Incarcerated Scholars Conference Art Gallery 2026

Learning in Motion

Robert Curry

Northeastern Illinois University Prison Education Program: BA Black Liberation Psychology and Community Building, Class of 2024 Knox College, Peace and Justice Studies

Illinois

Knowledge acquired equals the development of wisdom.

Wisdom is education in motion, authored by life lessons; the application of a practice to affirm and enhance qualities of life we possess in the positive.

Although I sit in a version of stagnation, placed in a confinement that disappears the world from my reach, I’ve learned to travel on the hands of time in order to expand my world view, reach, experience, and enhance the lives I’m charged to uplift.

Taking the initiative to step onto the hand that counts off seconds is a mental struggle, but I do so to steady myself. I witness the movement of time through the bars that impose social death. I follow my stance with a brave next step, one in which I place my foot upon the hand that displays the power of minutes.

These first two steps within time empowers me to learn the rhythm of walking again.

Societal difference has cast me into a state of paralysis, however, I “refuse” to be still.

I pray for evolution beyond this living grave.

As I do, I recall the power of time and its marriage to humanity when it is respected.

Time is the instrument of evolution. This immeasurable entity inspires my becoming.

I observe time and evolution as vehicles of motion, but only if comprehension of both are actual.

Like currents of rivers or oceans, knowledge flows through every human interaction, deed, and experience. Like vast bodies of water, evolution represents the constant motion of my life.

Time consistently ripples through whether I am moving or not. Time is disciplined and honors its oath to life, “(mine, yours, all)”.

My next step places my foot on the hand that reveals the hour of my mind and position. Here I stand, unable to feel any significant movement; yet I’m sure I’m not still, because time has changed and the current of my life has brought forth newness, thoughts, ideas and realities to surface, I glide into a slow walk.

I study self, my history, my current environment, I use my form of knowing to place my steps with a stronger degree of intention so that my future is the walk of freedom.

Knowledge acquired moves through the internal and external force of being as an applied practice to affirm the evolutionary motion of my life.

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Artist Statement

This piece portrays wisdom as education in motion. Despite the fact that I sit in a version of stagnation, I've learned to travel on the hands of time to enhance the lives I am charged to uplift.

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