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About Roderick “Rudy” Bankston
Author, educator, music producer, entrepreneur, and restorative justice practitioner building work around justice, community, culture, healing, and belonging.
About Me
From survival to authorship, from loss to restorative leadership.
Roderick “Rudy” Bankston is an educator, entrepreneur, restorative justice practitioner, published author, and music producer whose life and work are rooted in transformation, healing, and equity.
A survivor of the school-to-prison pipeline, Rudy was wrongly convicted at 19 and sentenced to life in prison. After 20 years incarcerated, he reclaimed his freedom through a successful appeal, an experience that continues to shape his commitment to restorative practice and systemic change.
“Belonging is not a slogan. It is a daily practice of repair, truth, and relationship.”
Work & Recognition
Recognizing the real pillars of Rudy’s public work.
Author
Published Works
Poetry, fiction, haiku, and reflections shaped by lived experience and return.
Educator
School Communities
Work connected to student belonging, restorative systems, and leadership practice.
RJ
Restorative Justice
A practice of accountability, relationship repair, and healing-centered transformation.
Founder
I AM WE
A platform for justice, community, culture, books, beats, coaching, and mentoring.
Speaking & Events
The School-to-Prison Pipeline: a story of survival.
Rudy’s presentations bring personal narrative together with systemic analysis, inviting students, educators, and community leaders to reflect on punishment, exclusion, dignity, racial justice, and restoration.
Behind The Pages
Writing became a way to survive, remember, and rebuild.
Incarceration and imagination
Rudy’s poetry and reflections carry the weight of captivity while refusing to surrender imagination, language, and hope.
Restorative practice
His work asks communities to move beyond punishment toward repair, accountability, and the restoration of human dignity.
Books and beats
I AM WE Classics brings Rudy’s storytelling into print, sound, workshops, and cultural projects that can be shared across communities.
20
Years Incarcerated
Before Rudy reclaimed his freedom through a successful appeal.
2015
Return Home
The year Rudy began rebuilding life and community work after release.
4+
Published Works
Books and collections available through I AM WE Classics.
National
Speaking Work
Presentations across education, restorative justice, and racial healing spaces.
Selected Timeline
A public practice shaped by education and restorative justice.
These moments keep the page grounded in real work rather than decorative claims.
2020
Finding Justice in a Broken System
Eastern Michigan University, Star Lecture Series.
2019
Restorative Justice Through a Racial Justice Lens
National Association of Community and Restorative Justice Conference, Denver.
2018
Leading for Learning Through Restorative Justice
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Leading for Learning Institute.
I AM WE Focus
Justice, community, and culture in practice.
The work is broad because people are broad: story, repair, learning, music, and community all belong in the same conversation.
Justice
Centering accountability, truth, and repair without losing sight of dignity.
Community
Creating spaces where students, families, educators, and neighbors can belong.
Culture
Using books, beats, conversation, and storytelling as tools for healing.