THE HEART OF THE WORLD, San Quentin, USA, 2025

The Heart of the World, was painted inside of San Quentin State Prison.
It speaks to the innate connection to spirit that we all have, and must have, in order to be of this world.

The mural stands on the outside of West Block, where more than half the population passes back and forth on any normal day.
Part of a bold initiative by San Quentin SkunkWorks,
a nonprofit social innovation lab focused on introducing and testing moonshot reform ideas.

My son, Keya Tama, also painted a mural. Sharing this experience with him was deeply surreal.
It’s hard to correlate or digest that people are living for decades in these spaces, completely cut off from society.

We worked closely with Coles-El, Tony Haro and Luis Maya on this project.
“We’re going back and forth looking at this beautiful mural that’s saying ‘the heart of the world,’ you know?
The other day, somebody asked me what does that mean?”, said Haro.
“And I said listen to what they’re saying, bro – wherever you’re at, you’re the heart of the world.
We’re the heart of the world. You carry that with you.”

A huge thank you to the team from Skunkworks, as well as to the prison officials who cleared the way for this.
This project was crowdfunded grassroots and created pro-bono.

Thanks to all the individuals who made this possible.