Lamarr Little grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn and is currently on the 24th year of a 25-to-life prison sentence. During his life on the streets, he was shot by a New York City police officer.
While incarcerated, he began doing artwork. First he painted stage sets for Rehabilitation Through the Arts and later powerful posters for organizations like RAPP, Queers for Justice and Transforming Lives. His strongly emotive work can be both seen and felt in the over 2,000 images he has created, ranging from pencil drawings to oil and acrylic paintings Lamarr’s artwork is intended to convey positive messages that have the power to lift the spirits of all who view them. From 2003 to 2007, Lamarr was a member of the Reality & Pain Life Skills Peer Counseling Program at Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, New York, teaching workshops in drawing, painting, and poetry to fellow incarcerated individuals. From 2018 to 2019, while in Eastern New York Correctional Facility, he chaired the Inmate Liaison Committee.
Currently, he is a facilitator with the Alternative to Violence Project, which teaches anger management and alternatives to violence, mentors the newly incarcerated, and teaches other incarcerated people how to express themselves through art. He recently founded The Erasure Project, which examines the racial roots of mass incarceration through images.
