"I think there's a lot of healing to be done for Black and Indigenous people around land in New York and what has happened. Reconnecting to the land helps us heal from trauma." - Chino Hardin
Nearly 90% of all people in New York State prisons are from New York City. For many New Yorkers, their first and only experience with nature is on the shackled bus ride from Rikers Island through the forests and mountains to the upstate prisons. NuLegacy connects formerly incarcerated people to the land. Connection to land disrupts the cycles of violence, fear, and trauma caused by the prison industrial complex. By healing and building community in nature, NuLegacy empowers New Yorkers and strengthen New York City neighborhoods that are most devastated by policing and incarceration.
NuLegacy is the culmination of Chino Hardin's lived experience and life's work. Chino is the Co-Executive Director of the Center for NuLeadership on Human Justice and Healing. Chino is a Black, Indigenous, Trans person from Bed Stuy whose first experience with nature was observing the beauty of the mountains while riding in a bus from Rikers Island to Bedford Hills, an upstate women's prison. After returning home, Chino organized to stop the building of new prisons and sought refuge, in nature, from the difficult work of dismantling the prison industrial complex. Chino learned that land and nature can disrupt and stop the cycles of violence, fear, and trauma caused by mass incarceration. For the last 20 years, Chino has been helping Bed Stuy youth and families impacted by incarceration heal from their trauma by connecting to land, nature, and learning ancestral healing practices from the indigenous communities to which the land belongs. NuLegacy institutionalizes this transformative work.
Chino’s Story