Chrisfino Kenyatta Leal recently joined a select and influential club, including the likes of people like Marlon Wayans, Suze Orman and Neil Patrick Harris, just to name a few.
Leal and these celebrities are Shorty Award winners. But what sets Leal apart from most other award winners is that he did it while incarcerated behind the walls of San Quentin State Prison.
“Obviously, it’s an honor and a privilege that still hasn’t fully sunk in”
The Shorty Awards honor the best in social media, while recognizing the people and organizations producing real-time short content across Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, Foursquare and the rest of the social web. This year’s Fifth Annual Shorty Awards took place on April 8 at Times Center in New York City.
Leal won his Shorty Award in the category of Quora Answer of the Year. Quora is a website that allows users to ask and answer questions spanning many of society’s and social media’s most intriguing topics.
He began writing responses to Quora questions through his participation in The Last Mile, a program designed to teach men about the world of entrepreneurship and social media – brought to San Quentin by Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti.
The question that earned Leal a Shorty Award was “What does the first day of a 5+ year prison sentence feel like?” His authentic and edgy response took readers inside the mind of a man just beginning his journey on a life sentence.
“I remember my first day because it was my worst day,” Leal wrote in his response. “I walked upstairs to the cell where I’d spend the rest of the first day of a life sentence. I stepped inside and the sound of the cold steel door slamming behind me ricocheted around inside my skull, making me dizzy … I thought about the times when I coulda, woulda, shoulda, taken action to stop this nightmare from happening, but it was way too late.”
Shorty Award winners were selected through millions of tweeted nominations on their website. In addition to Quora Answer of the Year, categories included Real Time Photo of the Year, Foursquare Mayor of the Year and a Lifetime Achievement Award won by Conan O’Brian.
While Leal could not appear personally in NYC to accept his award, Parenti came to San Quentin and pre-taped his acceptance speech in the event that he would win. From there, she and Redlitz traveled to New York for the ceremony and accepted the award on his behalf.
“Obviously, it’s an honor and a privilege that still hasn’t fully sunk in,” Leal said. “I’m grateful for any opportunity for the public to see that men in prison are not lost causes. We still have many redeemable qualities that are worthy of investing time and energy into.”
Felicia Day hosted this year’s Shorty Awards. For those who were not able to make it to New York, the live video stream can be viewed on ShortyAwards.com. Other winners include pop artists Justin Bieber and Demi Lovato, actress Selena Gomez, the Pittsburgh Steelers and NASA.
Now that he has won a Shorty Award, Leal said the next items on his agenda is being released from prison and beginning a new chapter in his life.
He also plans to continue working with The Last Mile and help ensure that graduates of the program have opportunities waiting for them upon their release.
“The Last Mile truly is a fraternity of dynamic men and women committed to transformation, empowerment and success in life after prison,” Leal said.
To learn more about the men of The Last Mile, go to thelastmile.org. To read Leal’s Shorty Award-winning response in its entirety, go to http;//www.quora.com/The-Last-Mile-Training-Program.
