Who is Wallstreet Wes
Born Wesley Robinson, August 6, 1985 in Cleveland, Ohio. Wes was given the moniker, “Wallstreet” in 2012 because of how he genuinely invested into the lives of others.
At the age of 21 years old Wallstreet ran into trouble and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for 2 counts of aggravated robbery. A crime Wallstreet has taken full accountability for.
It was during this prison term that he started to write poetry. In hopes to win his then girlfriend to not leave his side, he’d send countless missives with his poems. Even though they’d parted ways early into his incarceration Wallstreet Wes never stopped writing her poetry. Those love poems eventually turned into poems that represented sadness, alienation, and then blossomed into prophecies.
During his tenure in prison, Wes was often mentored by men serving life or more years than a man can live, who encouraged him to embrace his prison experience as a life lesson. With this knowledge, at the age of 24 years old Wallstreet began to pour that same wisdom onto the other young males who were serving long stints like him. After awhile the administration of the prison threatened to place Wes in solitary confinement if he kept on impacting the population in a positive way. These threats only encouraged him and led him to informally form an organization called “Digging Diamonds from Dirt”, where he educated himself and others on black history and poetry so that they could express themselves to elders who only judged them as wild and young instead of youth in need of guidance.
In 2012, Wallstreet Wes was transferred to a minimum level security prison where he was able to truly find himself creatively. It was there he developed the ability to write poetry in his mind by memory as well as the following accomplishments:
*Created a poetry program called, “Poets Laureate”, where he mentored hundreds of prisoners in the art of poetry. This program is still being offered inside the prison sytem even years after Walstreet Wes’ release
*Wrote,directed, and filmed a motion picture called “If I knew Then, What I know Now”. A movie that looked into the perils of young men joining gangs in prison. The film unified a great number of Young adults in a positive way and is still being played in the prisons to this day
*Director of the N.A.A.C.P. Young Adults Committee
*Trained in public speaking through ToastMasters
*Created a bullying campaign for a local elementary school
*Used his influence to create bridges for prisoners and their families to stay connected
*Attended Ashland University school for business
*Created ” Discharging The Criminal”. (A program that focuses on developing the self-esteem of young adults.
Freedom
In 2016 Wallstreet Wes was released back into society at age 31 years old. Full of life with aspirations to be a servant to his community. He had no clue about the mental health issues that awaited him upon release. It wasnt long before he began to spiral out of control psychologically. After falling into a deep depression, Wallstreet realized that the issues he’d been dealing with were common amongst most all realeased people after doing an extensive amount of time behind bars. These daily struggles led Wallstreet to dedicate his life to the study of the psychological issues that people face after serving time in prison. Through it all Wes never gave up on what kept him sane over the years…Poetry.
