About Edwin Santana

Speaker for Rikers Public Memory Project

Edwin Santana grew up in Jamaica, Queens, and is currently a Community Organizer at Freedom Agenda, leading the work to Close Rikers Island and Decarcerate NYC. He is a Puerto Rican Freedom Fighter, a Spoken Word artist, a formerly incarcerated Individual, and a Social Justice Warrior.  Edwin is the founder of Tuff Art Media LLC, a film production company based in New York City. Edwin has been a part of the Rikers Public Memory Project community for several years, and is currently a Directly Impacted Design Advisor for RPMP's Mobile Exhibit. His 2020 interview recorded as part of RPMP's Oral History Program is the source of the audio excerpt. 

Visual Description: Medar de la Cruz, Remembering Rikers, 2023, Acrylic and watercolor on paper, 24 x 36 inches.
Two framed mixed media portraits of Helen Skipper are situated side by side. In the painting on the right Skipper’s face is fully sketched and in the background are orange squares that illustrate black, gray, and white jail items as: a food tray, a prison bed, a public phone, and a barbed fence, among others. 

In the painting on the left Skipper’s portrait is only outlined and in the background are orange squares that illustrate mostly blue and white of the same jail items.

Medar de la Cruz, Remembering Rikers, 2023, Acrylic and watercolor on paper, 24 x 36 inches.
Two framed mixed media portraits of Edwin Santana are situated side by side. In the painting on the right Santana’s face is fully sketched and in the background are orange squares that illustrate black, gray, and white jail items and sites, as: a bus, a cap, a prison lunch table, a book, and the Rikers Island Jail facility, among others.

In the painting on the left Santana’s face is only outlined and in the background are orange squares that illustrate mostly blue and white of the same jail items and sites.

Rikers Public Memory Project: Audio
A small audio player alongside headphones and transcripts of the audio text on paper are displayed on the wall.