FRIDAY KEYNOTE PANEL
FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 6:00 PM PST
Asia Johnson
Asia Johnson is a writer, storyteller, and filmmaker who has worked with several organizations in the criminal justice reform space, including The Bail Project, cut50, Shakespeare in Prison, Prison Creative Arts Program, Hamtramck Free School, and the Michigan Prison Doula Initiative. Asia is a 2019 Right of Return Fellow, 2019 Room Project Fellow, 2021 Brennan Center for Justice Fellow, 2022 Art for Justice grantee, and a 2022 Highland Leader.
Her Chapbook, An Exorcism, was released in 2018 and her directorial debut, Out of Place, screened at universities across the country in 2022. Asia studied at University of Michigan-Dearborn and is the Senior Associate of Storytelling and Local Organizing at Zealous. When Asia isn’t helping to uplift the stories of those impacted by the criminal legal system and making her dream of a world without cages come true, she is writing poetry.
Celes Tisdale
Professor Celes Tisdale is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of English having received the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and he has taught at several colleges and universities and read his poetry and lectured throughout the United States and Canada. He is the author of several books, including When the Smoke Cleared: Attica Prison Poems and Journal (Duke University Press) Betcha Ain’t: Poems from Attica (Broadside Press), and We Be Poetin’ (We the People Publishers).
Professor Tisdale has acted on the off-Broadway stage prior to his work as a radio and television personality for ABC, CBS, and NBC, and he was an on-air announcer and host of his own weekly public affairs television program (ABC). The Buffalo, New York Philharmonic Orchestra conductor invited Professor Tisdale to narrate Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” and Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait.” Professor Tisdale’s love for children also led him to become a professional storyteller for Young Audiences of America, Inc. He and his wife now reside in Georgia.
Josue Pineda (Swey)
Josue Pineda (Swey) is a 25 year old afro-latino, and a survivor of the school-prison pipeline. His journey towards serving the most vulnerable populations of youth in his community came shortly after fighting 23 years to life at the age of 19. It exposed him to the trap that is the mass incarceration machine, but having the privilege of coming out of the system intact, he has since dedicated his life towards using his 2nd chance at freedom to support youth coming home, or still trapped in the system. Through his ived experience, knowledge of the system both through an inside and outside perspective, and through his artistry he intends to fill any gap that exists in the lives of those whom he crosses paths within this fight towards abolition.
Our keynote film, The Visiting Room Project, invites the public to sit face-to-face with people serving life without the possibility of parole and hear their stories, in their words.
The only collection of its kind in the world, The Visiting Room Project is preserving and sharing filmed first-person accounts of people who are sentenced to confinement until death and have served decades in prison. These stories touch on big and small subjects, including childhood, loved ones, time in prison, hopes for the future, and more. Many of the men had served 20, 40, even 60 years at the time of their interviews. The oldest contributor was incarcerated since 1953, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was President of the United States. In the era of mass incarceration, it is virtually impossible to hear the voices of the people we have locked away for the rest of their lives, the vast majority of whom come from BIPOC and poor communities that have already endured centuries of disenfranchisement. This calculated erasure robs the public of the opportunity to grasp the human toll of America’s reliance on life without parole sentences, which have created an historical and present-day catastrophe.
Arthur Carter, who served more than 30 years of a life sentence, captured the meaning of The Visiting Room Project during his interview, stating, “If I have to die here, I appreciate this opportunity to be able to let my voice be heard.”
Anthony Hingle
Anthony Hingle is an Ambassador with The Visiting Room Project (TVRP), bringing TVRP to public audiences across the country. In addition to his role as a TVRP ambassador, Anthony works as an Office Assistant at Voice of the Experienced (VOTE), where he focuses on being a liaison between the incarcerated community and the free world. Anthony was born and raised in New Orleans and was always a hard worker. He started working at the age of 14 up until his incarceration. He was a self-taught barber in the community. Anthony came home in 2021 after 32 years in Angola. While there, he worked in the medical ward and created several rehabilitation programs for other incarcerated men. Through this work, he matured and grew into a person who wanted to give back. One of the programs he developed was The Walk Through: The Reality of a Life Sentence for reentry mentees with short sentences to understand the experiences of people sentenced to life. Another program he developed is called the Annual Patient Indoor Recreation Challenge, which gives people who use wheelchairs an opportunity to play team games, like a freethrow contest and pool. His barbering skills also helped him get by in prison — he was able to feed himself by cutting hair. Now that he’s home, Anthony wants to be a voice for incarcerated people who don’t always have one.
Daryl Waters
Daryl Waters is an Ambassador with The Visiting Room Project (TVRP), bringing TVRP to public audiences across the country. In addition to his role as a TVRP ambassador, Daryl works as a Re-Entry Specialist at the Louisiana Parole Project, where he welcomes his brothers and sisters home after incarceration and assists them with their transition. Daryl came home in 2022 after more than 29 years in Angola. As someone who has always been passionate about education, he worked as an Education Supervisor, supervising a team of tutors helping other incarcerated brothers get their high school diplomas. He also pioneered a re-entry program and managed the largest club at Angola, which included supervising over 70 incarcerated employees. In addition to these duties and many more, Daryl worked as a pastor of the largest congregation, with more than 200 members, where he regularly counseled, taught and preached. Even on the outside, Daryl continues ministering as an Associate Pastor at Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church in Gibson, Louisiana and mentoring youth in his community.
Annie Nisenson
Annie Nisenson is Director of Public Programming for The Visiting Room Project. Annie joined The Visiting Room Project in 2018 as lead organizer of the archive and one of the project producers. Now, as more than 20 contributors to the project have come home, she is working with these Ambassadors and the project team to build out the next phase of this public memory project. This includes expanding public programming, community and artistic engagement, and activating and growing the archive. Annie previously spent more than a decade working as a public defense investigator and mitigation specialist on capital cases. She is also a documentary filmmaker who works across documentary modes to make creative and impactful nonfiction. Much of Annie's work is done collaboratively in process and practice. Her most recent film, an immersive documentary titled No Place But Here, had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.