Bro Hernandez Wiley (Bro. Truth)
Bro. Truth, AKA Bro Hernandez Wiley, is a freedom fighter mobilizing his visual art and spoken word to combat racism, misogyny, and prejudice for all Americans. He has broken the chains of the mind to live free from oppression.
He is a contributor to A.B.O. Comix, based in Oakland, California, which publishes work from incarcerated LGBTQ+ people, and he participates in Between the Lines, a series of collaborative art workshops by correspondence. His contributions will be exhibited in The Power of We, a large-scale public art exhibition, supported by We, Women Photo, that will travel across the U.S. to venues in Anchorage, Atlanta, Chicago, and New Orleans. In 2021, his work was featured in the virtual exhibition Freedom & Captivity, a state-wide humanities initiative in Maine that asks contributors to imagine freedom in an abolitionist society.
Bro. Truth’s comics star himself as Katman, with sidekick Double Ree. They are members of the alien nation of Love Kats, from Planet Love. Their leader has given them orders to return to Planet Earth to help free humans from bondage and the tyranny of racist police and to assure the victory of the largest civil rights movement in history. He dreams of an intergalactic future on Planet Love, where his artwork will help him raise funds for a lawyer to advocate for his exoneration.
Between the Lines Broadside:
Commissioned by Center for Book Arts 2021 Workspace Artist in Residence Rowan Renée for their Between the Lines project, this edition of 100 broadsides is a collaboration between NYC-based artist Adama Delphine Fawundu and queer incarcerated artist Bro. Truth.
When designing the broadside, Fawundu was inspired by Bro. Truth’s series of comics about Truth’s fictional alter-ego, Katman, and his sidekick, Double Ree, working together in pursuit of civil rights and liberation. Using the Risograph and letterpress, Fawundu reproduced Truth’s drawings using colors Fawundu felt reflected Truth’s vibrantly powerful poems and personality. Fawundu imagines Truth creating a future for us all in what Truth calls “Planet Love.”
All proceeds from this broadside—and the other five that are part of the series—directly benefit organizations supporting queer incarcerated artists.
