Halim Flowers
Selected by the Obama Foundation as a 2025–26 USA Leader, Halim Flowers draws on his 22-year journey of wrongful incarceration and powerful transformation to inspire audiences to rise above obstacles and discover their true purpose.
In 1997, Halim Flowers was arrested at the age of 16 and given two life sentences. His experiences were filmed in the Emmy Award-winning documentary Thug Life in DC. During his incarceration, Halim discovered a love for literature and the arts, and began writing, painting, and freestyle-rapping. In 2005, he started his own publishing company, through which he published 11 books.
In 2019, Halim was released from prison after serving 22 years. Upon his release, he was awarded the Halcyon Arts Lab and Echoing Green fellowship awards. In 2020, he signed with DTR Modern Galleries as a visual artist, and his work has since been commissioned for the Queen of England’s Platinum Jubilee and Warner Brothers’ centennial celebration.
A recognized thought-leader shaping global creative economies, Halim has participated in panel discussions with the Milken Institute, Silicon Valley Bank, and Blackstone, and was selected by the Obama Foundation as one of their 2025–26 USA Leaders.
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Michelle Alexander
Best-selling author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, (10th Anniversary edition, January 2020)- Mass Incarceration;
- Civil Rights;
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- Black History Month;
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