- I was 17 years old when I went to prison, they sentenced me to natural life.

And then God showed me a sign by letting me out.

Like I was denied five times reconsideration for my sentence.

And then when I started praying, my judge had a change of heart, she let me out.

And so that's the deal, I gotta do this work.

I made a promise, I said: "if you show me a sign that you up there then I'll commit my life to helping my people".

And yeah, it's a lot of challenges in the city, but I really, really love my people.

(plodding cello music) I grew up in Washington, DC.

And around the time when I was around 16 or 17, one night people came after me, and I ended up taking a person's life.

And I was sentenced to natural life in prison.

So I essentially grew up in prison in Jessup, Maryland.

And so while in prison, I fell into a deep depression, and I sat down in my cell, and started thinking about how I wasted my life, and I knew that I always had potential.

And so I wrote up what I called “my master plan,” which was like a bucket list of things that I wanted to do.

I wanted to educate myself.

I wanted to embrace therapy.

I knew if I was gonna really achieve this plan, I needed to have the necessary skillsets, so reading every book that I could find that would help me be better, at, like, communicating, better in business, better at understanding the world.

So when I was away in prison, I earned a degree in sociology.

I was 17 years old when I went to prison, and when I came home, I was 32 years old.

First day I got out, got some home-cooked lasagna, a steak, and some shrimp.

I heard about Google and YouTube, and so I just stayed up all night just like googling stuff.

I was like: "I can't believe I can just google anything and I can learn about whatever.

And so I probably stayed up to like... six in the morning doing that.

So I chose to come to Baltimore because I could find a nice place that I could afford.

And I also wanted to do work in the community.

I wanted to do workforce development work.

I've done some gang mediation.

I've done community organizing, and it was just work I wanted to do, and it was tons of opportunities, tons of challenges here that I felt like I could make a difference with engagement.

So working as a workforce development director, there were so many people that were falling out of the workforce pipeline that couldn't get work because maybe they had a criminal conviction 20 years ago.

Out of frustration, I started my own companies, and I would employ these people and give them the opportunity that society didn't want to give them.

As a contractor, I was doing a lot of work with galleries and artists, but I found art to be powerful and therapeutic at the same time.

And so I started making art and started painting.

It's like the ultimate therapy.

I just feel relaxed.

It's like my happy place.

I don't think I'm ever gonna stop painting.

(soft strings music) Sometimes I'll stay up all night and just paint.

Just thinking about what I want the painting to say.

(soft strings music) I just think about social justice issues, criminal justice system, racism, stuff that that is difficult for some people to sit down, and really talk seriously about.

I can put it all into a painting.

(soft strings music) The strange thing about Baltimore is... it's so siloed and segregated.

So the folks back there a few blocks back, they're not gonna walk out here or come down here.

And these folks around here, they're not gonna walk down there.

People just stay in their space.

(plodding cello music) I think Maryland has influenced my identity, who I am, mainly because of my experience in prison.

And to be honest, I love this state, but we have cruel policies towards our criminal justice system.

I can't stand driving past the jails, but it's also a reminder to motivate myself about why I gotta keep advocating.

To get these jails shut down, and get our people home.

But I see opportunity.

(cello music)