Nikhil Pal Singh is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History at New York University and Founding Faculty Director of the NYU Prison Education Program. Founded in January 2015, the New York University Prison Education Program (NYU PEP) is a college program that offers an Associate of Arts degree and educational programming to men incarcerated at Wallkill Correctional Facility in Ulster County, New York. By offering transferrable credits, and resources for developing critical skills and relationships, we are committed to supporting the academic and professional goals for our students both in prison and upon their release.

 

A historian of race, empire, and culture in the 20th-century United States, Singh is the author, most recently, of Race and America’s Long War (University of California Press, 2017). He is also the author of the award-winning book, Black Is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy (Harvard University Press, 2004), and author and editor with Jack O’Dell of Climin’ Jacob’s Ladder: The Black Freedom Movement Writing of Jack O’Dell”. A new book Exceptional Empire: Race, Colonialism and the Origins of US Globalism is in-progress and forthcoming from Harvard University Press. Singh’s writing and interviews have appeared in a number of places including New York Magazine, TIME, the New Republic, and on NPR’s Open Source and Code Switch.

Jamal Joseph is a full Professor of Professional Practice and former chair of Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program. He is the Executive Artistic Director of New Heritage Theater and Films and the Founder of the acclaimed Impact Repertory Youth Theater of Harlem. He is an alumnus of the Sundance Directing Lab and the Third World Newsreel Film and Video Workshop. He serves on the advisory boards of the Writers Guild Initiative, Imagenation, the Ghetto Film School and the Maysles Film Institute.

 

Jamal credits his time spent in the Black Panther Party and Leavenworth Federal Prison as the fire that forged his creative sword. While in prison, he earned two college degrees, wrote five plays, two volumes of poetry and founded a groundbreaking theater company that brought prisoners together who had previously been divided by race, culture, and violence.

 

Jamal co-wrote and directed the 2017 feature Chapter & Verse starring Omari Hardwick and executive produced by Antoine Fuqua). Jamal’s additional directing credits include Drive by: A Love Story and Da Zone for Starz, Hip Hop in the Promised Land for Comedy Central and Hughes Dream Harlem for PBS. His additional writing credits include Knights of the South Bronx for A & E, New York Undercover ("Bad Blood") for FOX; the Many Trials of Tammy B  for Nickelodeon, and Ali: An American Hero for FOX. Jamal is the author of Tupac Shakur Legacy (Atria Books) and his memoir Panther Baby (Algonquin Books).

 

Jamal was named one of the top twelve African American New York educators in the Daily News Black History Month issue. He has been featured in the New York Times, ABC’s Nightline, Showtime’s Lords of the Revolution, PBS' Vanguards of the Revolution and HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. His awards include a Cine Golden Eagle, a National Black Program Consortium Prized Pieces Award, a Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame Award, a Union Square Award, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, The Paul Robeson Citation Award from Actors Equity and an Academy Award nomination for Best Song for his work with Impact in the 2007 film August Rush.