about...
Mashaun Ali Hendricks
I am a Restorative Justice student, practitioner, trainer, and artist with over 15 years of experience transforming how people share space, build safety through deep heart connection, and prevent, relate, 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 approach in the philosophy and practice of circle keeping.
Over the years, I have facilitated speaking engagements, panels, professional development trainings, and immersive learning experiences in schools, community settings, faith spaces, police departments, county courts, and alongside city and state leadership.
As a trainer, I work with K–12 educators, juvenile and adult justice professionals, public safety professionals, community impact leaders, and institutions seeking to move beyond performative approaches into authentic restorative practice. My work has supported public school districts, Charter Management Organizations, higher education institutions, faith-based organizations, police departments, courts, and community organizations across the country.
As a practitioner, my approach is deeply aligned with the way I was trained and the way I witnessed my teachers practice, heart first, intellect second. My work moves beyond jargon, scripts, and surface-level implementation into immersive, practice-based learning rooted in authentic embodiment, human connection, accountability, and presence.
As an artist, I use design, garments, installations, storytelling, and public activations to expand restorative justice beyond traditional institutional spaces. 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 projects include CRIMEDROUGHT, unResolved., Black Restorative Justice, TRAP House Chicago, Red Summer Project, and UNECRA, explore violence prevention, historical repair, collective healing, economic liberation, and the creation of more connected futures.
My concept stores function as living spaces for this work: places where people gather to practice circle keeping, build relationships, experience art, and deepen community connection.
Across every medium, my work remains rooted in one commitment:
cultivating deep heart connection as a pathway toward safety, accountability, healing, and a more whole future.
In 2025, I was honored as a recipient of the Earth Seed Award.
As Ashley Ellis, Co-Founder of The BREATHE Collective, shared:
“...This was somebody [Mashaun] who, when everybody wanted to do circles in safe spaces, went to the block. He went to the streets, and he went to the brothers who didn't want to enter the institutional spaces. He went where it wasn't safe. He went into the valley. And he created something good. And he did it with art. He did it with visuals. It wasn't just about the circle. It was about a way of being that showed up in so many forms…”