{"product_id":"first-meal-9780870712456","title":"First Meal","description":"\u003cp\u003e Wrongful convictions haunt the American criminal justice system, as revealed in recent years by DNA and other investigative tools. And every wrongfully convicted person who walks free, exonerated after years or decades, carries part of that story. From those facts, artist Julie Green posed a seemingly simple question: When you have been denied all choice, what do you choose to eat on the first day of freedom? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e In the small details of life at such pivotal moments, a vast new landscape of the world can emerge, and that is the core concept of \u003ci\u003eFirst Meal\u003c\/i\u003e. Partnering with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law, Green and her coauthor, award-winning journalist Kirk Johnson, have created a unique melding of art and narration in the portraits and stories of twenty-five people on the day of their release. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Food and punishment have long been intertwined. The tradition of offering a condemned person a final meal before execution, for example, has been explored by psychologists, filmmakers, and others--including Green herself in an earlier series of criminal-justice themed paintings, \u003ci\u003eThe Last Supper\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eFirst Meal\u003c\/i\u003e takes on that issue from the other side: food as a symbol of autonomy in a life restored. Set against the backdrop of a flawed American legal system, \u003ci\u003eFirst Meal\u003c\/i\u003e describes beauty, pain, hope and redemption, all anchored around the idea--explored by writers from Marcel Proust to Michael Pollan--that food touches us deeply in memory and emotion. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e In Green's art, state birds and surreal lobsters soar over places where wrongful convictions unfolded, mistaken witnesses shout their errors, glow-in-the-dark skylines evoke homecoming. Johnson's essays take us inside those moments--from the courtrooms where things went wrong to the pathways of faith and resilience that kept people sane through their years of injustice. \u003ci\u003eFirst Meal\u003c\/i\u003e seeks to inform and spread awareness, but also celebrate the humanity that unites us, and the idea that gratitude and euphoria--even as it mixes with grief and the awareness of loss--can emerge in places we least expect. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJULIE GREEN (1961-2021) was a professor of art at Oregon State University. Her work has been featured in thirty-two exhibitions in the United States and abroad, and in publications such as the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times, Rolling Stone, Ceramics Monthly, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGastronomica.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e https: \/\/greenjulie.com \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e KIRK JOHNSON worked at the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e for 38 years, including 15 years as a national correspondent covering the American West. In 2001, he was part of a team that won a \u003cbr\u003e Pulitzer Prize for the Times' multi-part series, \"How Race is Lived in America.\"\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Oregon State University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50526086070546,"sku":"9780870712456","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d896f93b-9070-4392-8927-77ef72c8b7e8.jpg?v=1731259661","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/first-meal-9780870712456","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}