Not Like the Rest Presents: Manifestation, an inaugural literary magazine by and for Bay Area incarcerated artists. The Stanford Jail and Prison Education Program (SJPEP) will be celebrating the mag’s release with readings by Fego Navarro and the Forced N2 Greatness Collective: Jus’ B, Pharaoh, and Trey Xavier. There will be letter writing for the mag’s artists inside SF County Jail 3 as well as statements shared from the editorial class. All proceeds from tonight’s event will fund next year’s artist honoraria and printing costs.

SJPEP: SJPEP is a volunteer-run, interdisciplinary co-teaching education space linking current Stanford graduate students with incarcerated community members in Bay Area jails and prisons. We aim to create two-way learning and teaching educational opportunities for folks inside in dynamic and decentralized classrooms. Jails are not meant for long-term stays. They lack programming, outdoor spaces, adequate healthcare, and other infrastructure necessary to care for people over an extended time. Yet, for local California jails incarcerated folks are staying longer and longer, and many stay 10+ years pre trial in jails designed for short-term stays. SJPEP's mission is to maintain connection with and provide engaging educational programming for our siblings incarcerated in jails in the Bay Area. Founded in 2011, SJPEP has reached more than 600 incarcerated students across San Francisco and San Mateo county jails and worked with almost 200 graduate instructors from over 30 academic disciplines across Stanford University. 

Fego Navarro: Fego Navarro is a Salvadoran American artist and filmmaker from San Francisco, California. He serves as Creative Director of Lyrical Opposition, a California-based 501(c)(3) arts nonprofit and artist collective that cultivates lyrical artists to challenge injustice through social awareness and systemic change.

Brian Shepperd, co-creator and co-host of the podcast The Th3rd Bridge, lives a life that embodies resilience, transformation, and leadership born from lived experience. Brian spent nearly 30 years in most of California’s worst prisons. Once immersed in gangs and survival culture, he made the decision to turn his focus inward, transforming those same hard-edged lessons into tools for growth, accountability, and healing. Today, Brian, who uses the pen name b.anthony.shepperd, is the published poet behind the book Confessions of a Compassionate Felon, a community builder, and an advocate. He leads with empathy and credibility, speaking from the place of someone who has lived the realities of incarceration and emerged determined to uplift others.

Pharaoh Elisha Brooks, @Pharaoh_Elisha on Instagram and @PharaohElisha on YouTube, is the Substance Use Disorder Treatment Program Director for Kingdom Builders Transitional Program. He was fortunate enough to be found suitable from the parole board after being incarcerated for 17 and a half years. Today, Pharaoh is a writer, author, musician, producer, poet, actor, counselor, rapper, and singer. His EP, Building 18: The Hip Hop Poetry Project, is available on Spotify and Apple Music and he is working on his first novel. He feels fortunate to share his story to help uplift the same type of communities he once tore down.

Trey Xavier Watkins is a jack of many trades. A musician, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, motivational speaker, and mentor, he finds balance in the breadth of his pursuits. He has published eight novels, including his crowning work The Creation, Death, and Resurrection of Theodore C. Andrews III. Drawing from a past that includes life as a bank robber, drug addiction, and 27 years behind bars, Trey offers audiences a unique perspective on politics, relationships, and the justice system. He came to realize later in life that everything he endured had a purpose: it was his to write about.