Milwaukee Award Show to Honor Those Impacted by the System on Nov. 10
Brianna Nelson. (Picture provided by The Community)
The first annual “Correcting the Narrative Awards” will take place on November 10, 2021 to honor nine Wisconsin unrecognized success stories in the system that have impacted the community. The awards are through The Community in partnership with Project RETURN and the Milwaukee Turners.
The honorees were selected by eight organizations involved in reentry, justice reform or decarceration work. There will be performances by system impacted comedians, spoken word and musicians.
The event is being organized by The Community’s Executive Director Shannon Ross – he spent 17 years in prison and was released in September of 2020.
“While I was incarcerated, I felt we were sending the wrong message by holding up and awarding people in the system-impacted community who were more charismatic and renowned. But the mass majority of success stories are quiet and have been going unrecognized, which we need to change,” said Ross.
There are two things Ross wants to achieve through the Correcting the Narrative Awards:
Begin to change the way individuals in reentry, justice reform, and decarceration work celebrate and honor success stories.
Show those in the system-impacted community trying to change and correct their lives that success is being healthy, supportive of your close and extended community, and staying out of the justice system. It’s not always bout the riches.
Founder of Milwaukee’s Peace Garden Project MKE Camille Mays will begin the ceremony by honoring crime survivors and our ancestors. Tamra Oman of the Statewide Director for the FREE Campaign will be the host.
Ross created The Community in 2014 while attaining his bachelor’s degree in business administration. The Community started as a newsletter that is now currently being read by half of Wisconsin’s prison population, according to Ross.
He gives credit to his parents and two friends for growing the mission into a 501c3 while he was serving time.
Brianna Nelson is one of the nine honorees and she was selected by All of Us or None Wisconsin where she has the role of community organizer. Nelson caught a case straight of out of high school at the age of 18, which led to a long road of interactions with the system.
Originally from Minnesota, Nelson permanently resides in Milwaukee due to her legal situation. In 2020, she founded “Sister’s Keepers MKE” during the uprising influenced by the death of George Floyd. The organization’s purpose is to build a community of women for women and children.
It is historically known that women have been at the forefront of moving movements forward. During the 2020 summer protests, Nelson noticed a lack of attentiveness to the women and children of the protest. She wanted to create something that would put women and children’s wellbeing at the forefront.
Sister’s Keepers’ mission is to advocate for and support women and children that’ve been impacted by mass-incarceration through peer meditation, peer mentoring and peer support.
“Be the change in the community even when you feel like nobody is watching,” she said.
Nelson appreciates the work of Ross and is grateful to have been selected.
The nine honorees are: Phillip Coleman, Jason O'Malley, Lance Ley, Dominique Gulley (incarcerated), Jordan Berg (incarcerated), Aaron Hicks, Gene Echols, Brianna Nelson and Dwayne Mack.
To purchase tickets to the ceremony, click here. For more information on The Community, click here or contact Shannon Ross via email at Shannon@thecommunitynow.us.