55: Liza Jessie Peterson on Amplifying Art and Rebelling Against the Status Quo through The Power of "Artivism"

Today's guest on At the End of the Tunnel is a self-described ‘artivist'. Her name is Liza Jessie Peterson, a gifted actress, spoken word poet, playwright, author, and youth advocate. Liza grew up in West Philadelphia, graduated from Georgetown, and worked as a model in Paris before getting introduced to the New York poetry scene, where she became one of the stars of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. 

Following her passion as a poet and an artist led her to accept a side gig; teaching poetry to kids in New York City schools. Her first assignment was at a school called Island Academy, which she ultimately discovered was the school at Rikers Island jail.

That assignment, which was only meant to last three weeks, evolved into an 18-year career of working with inmates and developing a deep understanding of the prison industrial complex. Liza’s experiences with students at Island Academy led her to write a book, titled All Day: A Year of Love and Survival Teaching Incarcerated Kids at Rikers Island, and an award-winning one woman show called The Peculiar Patriot, which she has since performed at over 35 penitentiaries across the country.

In this conversation, Liza shares the extraordinary series of events that led her to work at Island Academy. In particular, she talks about the kids she has worked with, how they benefited from her program and, perhaps most importantly, the invaluable lessons she learned from them. Liza’s story reveals a fascinating behind-the-veil analysis of mass incarceration in America, and she also shares some of her own career struggles, insecurities, and the leaps of faith she had to make in her own creative journey while she was amplifying the voices of others. 

Tune in today for an in-depth and inspiring conversation about the power of artivism and using your art to rebel against the status quo with the incomparable Liza Jessie Peterson!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Liza reflects on her favorite toy as a kid: Rock ‘em Sock ‘em.
• Hear about her family growing up and how they influenced her political awareness.
• The sense of pride that Liza’s father instilled in her at a young age.
• How The Autobiography of Malcolm X introduced her to revolutionary Black consciousness.
• Viewing success through the lens of what her older sister was doing at the time.
• How the incentive to “change the white man’s game from the inside” led her to Georgetown.
• What Liza learned about kindness, compassion, and humility from her late mother.
• Why she says working as a model in Paris was the gateway drug to realizing the viability of using her creativity to make a living.
• How acting allowed Liza to process the pain of her mother’s loss through storytelling.
• Hear about the inadvertent poem that brought Liza to the Nuyorican for the first time.
• Laying the groundwork for the artists of today by being part of the Nuyorican movement.
• Learn about Liza’s process of writing a poem, which always starts with a journal entry.
• Liza speaks about her first one-woman show, which was inspired by Ntozake Shange.
• Find out how she came to teach her first poetry class at Island Academy on Rikers Island.
• Why she says teaching at Rikers wasn’t a mission or a purpose; until she got there.
• She describes her first time arriving at Rikers, including her shock at seeing so many Black, Puerto Rican, and Latino faces there.
• How this first-hand introduction to the prison industrial complex turned a three-week assignment into a three-year mission.
• What it was like teaching poetry to juveniles and the importance of validating their voices.
• Teaching these young men that their slang was valuable; they

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