When Andrew arrived at Green Haven in 2016 – after four years at Riker’s Island – he had no interest in being on the stage, although he had a background in theater.
I came to prison at 49, so I wasn’t a knucklehead kid. I handled props at Pratt Institute and a few other places, and creative expression was important to me. But I didn’t want to get on the stage so I volunteered to do props for Café of the Heart. I saw that I could be of real assistance there and that pulled me in.
After Café of the Heart, Andrew took Paul and Meg’s Improv Workshop, did the RTA 101 Orientation and officially joined RTA. He remembers the content of many of the workshops quite specifically,
John Lloyd taught a class where we read Shakespearean monologues and transformed them into our personal stories. I wrote about the loss of my mom, and at the end of the piece, I stepped through metaphorical bars and freed myself of pain. I was working off of Hamlet’s “shuffling off this mortal coil,” and I improvised it at the moment. It was cathartic. I also took workshops in singing and memoir. I noticed that a lot of my peers were in college and I got interested in that, too.
In 2021, Andrew was accepted into the Bard College program but before he could start, he was put “on the draft” and transferred to Otisville, a medium “honors” facility.
I got a job in the library and I applied to the John Jay College Program. I was accepted quickly – I found out later that Bard had recommended me.
Andrew finished his time at Otisville and was released in 2024. Finding supportive housing was hard – he started out at Edgecomb Transitional Housing and then moved to an Osborne’s Community Re-entry Center. Andrew hadn’t finished his degree inside, but quickly started back once released. At the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, he had an opportunity for a full scholarship to complete a dual BA/MA in Journalism, but he was unable to finish because of visual and hearing impairments. Undeterred, Andrew transferred to CUNY for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies where he earned several fellowships and scholarships, and took additional courses at John Jay and Lehman College. This June, he completed his bachelor’s degrees in Multimedia Storytelling and Journalism. Equally exciting, he was invited back to Otisville as a guest at their first-ever college commencement ceremony, and brought his narrative full circle by publishing a news story about the event!
Andrew credits RTA with shaping a mindset that has allowed him to move forward with his life in a healthy and productive way.
RTA opened my mind and touched my heart; they made me feel welcome, part of a family. The civilians coming in, they shook hands and even hugged us, they made me feel like a human being, like I had value. And it gave me a sense of purpose. Learning again made me feel like I was in school, and it made me want to go to college.
Like the storyteller he is, Andrew had metaphors to describe his transformation:
Before, we were caterpillars munching on everything indiscriminately and leaving a wake of destruction. RTA is a cocoon where we can transform ourselves, shed old habits and identities, and emerge as something new, something that doesn’t leave destruction behind. RTA gave me confidence to pursue new paths, and to help me control situations in life in a positive way.
The toughest part of returning home?
Getting comfortable enough to make your own decisions – showering, eating, keeping your own hours. And navigating systems of health care, housing and social security.
Currently spending the summer with his sister in Baton Rouge, Andrew will be returning to New York in the fall to work on a Masters Degree in Applied Theater and a Bachelor’s Degree in Film, both at Hunter College. His dream for the future, he says, is “to go back inside as a Teaching Artist, to create and run a film program, using American History as a parallel to talk about film critically and historically and apply it to real life experiences.”
