Halim Flowers

Halim Flowers is an artist, poet, and activist whose work is shaped by resilience and transformation. At 16, he was sentenced as an  adult to two life terms for a crime he did not commit.

While incarcerated, he developed  a deep love for language, beginning with freestyle rap before evolving into poetry  as a way to process the traumas of surviving  prison and growing up during Washington, DC’s crack epidemic. After serving more than 20 years, Flowers was released in 2019 following criminal justice reform in DC. Soon after, he expanded his creative practice into visual art, drawing inspiration from Jean-Michel Basquiat and translating his experiences onto canvas through vibrant, layered works.

Flowers has received fellowships from Halcyon Arts Lab and Echoing Green, was featured in  the Museum of Modern Art’s Marking Time: Art  in the Age of Mass Incarceration, and is a 2025–26 Obama Foundation USA Leader. His work is exhibited internationally.