Jamal Armstead ’26 Featured on Kingston Radio
Jamal Armstead ’26. Photo by Dai Studios
Jamal Armstead ’26, winner of the Beth Rickey Award for 2026, was interviewed on Kingston Radio. Armstead appeared on the Afternoons with Jami Smith show to discuss his work confronting anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. Armstead is now earning a Bard MBA in Sustainability, working toward his goal of creating an organization that will, in the words of Dean of BPI Megan Callaghan, “help design a safe haven for LGBTQ+ youth impacted by the criminal legal system.”
The Beth Rickey Award, awarded by the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, is given to a member of Bard’s network who has taken action against hate. Armstead was arrested at 17 and enrolled in the Bard Prison Initiative in 2021. He graduated this year with his bachelor’s degree after completing his senior project entitled “The Public Health Implications of Anti-LGBTQ+ Discrimination: How Conformity and Lack of Awareness Lead to Crisis.”
Armstead spoke about how his experience in prison made him determined to challenge the homophobia and strict ideas about masculinity he experienced there. He said the texts he read in Bard’s Language & Thinking Program helped him shift his thinking about the queer community, particularly when they discussed Émile Durkheim’s concept of the social norm. He said, “I started thinking about the social norms I followed … I was afraid to be stigmatized too. Why?” His senior project, which has fed into his current work on LGBTQ+ youth, was centered on how queer people have been discriminated against in the areas of housing and employment. “I’ve seen how acceptance has been a factor in people’s happiness. I can see how individuals like myself can empower other people, because they see that we stand in solidarity with them.”
Post Date: 10-14-2026
The Beth Rickey Award, awarded by the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, is given to a member of Bard’s network who has taken action against hate. Armstead was arrested at 17 and enrolled in the Bard Prison Initiative in 2021. He graduated this year with his bachelor’s degree after completing his senior project entitled “The Public Health Implications of Anti-LGBTQ+ Discrimination: How Conformity and Lack of Awareness Lead to Crisis.”
Armstead spoke about how his experience in prison made him determined to challenge the homophobia and strict ideas about masculinity he experienced there. He said the texts he read in Bard’s Language & Thinking Program helped him shift his thinking about the queer community, particularly when they discussed Émile Durkheim’s concept of the social norm. He said, “I started thinking about the social norms I followed … I was afraid to be stigmatized too. Why?” His senior project, which has fed into his current work on LGBTQ+ youth, was centered on how queer people have been discriminated against in the areas of housing and employment. “I’ve seen how acceptance has been a factor in people’s happiness. I can see how individuals like myself can empower other people, because they see that we stand in solidarity with them.”
Post Date: 10-14-2026