I was so angry at God. I was like God, why do you have me in prison? Are you serious?

All my French careers are taken off. Mums was in eyes, you know, saw, saw me here, this one, that one.

Everybody's like, left the launch pad and they're in orbit.

And I'm in the same class, like we all came up together, so I'm in the same class like we all came up together so I'm like God what about me and I'm like stuck in prison with my hand raised like in my next so the dream dream, the dream to be that artist

where my art is supporting me

and I'm not supporting my art

was a constant gnawing at my spirit. So even though I was in Rikers and I was with the boys and I was teaching and I was authentic when I was there,

when I left the prison, I'm like, what the fuck God? Are you serious? Are you like I didn't sign up for this. This is not what I want to do while I'm here. I'm doing it. But this and so I felt very invisible, I felt unseen, I felt unaccomplished.

I would go into deep bouts of depression because of it. We're back with another episode of At the End of the Tunnel. I am Light Watkins, your host.

And if this is your first time listening to at the end of the tunnel,

this is a conversational podcast with people who have been using their platform

or their art or their activism to make the world a better place.

And today's guest is a self-described artist.

Her name is Lisa Jesse Peterson, and Lisa is a gifted actress she's a spoken word poet a playwright

and author and a youth advocate. Lisa grew up in West Philadelphia and after attending Georgetown University she became a fashion model and then later she was introduced to the New York Poetry scene where she became one of the stars of the Neur Rican Poets Cafe, along with Saul Williams, whose story you may recall from episode 49 of the podcast.

Anyway, Liza's poetry led her to accept a side gig teaching poetry to kids in New York City schools.

And her first assignment was at a school called Island Academy, which turned out to be the school at New York's

Rikers Island Jail. And that assignment, which was only supposed to last for three weeks,

turned into an 18 year career of working with

inmates and and understanding the prison industrial complex. It resulted in a

book that she wrote called All Day, a year of love and survival teaching incarcerated kids at Rikers Island.

And she also wrote a one woman show about the prison industrial complex called The

...