The Detroit Justice Center is thrilled to announce our 2025-26 Artist in Residence. Since 2020, each year we have supported one Wayne County artist with a $10,000 grant and assistance in implementing a project that answers the question “what would a world without policing or incarceration look like?” This year’s selection panel included Casey Rocheteau and Claudia Colin-Grimes from DJC, as well as our previous artist in residence, Cherise Morris. Our panelists had a difficult choice this year as there were a number of brilliant applications that hit the mark. Ultimately, the artist who was selected submitted a project proposal that was so timely and unique that its merits were undeniable. This year’s selected artist is Jenin Yaseen, whose project proposal “We Stitch What We Are Denied,” floored our panel because it “envisions a world without cages or colonizers—one where we respond to harm with care, not punishment, and hold each other instead of disappearing one another.”
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A Dearborn resident, Yaseen proposed “a multimedia public art project that uses illustration,
painting, and embroidery on reclaimed police and military fabrics to tell abolitionist stories rooted
in resistance, grief, and collective imagination.” The proposed project will result in a three panel fabric mural depicting scenes of state violence and surveillance in Palestine and Detroit, showing the material connections between repression in both, giving way to an image of what solidarity looks like, while “hands extend across from both sides, meeting in the center as an act of cross-border solidarity and mutual defiance.” In Yaseen’s own words, the mural will feature a triptych.
“The left panel will center Palestine: scenes of bombings, surveillance towers, incarceration, checkpoints, and the AI-powered military tech used to police and cage Palestinians. These illustrations will be done directly onto decommissioned police and military wear, asserting the material connection between violence here and abroad.
Yaseen’s “Masks”: Hand embroidered over 30 masks 2020-2021, using sacred Palestinian embroidery; each one is named after a Palestinian village that had been ethnically cleansed
The right panel will reflect Detroit: highlighting surveillance towers, environmental harm, criminalization of poverty, and the use of the same carceral technologies against Black and immigrant communities.
The center panel will be stitched into the rips and seams of these materials: representing the encampments, places of confrontation, community, and protection. Here, people are feeding one another, watching over each other, organizing collectively. “
Beyond the significance and artistic relevance of Yaseen’s proposal, our committee was impressed by her commitment to community engagement. Throughout the course of her residency, Yaseen intends to hold stitching sessions and abolitionist storytelling circles where “participants will be invited to:
● Embroider affirmations, protest slogans, and personal symbols into the fabric
● Share reflections about policing, displacement, and dreams of freedom
● Contribute small painted elements (like flowers, keys, or tents) based on their own
experiences
● Help shape the visual language of the banners through color, fabric, and motif selection”
We are ecstatic to be working with Jenin throughout the upcoming year, and we hope that you will join us at one of her stitching sessions in the future.
Follow Jenin Yaseen on Social Media:
Instagram: @sr7aneh
Twitter: @batee5a__
Artist’s Bio:
Jenin Yaseen (sr7aneh) is a Palestinian visual artist known for her powerful explorations of identity, memory, and cultural narratives through painting, installation, and multimedia art. Her work delves into themes of belonging and displacement, blending traditional techniques with innovative approaches to provoke introspection and dialogue on issues such as identity politics and cultural heritage. Yaseen’s art challenges viewers to reconsider their perspectives on the world. Beyond her artistic practice, Yaseen actively engages in community-based art initiatives, advocating for social change and amplifying diverse voices. Her unwavering dedication to exploring human experience and promoting social justice has established her as a prominent figure in contemporary art, inspiring audiences and demonstrating the transformative potential of artistic expression.