House of D: Voices out the Window, Stories on the Ground

House of D: Voices out the Window, Stories on the Ground is a curatorial reflection on the themes explored by the writer Hugh Ryan in his deeply moving The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison (2022). The exhibit focuses on five artists whose work, collectively, weaves together the horrors of mass incarceration, queer resistance and personal affirmation that were the daily life of the marginalized black, poor and queer women who were locked up from 1932-1971 inside a carceral desert island in the midst of New York City’s prosperous and bohemian Greenwich Village neighborhood. The title pays homage to the pivotal role played by “The House of D,” (as it was commonly known) in the nearby Stonewall riots that announced the Gay Liberation movement to the world. Despair | Determination | Dignity are the stages of transformation in these women’s lives that the artists guide us through.

The Incorrigibles Project narrates the early history of unlawful incarceration of women, where girls, mostly of color aged 12-18, were labeled as "incorrigible" and sent to correctional houses.  The project sheds light on their experiences and the societal implications of such stereotyping – many of these young women were unable to return to a normal life. https://incorrigibles.org/