Criminal Justice System
Czezre Adams
Czezre Tyrell Adams known to many as "Porkchop" was born on August 8, 1989 to Angenette Ellis-Harper and Alvin Adams. Raised on High Street, Czezre attended community schools such as Sherman Preschool, Quitman St, and Louise A. Spencer where he was in the Gifted and Talented program before moving to Franklin, NJ.After graduating high school, Czezre attended Virginia Union University and then Essex County College obtaining a degree in Social Sciences. While at Virgin Union University, Czezre was apart of the Constitution Committee, President of his dorm, and served as the 1st...
Patreese Johnson
Patreese Johnson is a femme-identified poet. She is the youngest of four brothers and one sister, and she grew up as the youngest on the block in her tight-knit community in Newark, New Jersey. She is fiercely empathetic with a big heart. While incarcerated after fighting off a street harasser in New York City (a story told in the documentary Out in the Night), she received her GED and ran a support group for women who were survivors of domestic violence. Since her release, she has enrolled at Essex County Community College, studying for Associates degree in Liberal Arts. She has been touring...Marleny Franco
Marleny Franco has been a Horticulturist helping people grow food for over thirty-five years. She holds a Master’s degree in Plant Physiology from Rutgers University and worked as an Agricultural County Agent and professor at Rutgers University for eleven years before moving on to establish and run an environmental horticultural non-profit organization called: Greater Newark Conservancy.
Through her work with the Greater Newark Conservancy she was successful in encouraging thousands of individuals to garden across the state and other locations within the US. After twelve years...
Renata Hill
Renata Hill is currently a full-time student on the path to earn an Associates degree in Human Services at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and will then work to get her master’s degree in Social Work. She has toured the country speaking out for this case and also for all women who are incarcerated for defending themselves. She spoke to a room of over 1600 people at the national INCITE! Color Of Violence Conference in Chicago in March 2015. Renata won the 2015 Beyond Measure Award co-presented with DapperQ and New York Fashion Week for her dedication to activism and social justice...Venice Brown
Venice Brown earned her GED from Cape Fear Community College. She received her Cosmetology License from the College of Wilmington, North Carolina where she lives and works part-time at a hair salon and at Cape Fear College. She had a baby boy, Jasiah, who just turned four and co-parents with her girlfriend whom she has known since they were twelve years old. As Venice’s mom says, “Venice would give you the shirt off her back, but do not disrespect her friends.”Venice has spoken at the University of California – San Diego for The Nicholas Papadopoulos Endowed Lecture in Gay & Lesbian...