![](https://media-cdn.socastsrm.com/wordpress/wp-content/blogs.dir/2310/files/2019/04/LPR101-1019_2017_111648.jpg)
Women of Pussy Riot use prison experiences as inspiration
NEW YORK — One is dunked into a bathtub on a New York stage as she tries to recite a poem. Another appears in a video bathing in blood while reciting lyrics about prison and repression. Five years after they were convicted for an anti-Putin protest, members of the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot are using their ordeals in prison as creative inspiration.
Maria Alekhina, 29, is touring with the play “Burning Doors” that recreates her traumatic experience behind bars. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 27, is drawing on her prison experience to paint a bleak picture of the repression that she says America could experience in the near future.
Alekhina and Tolokonnikova recently spoke to The Associated Press about how they are turning their two years in a remote Russian prison into new artistic endeavours. Both hope their art will give voice to the millions of abused prisoners in Russia.
Their creations were forged from a challenging past.