Runaway. Teenage drug dealer. Addict. Gunshot victim. Convicted murderer. Nineteen years in prison. MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow. University of Michigan Teaching Fellow. W.K. Kellogg Foundation Leadership Fellow. 2014 TED speaker and nationally recognized voice on mass incarceration.

Shaka Senghor’s story is a testament to the power of hope. While spending nineteen years in prison for second-degree murder, Shaka found hope in a place where hopelessness grows like weeds, transforming his life through reading and writing. In his memoir “Writing My Wrongs,” he shares his story of redemption and leaves the reader aching for the innocence of childhoods lost to the streets yet hopeful about the power of the human spirit to overcome and soar. With amazing creativity and vision, Shaka weaves excerpts from his memoir into a soul stirring monologue show that will inspire and challenge audiences. With a movie-like narrative and musical score, Shaka draws audiences into his world, from his abusive childhood home to the unforgiving streets of Detroit to the cold-hearted prison yards he walked.

By sharing his story, he has inspired mothers of murder victims to forgive, inspired young men in the streets to choose a college degree over a prison number, and shifted the thinking of tough-on-crime advocates from the lock-‘em-up-throw-away-the-key mentality to believing redemption is possible.

Anyone who has heard Shaka’s story has been inspired. Now see his story come to life on the stage in a series of monologues adapted from his memoir and other writings.

“In life it’s not how you start that matters, it’s how you finish.”

-- Shaka Senghor