2024 Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference

Darwin Hamilton, is a 5th generation Austinite, and his paternal 2nd great grandfather, Thomas Dedrick, was a former slave and freedman who was among the first to settle in East Austin after Emancipation and during Reconstruction, where he built the historic Dedrick-Hamilton house located at 912 E 11th St.  Today it is the site of the African American Cultural and Heritage Facility and serves as office space to the Greater Austin Black Chamber of Commerce.  In 2015 he was featured in their #IAMBLACKAUSTIN inte­ractive campaign. He’s an alumnus of Leadership Austin’s - Essential Class of 2018, and JustLeadership USA 2018 cohorts.

Darwin has served in state government for over 2 decades. He serves on the Travis County Public Defender Office - Oversight Board. Since 2012, he's served with the Austin/Travis County Re-entry R­oundtable and one of the co-founders their partner organization, the Reentry Advocacy Project (RAP) and former board co-chair Grassroots Leadership.  His personal mission is to change criminal justice policies, practices and reduce the stigma of formerly incarcerated people. He does this through his lived experience of triumph against the odds, breaking down barriers, and with his strategic power of public narrative and inspiring storytelling. He self-published his memoir 25 Years Later: A Sentence from Crime to Redemption, Resilience, Advocacy and Leadership.  His op-eds have been published in the Austin American Statesman and by the ACLU of Texas.