Anthony Papa is an artist, writer, noted advocate against the war on drugs and co-founder of the Mothers of the New York Disappeared. His opinion pieces about the drug war have appeared in the Huffington Post, among others. He is a public speaker and college lecturer on his art and on criminal justice issues. Currently, he is a communications specialist for Drug Policy Alliance in NYC. Papa is the author of 15 to Life: How I Painted My Way to Freedom (Feral House, 2004), a memoir about his experience of being sentenced to state prison for a first-time, non-violent drug offence under New York's draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws. The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, National Public Radio, "Democracy Now", Court TV, "Extra", and C-Span have interviewed him. Papa has appeared on nationally syndicated talk shows such as "Charles Grodin", "Geraldo Rivera", and "Catherine Crier Live". His art has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York as well as other venues.
Kinnari Jivani
Kinnari Jivani was born and raised in India. She is fluent in Gujarati, Hindi, and English. She has a B.S. In microbiology from the University of Mumbai. At the age of 20, she was arrested and then sentenced to 11 to 20 years of imprisonment in Michigan. Her earliest release date is in January 2001, after which she faces deportation. Since her incarceration, she has been discovering and exploring her talent for painting and writing. Her artwork has been featured in the Michigan Bar Journal and the Artist Magazine. Her paintings have been shown in the Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners for many years and have consistently won first place awards. Her writings have been published in The Change Agent, a magazine for social change; A Crack in the Concrete, an anthology of poems; Bhumika, a feminist magazine; The Project V-Day: Until the Violence Stops, headed by Eve Ensler; and in the Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing, an anthology. She is a yoga instructor and volunteers weekly yogasana classes in the facility. She is now housed in the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Michigan.
