Lupe Fiasco and others wish Chelsea Manning a Happy Birthday!

Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning), the whistleblower serving a 35 year sentence for leaking government documents, turns 27 on Wednesday. The Guardian gathered some of her supporters to wish her a happy birthday with poems and paintings, here is what Lupe had to say about the above painting he made called "Womanning":

The inspiration came directly from a particular Warhol of Marilyn Monroe at the MOMA. The meaning behind the work, for me, is about our roles in society; how those roles and identities can be reversed and re-decided and the consequences that come along with that process. Chelsea’s “double agency” as covert intelligence officer and spy, as well as the overt duality of “man becoming woman”, is something that I felt needed to be captured and re-contextualised. She encapsulates the antiheroes in society – sitting up in the heights of mythology, simultaneously demonised and forgiven.

All the letters were sent to Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas where Chelsea is serving her sentence. If you want to see what others sent, including Saul Williams and fellow whistleblower Edward Snowden, click HERE!