We are delighted to introduce to you our 2023 Visions After Violence Fellows! With support from the Institute for Museum and Library Services and Mellon Foundation, we are continuing the Visions After Violence Fellowship Program as an opportunity for people who have been directly impacted by state violence to contribute to our community-based documentation and archival work. In 2017, we launched Life and Death in a Carceral State, a project that included training for directly affected people to conduct and record interviews with their fellow community members. Interviewers with lived experience bring unique insight and experience to our work. The Visions After Violence Fellowship Program continues our commitment to centering the experiences, perspectives, and visions of people directly impacted by state violence.
Learn more about the 2023 VAV Fellows below!
Myles Martin is a poet, author, and activist for criminal legal reform from McComb, Mississippi. After being held in pretrial detention for 30 months, Myles has devoted his time to documenting stories of those who have experienced life in Hays County jail. He lives, performs, and fights for justice in Austin, Texas.
Sam Kirsch is an abolitionist who organizes his community to fight policing and prisons and instead invest public resources into ending cycles of poverty and trauma. Hailing from Rhode Island, he graduated from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York and worked as a line cook in his hometown of Providence and in New York City and Melbourne, Australia. During a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin in May 2020, Sam was shot in the face by Austin police with a beanbag round. The bones in his cheek, nose, and under his eye were smashed to pieces. He has undergone five (and counting) surgeries. He continues to suffer from distorted double vision, eyelid problems, nerve pain, a traumatic brain injury, and PTSD. Sam hopes to use storytelling to allow others in similar circumstances to share their experiences, as part of a healing collectively and continuing to fight together to change the way we approach policing.
Marci Marie Simmons is the Community Outreach Coordinator for Lioness: Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, a Social Media Influencer, and Content Creator. Marci Marie uses her voice as a formerly incarcerated woman to educate others about the unique experience of surviving 10 years in a Texas prison. Known for her joyful disposition and openness, she focuses on healing with her family as she advocates for those most affected by the criminal justice system. Marci continues chasing her dreams while never forgetting the women she left behind prison gates.
