This video of Vernon T. Bateman’s First Friday opening at the Athenaeum Christel DeHaan ArtSpace in Indianapolis demonstrates that no physical or social barriers can hold Bateman back from his mission of helping to heal our world. The opening of his two-month long exhibition, “If Bullets Could Cry: Ammunition for Healing” took place on the evening of Friday, February 7. In addition to his family members, friends, art supporters, and others, Bateman was accompanied by the mascot of Baby22GunSafetyLLC, an organization he founded in prison to enable those who committed acts of gun violence to make amends and heal others and themselves.
In 2020, Vernon T. Bateman illustrated and wrote “If Bullets Could Cry,” his most recent children’s book. He published it from an solitary isolation unit behind prison bars during the COVID-19 pandemic. That was 22 years into a wrongful conviction and unjust incarceration, during which he faced the most horrendous circumstances and was subjected to harsh conditions. Yet he turned to healing others as a way to keep himself going. Although Bateman was released in June 2023, he is still not free; he has not been exonerated and his unequal parole stipulations try to force him to remain inside of a social prison.
Read more about this project at www.Baby22GunSafetyLLC.com, learn about and commission a work of Vernon’s at www.VernonsVersions.art, and read about and support his struggle for exoneration at www.FreeVernon.org.
