’s Art Therapy program before it shut down in 2023. She also volunteers to create holiday decorations for her housing unit, and makes painted decorative pillows and blankets for other incarcerated people to purchase with canteen food. The Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison Through Art and Poetry, Museum of the African Diaspora, CA (2023) was her first curatorial project. Since then she has contributed art to Work Assignments: Forced Prison Labor in the Land of the Free, Antioch (2024).
Chantell-Jeannette Black [Gostyla] #WG3093
CCWF #505-29-2
P.O. Box 1508, Chowchilla CA 93610
California | CCWF
