Roosevelt Island Coler Hospital Resident And Open Doors Reality Poet Vince Pierce Receives 2023 Craig H Neilsen Visionary Prize Of $1 Million Live On Good Morning America TV Program - Award Celebrates Influential Voices In The World Of Spinal Cord Injury

Vincent Pierce is a Roosevelt Island resident living at the NYC Health & Hospitals Corp Coler long term care nursing facility. Mr Pierce:

...is a Reality Poet and the Director of the arts-and-justice initiative OPEN DOORS, an artist collective who, prior to the pandemic, traveled around the city sharing their poetry and stories....

According to Open Doors:

Before we officially came together as the Reality Poets, we were a loose group of wheelchair users who would sit outside the massive brick building at the tip of Roosevelt Island, smoke and share stories. Many of us were gun violence survivors and all of us felt there was nothing to do living in the nursing home. In 2016 a local artist started a project for us called OPEN DOORS, and from there the Reality Poets were born. Thanks to our vision and leadership OPEN DOORS is now a dynamic creative collective, educating our youth and producing artistic collaborations, including a poetry anthology, original play and hip-hop album.

During the pandemic we were dehumanized and confined inside our nursing home. Realizing we had the microphone at the center of the storm, we began advocating for all those living and working in long-term care, particularly Black and brown nursing home residents who saw twice the amount of COVID deaths as their white counterparts. In 2020 we launched the Nursing Home Lives Matter movement and are now warriors with a mission to end racism and ableism in long-term care.

Last Tuesday, September 19, in front of his family and friends at the Good Morning America TV studio, Michael Strahan surprised Mr Pierce by announcing that he was a 2023 Craig H Neilsen (CHN) Visionary Prize recipient of $1 million.

The CHN Visionary Prize was:

... launched in 2020 to celebrate influential voices in the world of spinal cord injury. The Prize was created to honor the legacy of Craig H. Neilsen and is awarded to individuals who embody the values that were important to him during his lifetime.

Each prize winner is awarded $1 million, respectively.

Watch what happens.

According to the CHN Foundation:

Vincent Pierce, based in New York, is a music producer, gun violence survivor, and community organizer. He is co-director of the arts-and-justice initiative OPEN DOORS. As an OPEN DOORS Reality Poet, he has traveled around New York City sharing his story, poetry, and wisdom. As a teen, Vincent moved to North Carolina, where he studied music and played on multiple basketball teams. In his twenties, Vincent was shot while being robbed at gunpoint, leaving him paralyzed.

In 2019, Vincent began writing poetry after he was inspired by a writing workshop at Open Doors NYC. He started the music program ZING! which, he says, is “showing kids from neighborhoods like the one I grew up in that they are bigger than what their environments expect them to be.” Vincent’s poetry and writings have been published in Wheeling & Healing: A Poetry Anthology Edited by OPEN DOORS Reality Poets. He’s the recipient of a Center for Cultural Innovation Grant, which enabled him to start a music program aimed at keeping youth off the streets and in the studio.

In July 2020, Vincent launched #NursingHomeLivesMatter working for a healthcare system that protects, respects and cares for all those in long-term care, and for those who care for us.

 I asked Mr Pierce for his thoughts on being a recipient of the David H Neilsen Visionary Prize. He said:

I would just thank the Nielsen foundation and Good Morning America.  I would just say hard work and dedication pays off.

Roosevelt Island residents Thom Heyer and Julia Ferguson were among the family and friends who were with Mr Pierce at the Good Morning America Studio.

Mr Heyer reports:

It was rather a surreal day on Good Morning America!

I found out September 8 about GMA wanting to do a feature story on Vince regarding his work at Open Doors, etc.

Friends and family of Vince were asked to RSVP if we could attend and to keep it a secret from Vince.

A financial amount was never mentioned--we all thought it was going to be a public acknowledgement on national television. I was told about the million dollar check on Monday afternoon when we were asked if we would participate in holding up the numbers to announce the check.

We were asked to show up a half hour earlier than the rest of the people to set up that sequence.

We were also required to keep it a secret.

It truly was a complete surprise!

Julia Ferguson adds:

Vince looked immediately to all his team and friends from the Open Doors Reality Poets in the moment of receiving this award. He is a very well deserving recipient of this honor for leadership and community service.

It was an honor to participate and also a complete surprise. I only knew that he was going to be on a special segment of GMA and that they had asked friends to join if they could in order to cheer and applaud.

Hope everyone can make it to the NYC premier of Fire Through Dry Grass Sept 29th through Oct. 4th. 

Fire Through Dry Grass is a documentary about the experience of residents and workers at Coler during the Covid pandemic. Mr Pierce composed music for the documentary. Here's the trailer for the documentary.

The screening will take place at DCTV Firehouse Cinema at 87 Lafayette Street in Manhattan.

Congrats Vince on receiving 

the Craig H Neilsen Visionary Award.