Within the three-time Oscar-nominated drama “Sing Sing,” Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez and his fellow solid members inform a narrative that started almost 20 years in the past in a maximum-security jail.
In 2005, a gaggle of males in New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility carried out a time-traveling musical comedy known as “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code” for his or her fellow prisoners. The delightfully offbeat play follows an Egyptian prince who, after his “mummy” dies, solves a sequence of riddles that includes acquainted characters: Robin Hood and his Merry Males, Maid Marian and Hamlet, to call just a few. “Sing Sing” tells the story behind the unique manufacturing and Rehabilitation By means of the Arts (RTA), this system that made it attainable.
Velazquez is amongst 13 RTA alumni who play themselves within the movie. “I bear in mind my mom telling me, ‘In your thoughts, it’s important to discover your freedom,’” mentioned the 49-year-old father who spent virtually 24 years in jail for a homicide he didn’t commit. “And that’s what appearing grew to become for me.”
On Feb. 3, Velazquez and different “Sing Sing” solid members reunited at New York Theater Workshop to carry out “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code” for the primary time in 20 years. In two exhibits introduced by A24 and The Simply Belief, Velazquez performed the guard who protects the mother’s tomb.
On this as-told-to edited and condensed for size and readability, Velazquez explains how appearing saved his life, redefined his function, and impressed others to do the identical.
Not lengthy after I arrived at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in 2005, somebody instructed me there was going to be a play within the auditorium. I’d seen performs placed on by theater teams from the skin, however this time, it was incarcerated individuals placing on a present. I had by no means seen something like that inside jail, so I needed to test it out. And boy, was I amazed.
The identify of the play was “The N Trial.” Clarence Maclin, one in every of my co-stars in “Sing Sing,” was taking part in a prosecutor who was placing the N-word on trial. He was going into the historical past of the phrase, and a lawyer was on the alternative aspect defending it. The N-word was performed by an precise particular person, too!
What I actually discovered fascinating was the best way they used artwork to faucet into the mind and tradition of Sing Sing’s inhabitants. After “The N Trial,” I noticed individuals correcting others who had been persevering with to make use of the N-word, saying “No, brother, name me beloved.” Often, the mentality in jail is thoughts your online business. However now, individuals had been correcting each other. I bear in mind pondering, Wow, how do you not be part of one thing like that? That’s how I found Rehabilitation By means of the Arts.
By means of appearing, I realized to not be so severe. I used to be dealing with essentially the most severe circumstances of my life, and it was exhausting to step out of that typically. I got here to jail as a destroyed 22-year-old, as a result of I used to be incarcerated for a criminal offense I didn’t commit. My father was a navy veteran within the Military, and he got here house and have become a police officer for Amtrak, so I grew up believing within the system. So, in 1998, once they accused me of [fatally] taking pictures a [retired New York] police officer, I went to the precinct and I volunteered for a lineup. This was towards my lawyer’s needs, however I used to be so naive. I assumed, What may go flawed? I am at a precinct. That is the police. They’re gonna do every thing proper.
It was the worst choice that I ever made. I used to be a father of two, and right here I used to be, dealing with the dying penalty for the homicide of a police officer. I couldn’t wrap my head round how my life had modified within the blink of a watch. I used to be callous and considerably bitter after I first received to jail due to it. I used to be shedding myself. I bear in mind my mom telling me, “You gotta perceive that they’ll lock up your physique, however they’ll’t lock up your thoughts. In your thoughts, it’s important to discover your freedom.”
And that’s what appearing grew to become for me. In jail, you possibly can typically neglect you really are human, since you might not be handled like one. You neglect you could be playful in such a severe place, the place your life could also be on the road the minute you stroll out of a classroom or your cell. Performing meant having protected areas to have the ability to escape from these harsh realities that no person needs to face or discuss. That’s what made it a blessing.
Performing opened the doorways for me to use myself in so many different methods. I grew to become part of the Inmate Liaison Committee, sitting down with jail directors to advocate for the inhabitants. I used to be additionally the president of Latinos Unidos, a company that helps incarcerated Latino people, and I labored with Hudson Hyperlink For Larger Training in Jail, serving to others pursue levels.
Some of the significant issues I did was co-create the C.H.O.I.C.E.S program (Selecting Wholesome Choices and Confronting Each State of affairs) to show the importance of wholesome decision-making to the youngsters of incarcerated mother and father. We created a tradition the place individuals inside had been considering their decisions frequently, realizing that higher choices result in higher lives. While you lose every thing — your freedom, your management over your individual life — you study simply how a lot that capability to decide on issues. I exercised that freedom each likelihood I received, ensuring each selection I made was the precise one. That mindset formed my path in jail, and finally, it led to my launch.
In 2021, I used to be granted government clemency [by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo] due to the work I used to be doing inside. It wasn’t based mostly on my wrongful conviction. I wasn’t pardoned. Actually, I served 23 years, seven months and eight days earlier than they let me out on neighborhood supervision. It felt like a slap within the face, as a result of that was like one other sentence. No favors had been achieved for me. I completed parole on March 9, 2024, solely months earlier than the Manhattan prosecutor’s workplace accomplished their investigation [and a judge] formally exonerated me on Sept. 30, 2024. They tried to interrupt me at each flip, however packages like Rehabilitation By means of the Arts and Hudson Hyperlink saved me going.
Simply months after I received out, I discovered myself again in jail — this time, a decommissioned one — to play myself in “Sing Sing,” a film concerning the very program that had given me hope. It was surreal. After spending 20-plus years preventing to get out, I used to be now strolling again in, carrying that uniform and embodying the spirit of being incarcerated once more. I used to be the final particular person on the solid to have been launched; everybody else had years out to course of it. It wasn’t straightforward for me.
We filmed for 18 days in July, and if you understand something about prisons, you understand they’re conductors of climate. It was unbearably sizzling, and each second in that area carried the burden of the years I misplaced. However this time, I used to be an actor. And I used to be part of telling our story on our phrases.
What individuals don’t notice is that a lot of the solid knew one another lengthy earlier than the movie. Whereas we had been incarcerated, a number of of us had been at school collectively, incomes levels in behavioral science. We sat in school rooms, supported one another and labored towards one thing larger than ourselves. These bonds don’t fade. While you’ve relied on somebody at your worst, that stays with you. That’s why our latest efficiency of “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code” on the New York Theatre Workshop was so essential. It wasn’t only a present to us; it was a reunion.
I ready for this efficiency by re-reading the script, finding out my cues and watching outdated jail efficiency movies [that director and playwright] Brent Buell despatched us. Everybody acts, whether or not in job interviews or day by day life, projecting a picture to seal the deal. However this was completely different due to the eagerness we introduced. We needed to vary how the world sees us and transfer past the stigma of being seen as a “prisoner,” an “inmate” or a “felon.”
Performing has opened up a brand new dimension of activism for me. Within the final yr and a half, I’ve met superb individuals — from actors and filmmakers to common individuals — all devoted to being a part of the change. I need to proceed utilizing the platform [“Sing Sing” created] to lift consciousness and push the pendulum in the precise course. I fought to get out of the system, to flee that darkness, and but I discover myself preventing simply to get again into prisons to assist others. Once I was on parole, and I’d attempt to enter prisons, they might inform me to return again after I was off parole, after I was exonerated. Nicely, now I’m exonerated and knocking on the door once more. Can I come again in now?
Individuals suppose I’m loopy for wanting to return, however I do know the reality: There’s a lot expertise behind these partitions. So many individuals by no means had the chance to see what else was attainable. They didn’t know tips on how to take care of their circumstances, circumstances the place poverty was their father and lack of alternative was their mom. They thought what they had been doing was the best way to outlive.
My mission is to enter prisons and assist those that, like me, have expertise however lack alternative. My hope is to point out them that they’ll survive, reside their greatest life, and that they do not should commit a criminal offense. That’s the message we have to unfold. That’s what I do by my very own work and my work with my castmates.
I’m additionally targeted on persevering with my activism, together with an anticipated lawsuit towards New York Metropolis for my wrongful conviction. After every thing I’ve been by, this lawsuit is about preventing for my respect. Past that, I’m excited concerning the film me and my group are engaged on about my story. This work I’m doing now, as an actor and activist, is my function, and I’m right here to maintain pushing ahead.
Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez is an actor and activist dedicated to authorized reform. He was wrongfully convicted of the 1998 homicide of a retired police officer, and spent almost 24 years in jail earlier than being exonerated in September 2024. Throughout his time at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Velazquez led many packages and initiatives, together with organizing TEDx occasions and advancing training by Hudson Hyperlink. His advocacy expanded into initiatives just like the Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast, “Letters From Sing Sing,” the e book “The Sing Sing Recordsdata,” and the MSNBC docuseries, “The Sing Sing Chronicles.” He additionally stars as himself within the A24 movie “Sing Sing.”
