FIPPP Behind the Scenes: Meet AJ

Chef. Performer. Curator. Surfer. Anthony Michael Jefferson, or “AJ,” joined the Formerly Incarcerated People’s Performance Project after attending the Power of Storytelling Workshop in 2022 at the now-defunct PianoFight in Oakland. He was working on his solo piece, The Bumpy Road Less Traveled, and was so inspired after the weekend-long course that he left his life in San Diego to move up to the San Francisco Bay Area to explore and expand his creative side while working as a chef with his Renegade Catering company. He didn’t want to be sitting on a barstool, telling stories, as his dreams faded. “I just didn't want to be one of those people because I thought that would be an insult to the victim of my crime, the victim's family, so I was like, ‘I gotta make I gotta make something of myself.’ So, I told everybody, ‘bye I'll see you,’ and they're like, ‘What are you gonna do?’ and I go, ‘I'm gonna become an actor I think, and at least I gotta get myself a chance to become an actor, cause I can't do it here sitting on this barstool with y'all or surfing’, so I packed up the car and left.”

He doesn’t regret the choice, as his life has expanded and creative opportunities have blossomed to meet him and his personal mission as a storyteller and an advocate. “I would like for my storytelling to jolt us, to cause us to be activists for one another, despite what we look like, despite whom we may love, despite how we may feel internally. ... If we become advocates for one another, then one day Robert Nesta Marley's statement of ‘One Love’ could come to fruition.” He also believes that the formerly incarcerated have wisdom to share through their experience with the justice system and beyond it. “I believe that being a formerly incarcerated performer allows me to share my hardships, but also the highlights of those hardships. And what they've allowed me to study within myself. And then I wanna reflect that light, that joy, that appreciation to the audience. I think that is our biggest impact: appreciation for one another, appreciation for the good and the bad.”

His ‘One Love’ philosophy informs every aspect of his life. “Being a performing artist is part of my therapy. And it allows me to look at the world through a prism that is not only my own, but it's all the things, the amalgamation of my life, the life experiences of those who have met me. And the biggest thing about me identifying as a surfer is I want things to go in a natural flow because when the sun rises and crashes onto the beach, the sand does not look to cling to the beach; it knows that it'll come back again and again, and that's who I am as a person.”

AJ felt the intersection of his initial workshop with FIPPP and one-on-one training with FIPPP founder and director, Mark Kenward, was kismet and helped shape his decision to focus some of his almost boundless energy on acting. “I said, ‘Listen, I really want to do this. I'm going to make changes in my life so that I can do this, but I need something from you. I need you to push me as hard as you can push. Think of it as a coach playing football, and I'm your star running back. And you want the best for me, as much as I want the best for me’. And he [Kenward] said, ‘Yeah, I can do that.’ And I took him at his word. And three weeks later, I moved.” AJ has been based in the Bay Area since then and has found himself on stage at Berkeley Rep, catering gigs where he can share his “food is a love language” worldview, and even using vocal skills honed working with FIPPP voice coach Candace Johnson, unexpectedly on stage during an open mic at a Bobby McFerrin set. “I don't know who was in my body that day, but my right hand shot up. I ended up on stage doing an original piece… my mic was going out, but because of all of my training with Candace, I didn't care. I knew I could push my voice to the very back of that audience and not strain my voice because of the training that I've been given by FIPPP. So, I was like, ‘let's go!’ … I take a cue from Bobby. And now I know that I can listen and watch and take a cue.”

But his day job is working as a chef, which is informed by his general outlook on life. “I'm an ingredient-forward chef. I want things to be beautiful, not only to the eye, but hopefully when it's on the palate you get a sense of the world.” In one of his first rehearsals with FIPPP, coach Dan Hoyle tasked him with developing characters, and he turned to his work life experience. “He [Dan Hoyle] gave me a work assignment. He said, ‘What do you like to do?’ I said, ‘Surf.’ He goes, ‘Nah, what else do you like to do?’ I go, ‘I'm a chef.’  He goes, ‘Perfect. When you go shopping, I wanna see three characters, three voices, and three different walks’. … a month later, I came back with an old Jewish woman, an Italian guy, and a surfer, and he was blown away”. That confidence in the work and the team led to AJ being invited to join the fellowship at FIPPP, taking part in the second FIPPP Festival at PianoFight Oakland in January 2023 and the encore performance at Berkeley Rep following in February. While working on his solo piece, The Bumpy Road Less Traveled, he was also part of FIPPP’s first experiment with longer work, Solo Showcases, in May 2025, where he performed his full piece and brought in barbed wire and decorated the lobby of the theater to resemble a prison cell and yard to heighten his audience’s experience before they entered the theater. He continues to enhance and expand the world he has built with The Bumpy Road, after finishing a run at The Marsh Theater in Berkeley in August 2026. “I knew we had something when I left that show [The Bumpy Road Less Traveled] the last night, there was a burning desire in my stomach to get back on the stage to tell more stories, because I'm not a one-trick pony. You know, in the show, we say ‘one tragedy does not define a life,’ well the one tragedy spawned one story, but I've got so many more stories to share with people.”

As for future plans, AJ has added the mantle of Gallery Manager at Abolition Archive in Oakland, curating work and events, and teaching the power of storytelling to the LGBTQ+ community. “My friend and my brother, Casper Cendry [Executive Director], who is the founder of Abolition Archives, formerly known as the ABO Comix, [we] struck a friendship. I was doing healing circles for the employees, and then one day he said, ‘Hey, you know, I've always enjoyed your art, enjoy your food. What do you think about maybe coming to work with us and curating this gallery? And then from there maybe bringing some of your artist friends to do poetry and storytelling in the space? And then we can start curating and teaching people in the LGBTQ community to start using their voices and telling their stories?’ And I said, “Where do I sign?” AJ has worked on putting together multiple events, including bringing in FIPPP performers, Pharaoh Brooks and Tony Cyprien, to take the stage with him in support of Abolition Archives 10th anniversary in September 2026. He is proud of the work the Archives does for incarcerated artists. “It's not even been half a year, and we've had three shows, three spoken word shows; we've totally flipped the gallery over … and these are actually incarcerated people who are sharing their art with us. And what we do is take their art, present it to the public, tell part of their story, and then if the public loves their story and loves their art and is willing to make a donation, we send 99% of their donation back to them. [Back] to the incarcerated artists, and we pay the taxes for them.” 

His work at the Archive has also brought his advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community to the fore. “I'm a firm believer that amongst the Black community, the brothers and the sisters, we have a great separation between our gay community, the LGBTQ+ community, and the cis community, and I'm fed up with it.” He hopes he can play a part in more interconnection, support, and advocacy for the community. “I've always had and made room for people who felt different. We didn't exclude them actually, we put our arms around one another… …we have to break out of this mindset. Because I don't care who you are. We all need to be treated with dignity, decent human dignity, and to be loved.”

In addition to juggling the work that feeds him and working on his solo performance pieces, AJ is about to join his sister, Victoria Shaffer, on her book tour for her memoir, I've Got Stories To Tell: A Memoir, as a traveling caterer and cheerleader. “... she is the only living black woman costumer who's designed on Broadway … and so she just released her memoir, so I get to do a case study of my sister while we're on the road promoting her book in October.” Additionally, AJ is working on the second edition of his own collection of poetry, stories, and recipes, Poetry, Recipes, and Short Stories from the Bumpy Road to be released in early 2027. “I believe to be a performer with FIPPP is to be a storyteller. And I’m a hungry storyteller because I have so many more stories to tell. And I have so many more people to advocate for, and that's who I am as a surfer.”

Learn more about AJ and his show, The Bumpy Road Less Traveled, on his website: The Bumpy Road

Visit Abolition Archive, “a living archive of prison art, correspondence, and connection across walls built to divide us,” online: Abolition Archive