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Speaker
Bio:
Joe Loya
is an
essayist,
playwright,
public
speaker,
and
contributing
editor
at the
Pacific
News
Service.
His
opinion
pieces
have
appeared
in the
Los
Angeles
Times,
Newsday,
Salon,
the
Washington
Post,
and
other
national
newspapers.
He
frequently
comments
on
politics,
religion,
criminal
justice
issues,
and
other
cultural
events.
In 2002,
Mr. Loya
wrote
and
performed
for 20
nights
his
monologue,
“The Man
Who
Outgrew
His
Prison
Cell,”
at San
Francisco's
Thick
Description
Playhouse.
His
memoir,
“The
Man Who
Outgrew
His
Prison
Cell:
Confessions
of a
Bank
Robber,”
was
published
in
September
2004 by
HarperCollins,
and was
heralded
as
“genuinely
thrilling”
by The
New
Yorker
magazine.
Joe Loya
is a
featured
guest on
an
upcoming
documentary—The
Constitution
Project—a
film
that
will
bring
together
many
voices
to
discuss
various
aspects
of the
Constitution.
The
documentary,
to be
hosted
by Peter
Jennings
of ABC
News, is
being
developed
for use
as
curriculum
in high
school
civics
classes.
Mr. Loya
recently
appeared
on
C-Span
Book TV
in
conversation
with the
novelist
Mark
Salzman.
They
talked
about
the
value of
reading
and how
strong
education
as a
child
helped
Mr. Loya
recover
when his
life had
turned
so
horribly
wrong.
Mr.
Loya’s
public
speaking—whether
to high
school
or
college
kids,
professional
journalists
or
lawyers,
juvenile
or adult
prisoners—is
always
informed
by his
own
reinvention
from
convicted
bank
robber
to
acclaimed
author.
He
emphasizes
that we
can
always
grab
hold of
grit and
optimism
to
become
better
members
of our
communities,
whether
students,
parents,
or
prisoners
trying
to
imagine
a new
beginning.
During
his
speeches,
Mr. Loya
uses
stories
from his
own life
to
illustrate
that no
matter
how
badly
things
spiral
out of
control
in our
lives,
there is
always
an
occasion
for
triumph
over our
troubled
past.
Joe
Loya, an
optimist,
is a
dynamic
speaker
who
young
adults
enjoy
listening
to for
the
authenticity
of his
experience,
and
because
he
appeals
to their
nobility
when he
encourages
them to
be
curious
members
of
society,
guided
by their
best
intuitions. |
