Lincoln Mosaic
Project Overview
Lincoln Mosaic is a multi-genre musical collaboration that brings incarcerated composers’ contemporary perspectives into dialogue with the ideas and legacies of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
The project began at Lee Correctional Institution in South Carolina in 2017–2018, where Decoda and incarcerated musicians undertook an 18-month process of research, dialogue, and composition. Nearly a decade later, many of the original collaborators are returning with fresh perspectives, joined by new artistic partners. Together, they are exploring how the promises and contradictions of American democracy resonate today. Lincoln, Douglass, and their historical contemporaries provide starting points for the composers’ own reflections on freedom, equality, citizenship, justice, and belonging.
Blending spoken word, hip-hop, folk, rock, R&B, and classical music, Lincoln Mosaic is taking shape as a semi-staged work—part musical, part song cycle. Its collaborative process is equally central: a sustained exchange in which artists across prison walls listen, question, and create together.
Why this Project Matters
Incarcerated musicians bring extraordinary artistry and perspectives to our cultural life, yet opportunities to develop and share their work beyond prison walls remain limited.
Lincoln Mosaic creates space for these artists to shape both the music and the conversation. Through sustained creative partnerships, the project supports artistic agency, builds relationships across different lived experiences, and invites audiences to consider enduring democratic ideals through voices too often excluded from public dialogue.
The project’s vision extends from collaborative residencies to public performances, touring, documentary storytelling, and professional recording. Each offers a way to connect composers with families, communities, and wider audiences—and to carry the exchange beyond the places where the work began.
Meet the Artists
Lincoln Mosaic is led by Project Director and Decoda cellist Claire Bryant, whose connection to this work is both artistic and personal. Thirteen years ago, she helped begin Decoda’s collaboration at Lee Correctional Institution, just 20 miles from her South Carolina home. That sustained relationship grounds the project in trust, shared history, and a commitment to creating music together.
