Marlon Peterson - Extending Compassion Towards All: A Journey of Resilience, Restoration, and Triumph Despite Incarceration

Marlon was that nerdy little kid who loved to write and went door to door in his little suit to share church pamphlets. But even a protective family could not shield him from the violence in his neighborhood. Marlon was in elementary school when he was first robbed. His exposure to violence made him hyper-vigilant, but nothing could protect him from being raped at gun point at the age of 14. As Marlon puts it, this event took away his childhood freedom and sentenced him to absolute silence and the beginning of his belief of his own brokenness. At 19, he went to jail, facing a life sentence for his part in a fatal robbery. in Jail he earned a college degree, and designed a workshop that bridged his community of incarcerated men with a student community at Vassar College. After he got out in 2009, he started and led two youth development programs, and became a gun-violence prevention advocate and a leader in the justice reform movement. In this podcast Marlon discusses the social context to our stories and the possibility of moving past judgement to recognize the humanity and potential in all of us, including violent offenders. 

Bio:

Marlon Peterson, a writer, the host of a podcast called  DEcarcerated, where he interviews people who have spent time in prison about their journeys to success. His Ted talk has been viewed over 1 Million times. In Jail, Marlon earned a college degree, and designed a workshop that bridged his community of incarcerated men with a student community at Vassar College. After he got out in 2009, he started and lead two youth development programs,  one called H.O.L.L.A, (How Our Lives Link Altogether), and another called Youth Organizing to Save Our Streets (YO S.O.S). He also  earned another degree from New York University, a Bachelors of Science with a concentration on Organizational Behavior. He's a gun-violence prevention advocate and a leader in the justice reform movement. Marlon's writings have appeared in Ebony, Gawker, The Nation, The Crime Report, Black Press USA, Huff Post,  The Roots, and other online publications. He has contributed to Kiese Laymon's award winning novel, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America and Love Lives Here, Too by former New York Times columnist, Sheila Rule. Marlon is currently working on his first novel. 

Links:

Marlon’s website: https://www.marlonpeterson.com/

Marlon’s podcast: https://www.marlonpeterson.com/decarcerated

Article discussed in the Podcast by Prof. Shawn Ginwright: The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement