Dashaun "Jiwe" Morris

Deshaun “Jiwe” Morris is the author of War of the Bloods in my Veins: A Street Soldier’s March Toward Redemption, recognized as “Best Memoir” by the African American Literary Awards (2008). Jiwe’s transition from a child full of promise to the boy who commits his first drive-by at age 11 is a tragic tale of modern inner-city childhood. In high school and in college, until his arrest, he was a star on the football field by day and an O.G. in the infamous Bloods by night. One of the founders of the Bloods in New Jersey, Jiwe was on the street committing crimes for 17 years. Transformed in prison, he then helped end a ten-year gang war in Newark; the subject of the Sundance Channel show “Brick City,” a documentary series focused on the daily drama of a community striving to become a better, safer, stronger place to live. Jiwe and fellow child soldier Ishmael Beah of Sierra Leone, author of the best seller "A Long Way Gone," have teamed up to bring peace and reconciliation to war torn communities worldwide. Their work together is the subject of a documentary film “Soldiers of Peace” (2013).