1.) How are you connected to this movement?  

I am a community organizer. I am a poet, a spoken word artist, a writer, a filmmaker. I'm also formerly incarcerated. I served 24 years in New York state prison. I was on Rikers Island, and I know Rikers Island firsthand of how violent it is. How easy it is for somebody to fall through the cracks, so to speak, on Rikers Island, and be forgotten. 

2.) Why should Rikers close?  

It's a place that not only has a negative connotation whenever anybody hears the word or the name Rikers Island, but it's a place that needs to be closed down and should never be opened again. Let's just think about the actual buildings and the place that it’s on. It's a place that was built where people used to dump their sewage. And they never cleaned up. And the founder of Rikers’ family would kidnap individuals who were free and enslave them back in the South. They would have the mechanism to how slavery kept on running for so many years. 

3.) What is your vision for a more just and equitable post-Rikers New York City?  

My vision for a better in New York is to have a place where I don't have to worry about my grandsons or my grandchildren being shot in the street because they're Puerto Rican or they're dark skin. If they happen to catch a case, meaning that they get arrested for something, whatever it is, let them have their day in court. I shouldn't get 10 years for something and you should get four years for the same thing based on what our zip code is, or where we live at, or skin color, right? So that's my vision for a better New York, you know, take that money that we'll save from having Rikers open and invest it in the community. You know, invest in something – invest it in the education system, invest it in the housing department in New York City. So that's my vision.