Liza Jessie Peterson

LIZA JESSIE PETERSON is an actress, poet, playwright, educator and activist. She has performed her play The Peculiar Patriot in more than 35 jails and penitentiaries across the country and has opened for keynote speakers at conferences on mass incarceration. She has worked with such artists as Nona Hendryx, Toshi Reagon, Amiri Baraka, The Last Poets, Craig Harris, Vernon Reid, Rakim, Carl Hancock Rux, Ron Carter, and Sandra St. Victor and appeared in the films Love the Hard Way (co-starring with Pam Grier and Academy Award winner Adrien Brody), Bamboozled (Spike Lee), A Drop of Life (K. Shalini), and What About Me (Jamie Catto). She will be featured in an upcoming documentary about mass incarceration by Ava Duvernay (director of Selma), where she will discuss her art and activism.