about your brother...
Mashaun

I am a Restorative Justice student, practitioner, trainer, strategist, and artist with more than 15 years of experience transforming how people share space, build safety through deep heart connection, and prevent, relate to, and respond to harm.

​

My Restorative Justice journey began in 2010, when I was trained through the Community Justice for Youth Institute (CJYI) by Cheryl Graves. I later had the honor of practicing alongside Cheryl Graves, Ora Shrub, Robert Spicer, Pamela Purdie, Edith Crigler, Vanessa Westley, and Kay Pranis. In 2014, I completed advanced Keeper training with Kay Pranis, further grounding my practice in the philosophy and discipline of circle keeping.

​

Since then, I have facilitated speaking engagements, panels, professional development trainings, community experiences, and immersive learning opportunities across schools, community settings, faith spaces, police departments, county courts, higher education institutions, and alongside city and state leadership. I work with K–12 educators, juvenile and adult justice professionals, public safety professionals, community-impact leaders, funders, and institutions seeking to move beyond performative approaches toward authentic restorative practice.

​

My work is not simply about teaching people what Restorative Justice is. It is about helping people experience, practice, and embody it. My approach is deeply influenced by the people who taught me and the way I witnessed them practice: heart first, intellect second. I believe meaningful restorative work requires more than terminology, frameworks, or scripts. It requires presence, relationship, courage, accountability, patience, and a willingness to be transformed by the work ourselves.

​

As an artist, I extend these same commitments beyond traditional institutional spaces. Through design, garments, installations, storytelling, public activations, and concept stores, I use art and culture as vehicles for restorative practice and community connection. My work has been featured through collaborations with institutions including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, DePaul Art Museum, Leaders 1354, 6018 North, and other arts and cultural organizations.

​

My creative projects include CRIMEDROUGHT, unResolved., Black Restorative Justice, TRAP House Chicago, Red Summer Project, and UNECRA. Across these projects, I explore violence prevention, historical repair, collective healing, economic liberation, cultural identity, and the possibility of creating more connected futures. My concept stores function as living spaces for this work; places where people can gather, practice circle keeping, experience art, engage culture, and build relationships.

​

Whether I am working inside an institution, facilitating a circle, training a team, speaking to an audience, designing a garment, or creating a public space, the work remains connected by the same commitment: cultivating deep heart connection as a pathway toward safety, accountability, healing, and a more whole future.