- As a multimedia artist, I work across different platforms, so I work across photography, filmmaking, public art installations.

I do oral history interviews.

Really I'm interested in telling stories about everyday life, but in different ways.

- And Njaimeh Njie is among the youngest artists whose work was featured in the latest exhibit.

Hers is a film about what life is like for incarcerated women - Because we were in prison with life sentences with no parole at the time.

We spent - Across the wall stages a conversation between women who have been released from prison after spending decades inside what it was like to not just go to prison, but make a life and really grow as a person and and be connected to each other in, in this kind of sisterhood and a family that they've built inside.

- The film was commissioned by Let's Get Free, an organization working to end sentences of life with no parole for women.

- Many people profit off of mass incarceration, off of these people, these women being locked behind bars for a very long time.

Yet that same money could be spent actually addressing some of the inequities that lead to people being incarcerated in the first place.

This is a global issue in terms of kind of, I think, what it means to live in a humane society and the fact that this is not a humane thing that is happening to people.

I grew up going to the museum.

My dad, Sanu Njie is a multifaceted, multi-talented artist.

He's a fiber artist doing batik painting.

He's a photographer, a tailor, a jack of many trades.

He really modeled for me that you could make a life being an artist.

My family is full of storytellers.

I mean, I was raised by the most animated, entertaining in depth storytellers that you could imagine, but also my family placed a really, really high value on family history, and so I've always had a really, really high regard for telling and sharing stories.

So I'm interested in kind of not just what things are like for us today, but how did we get here?

And so I felt very lucky and privileged to be able to speak to these women, Paulette Carrington and Avis Lee.

- Although the international exhibit has ended, she hopes people will continue to see her film.

- This was kind of a symbolic representation of the prison that the women are communicating across.

Just that communication barrier that exists that the women have to kind of work across to keep in touch with their families and loved ones at home - All - Those days.

I hope that people who see across the walls realize that women who have been sentenced to life in prison without parole are more than just their sentences.

They're people who had lives and experiences before going in.

I feel very privileged to be an artist, to be a cultural worker, and it's hope, it's work that I hope to continue to do for a long time.

It's not easy though, you know, it's not easy to make a living as an artist, but I think that like most things that are worthwhile, those challenges can manifest into something beautiful.