LISA NISHIMURA
Lisa Nishimura identifies as a Queer, Asian-Latinx emerging poetess and activist, and is the Assistant Director of Operations at The Confined Arts. Calling Washington Heights home, Lisa has had extensive experience within the nonprofit realm working in various sectors during her undergraduate career at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her recent lived experience with a justice-impacted family member sparked her passion for prison abolition and the arts, having seen the stigmatizing and adverse effects of every step of the criminal legal system.
As a May 2020 graduate with her BA in Criminology, Lisa graduated with honors in her major and magna cum laude as an Honors Program student. Her Honors Program project examined the correlation between New York State arts correctional programs and successful reintegration post-release for directly justice-impacted individuals, and was showcased at the 2020 Research & Creativity Expo, found here. Throughout her college career, Lisa received multiple awards and fellowships. Awarded the JFEW Summer Scholar award in her freshman year, she assisted case managers’ work with victims of domestic violence at Safe Horizon in the Bronx Criminal Court and 44th precinct.
Granted the Jeannette K. Watson fellowship her sophomore year, Lisa has traveled across the U.S. and abroad gaining various internship experiences over three summers. Her internships include: Culture and Inclusion intern at Foote, Cone & Belding, an advertising agency, Lisa assisted with Culture & Inclusion initiatives; Community Programs intern at Street Poets, a nonprofit, she co-facilitated poetry workshops with incarcerated youth in Los Angeles; and Community Builder intern at Freemuse, a non-governmental organization in Denmark, she documented violations of artistic expression via social media. Prior to Freemuse, as a Prison Writing & Justice intern, Lisa supported PEN America in showcasing works of incarcerated writers across the nation and co-authored Works of Justice articles, aiming to highlight the relationship between mass incarceration and writing. This past May, as a Youth Advocate for Young Invincibles, she testified before the NYC Council Committee for Higher Education and co-led a virtual town hall with colleagues advocating for issues within higher education to NYS senators and assembly members.
An aspiring Teaching Artist within the prison system, Lisa hopes to utilize research to advocate for more arts correctional programs throughout the nation and change the narrative of individuals who are or have been justice-involved by creating spaces to express themselves and heal through the arts.
Lisa Nishimura identifies as a Queer, Asian-Latinx emerging poetess and activist, and is the Assistant Director of Operations at The Confined Arts. Calling Washington Heights home, Lisa has had extensive experience within the nonprofit realm working in various sectors during her undergraduate career at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her recent lived experience with a justice-impacted family member sparked her passion for prison abolition and the arts, having seen the stigmatizing and adverse effects of every step of the criminal legal system.
As a May 2020 graduate with her BA in Criminology, Lisa graduated with honors in her major and magna cum laude as an Honors Program student. Her Honors Program project examined the correlation between New York State arts correctional programs and successful reintegration post-release for directly justice-impacted individuals, and was showcased at the 2020 Research & Creativity Expo, found here. Throughout her college career, Lisa received multiple awards and fellowships. Awarded the JFEW Summer Scholar award in her freshman year, she assisted case managers’ work with victims of domestic violence at Safe Horizon in the Bronx Criminal Court and 44th precinct.
Granted the Jeannette K. Watson fellowship her sophomore year, Lisa has traveled across the U.S. and abroad gaining various internship experiences over three summers. Her internships include: Culture and Inclusion intern at Foote, Cone & Belding, an advertising agency, Lisa assisted with Culture & Inclusion initiatives; Community Programs intern at Street Poets, a nonprofit, she co-facilitated poetry workshops with incarcerated youth in Los Angeles; and Community Builder intern at Freemuse, a non-governmental organization in Denmark, she documented violations of artistic expression via social media. Prior to Freemuse, as a Prison Writing & Justice intern, Lisa supported PEN America in showcasing works of incarcerated writers across the nation and co-authored Works of Justice articles, aiming to highlight the relationship between mass incarceration and writing. This past May, as a Youth Advocate for Young Invincibles, she testified before the NYC Council Committee for Higher Education and co-led a virtual town hall with colleagues advocating for issues within higher education to NYS senators and assembly members.
An aspiring Teaching Artist within the prison system, Lisa hopes to utilize research to advocate for more arts correctional programs throughout the nation and change the narrative of individuals who are or have been justice-involved by creating spaces to express themselves and heal through the arts.
