Nasihah Jones

By the time Nasihah Jones was eight years old he had taught himself how to draw and paint as a means of escaping the harsh reality that surrounded his childhood. At an early age he was recognized as "The Artist" by family and friends. At the same time, he was growing up in one of the nation's most violent and poorest communities (Newburgh, NY) where the scourge of the crack-cocaine era left many urban cities further marginalized and neighborhoods ruled by gangs, drug dealers and urban warfare....See more

By the time Nasihah Jones was eight years old he had taught himself how to draw and paint as a means of escaping the harsh reality that surrounded his childhood. At an early age he was recognized as "The Artist" by family and friends. At the same time, he was growing up in one of the nation's most violent and poorest communities (Newburgh, NY) where the scourge of the crack-cocaine era left many urban cities further marginalized and neighborhoods ruled by gangs, drug dealers and urban warfare. Feeling trapped and terrorized by the culture of murder and poverty around him, Nasihah found himself entangled in a fatal confrontation with a neighborhood gang member and drug dealer who threatened three times to kill him. His act of obvious self-defense becomes deliberately twisted by prosecutorial misconduct and at 15 years old, Nasihah is convicted of murder and sentenced to nine years to life in prison. Nasihah's own life in prison echoed that of Malcolm X, whom he admired and studied carefully. He took charge of his own redemption, education, and ultimately his own transformation until he was freed from his wrongful murder conviction. Nasihah Jones earned a bachelor's degree in Anthropology from SUNY Purchase and a master's degree from SUNY New Paltz in Humanistic/Multicultural Education. He currently lives in Washington, DC, and is employed as a high school educator in Southeast, DC. See less