in the PERFORMING arts
Jarvis’ story and writing has been the inspiration for original creative works by artists around the world. His collaboration with the Creative Alliance Project on a new dance performance, Got My Wings, is a response piece in support of prison reform advocacy.
Got My Wings is inspired by Jarvis’ writings and reflects on the nature of freedom. The project focuses on how creative art, education, and spiritual mentorship can make a pivotal difference in the lives of incarcerated people.
The show debuted at the Bethany Arts Community in Ossining, New York in January 2022, and was held again in Katonah, New York in February 2023. Following each performance, a panel of formerly incarcerated men and women shared their experiences and reflected on living and coping while in prison. Two subsequent grants from Humanities New York and Arts Westchester will support educational workshops for high school students throughout Northern Westchester, New York, in Fall 2023.
The piece is set to an original score written and performed by jazz composer and musician Daniel Blake, with choreography by Tomiko Magario, and features an ensemble from Westchester Ballet Company.
For additional context on how dance artists are addressing the U.S. prison system in their work both onstage and on the inside, refer to this recent article in Dance Magazine.
“Jarvis Jay Masters has inspired me beyond what words can describe. He has illuminated for the world a freedom that cannot be taken away, nor can it be confined to a prison cell.”
IN MUSIC
Canadian folk singer Rob Lutes, inspired by Jarvis’ life story, wrote the song “That Bird Has My Wings,” featured in his album Come Around (2021), which was nominated for four 2022 Canadian Folk Music Awards.
collaboration with youth
Jarvis is particularly passionate about working with young people and has collaborated with the Truthworker Theater Company on many of their efforts to propel the next generation of visionary performers.
The Truthworker Theatre Company is a social justice based hip-hop theatre company for high school and college aged youth in Brooklyn, NY. They provide free programming, rigorous training, and professional stipends to young visionaries and performers.
Truthworker is a safe space for young people to be the subjects, not the objects of their stories–narrating their own experiences and unique perspectives in ways that unpack and shift the dominant, often stereotypical narratives found in mainstream media. Using theatre and media to examine history and learn about models for creating social change, they call upon language and critical thinking skills as tools to develop solution-driven citizens of the world.
From Clenched Fists to Compassion traces the triangulation of healing that emerged through a collaboration between Truthworker Theatre Company, Director Samara Gaev, and Jarvis Jay Masters.
A dozen young visionaries directly impacted by mass incarceration, a survivor of a violent crime whose perpetrator is spending multiple lifetimes in prison, and a death row inmate whose capacity for liberation within the walls of confinement is astounding, grow closer to themselves, their healing, their purpose, and compassion as they strive to interrupt and transform the criminalizing and violent systems that permeate their communities.
In Community
Here are just a few of the many lives Jarvis has touched over the past three decades he’s been in prison—people on the inside, outside, young, old, and from all walks of life around the world.
“Jarvis is an easy man to respect and an easy man to love. What I learn from him all the time is what it really means to keep one’s vows of not harming and of helping other people in whatever ways one can. I always think, ‘If Jarvis can do it in those most challenging and difficult situations, I can do it too.’ It is a continual aspiration from my heart that Jarvis Masters not be killed and that I have the pleasure of knowing him as a free man; a free man who I know will benefit all the people he encounters.”
Thank you for showing me what matters most, thank you for giving me so much reason to love my life and the ones around me. You are truly a man with enough will, heart, and passion to touch millions. I hope you find all the things in your life that matter most.
— J.C.
My eleventh grade Contemporary Composition students read selections from Finding Freedom in the spring and now again in the fall. I want to thank you again for helping my students find a reason to live and dedicate themselves to constructive living.
— Teacher in Los Angeles, California
Your book encouraged me to stay away from violence so I won’t end up in prison. Like yourself, I grew up with no father. I’ve sometimes thought no one loved nor cared about me, and it was hard to move on. You sound as if you take your experiences well.
So I would like to thank you for the encouragement you spread not only to me and people across the States, but in my class. Hopefully, your words planted a seed in everyone, because it definitely did for me.
— M.B.