Dr. Yusef Salaam

Dr. Yusef Salaam was just fifteen years old when his life was upended after being wrongly convicted with four other boys in the “Central Park jogger” case. After the young men spent years of their lives behind bars, in 2002 their sentences were overturned. The story of the Exonerated Five has been documented in the award-winning film The Central Park Five by Ken Burns and in Ava DuVernay’s series When They See Us. Yusef is now a poet, prison reform activist, and inspirational speaker. Ibi Zoboi novel American Street was a National Book Award finalist and a New York Times Notable Book. She is also the author of Pride and My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich. She is the editor of the anthology Black Enough. Punching the Air (Balzer + Bray) is a YA novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it? Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, called it “Award worthy. Soul-stirring. A must-read.”