Greetings all! Welcome to our latest double issue, 26.09/10. This issue, like every one of our issues, is full of thoughtful stories, ideas, commentary, stream of consciousness, artistic expression and poems. The writings are incredibly powerful and for us it is such an honor to create this platform for all to read, find inspiration and learn by. We appreciate all you contributors, young and old, featured in this issue. This week, like last issue, we are highlighting the reflections of two our student interns from the Urban School of San Francisco. These students have been working hard and diligently during their school semester to transcribe pieces for publication. Below, we welcome EP and Remmi D., who both describe their thoughts and experiences working with The Beat. We are quite humbled by how touched they both were by the stories they transcribed. We are truly grateful for their time and work and how they feel the importance for more people to read their truths. Many, many thanks to all our friends at Urban School. We hope all of you connected with us will carry The Beat forward into the future with you!
Reflecting on My Experience with The Beat Within
Working for The Beat Within has been a fantastic learning experience that has really opened my eyes to the realities of life inside of American prisons. I have never personally interacted with anyone who had been previously incarcerated, but getting to read these essays and poems about the struggles and challenges as well as the breakthrough moments’ people experience has been fascinating as well as surprising.
I have the privilege of attending a private high school in San Francisco. Because of this, I have been able to learn about the American justice system as well as hear from speakers who work hard every day to correct the injustices that occur in this system. However, reading from books or listening to speakers has not been nearly as beneficial as working with The Beat Within. In one of my first typing assignments, I read a piece about daily life and the joys that come from little moments and opportunities. He goes on to describe his excitement in the countdown to his release, which brought me a real sense of happiness and joy that he has goals to look forward to and focus on in those grueling days. Another writer described the challenges and triumphs of playing soccer as a young kid and the guilt he has because he didn’t continue. He still finds joy in playing with friends, but he still has regrets about not continuing, but like the previous writer, he is actively finding other positive activities and past times in his life, which I think is really inspiring.
The final author I read and transcribed for, similar to the second author, describes his love of baseball and the opportunity it gave him to meet new friends and adults, all of which have had positive influences on his life. He goes into detail about the excitement he felt as he was playing. With his adrenaline rushing and the kids and the crowd cheering, it all feels very magical. He finishes off the story by stating that even though he has given up playing the sport, he is in contact with his coach, which is such a testament to the strength of a relationship between a player and a coach. All of these essays, and stories I previously read. All share the same sense of joy and optimism. It was inspiring to read these stories because it felt as though I was getting to see inside the inner workings of another person’s imagination and brain.
Although each essay discussed a different topic, they each demonstrated immense intelligence and were written quite beautifully. Working with The Beat Within has fueled my interest in the justice system and learning more about each of these inmates’ day-to-day lives because no one person is the same. In whatever circumstance you are looking at, each is drastically different. The Beat Within is one of the best and most unique publications I have ever encountered, and I feel a great sense of gratitude towards this publication for allowing me to work for them.
-EP
I Have Learned So Much
As someone who had the amazing opportunity to work with The Beat Within for my junior and senior years, I have learned so much from reading these personal anecdotes. In my junior year, I remember reading the letters I received and thinking about how I have been able to humanize those incarcerated more than I previously had because I was able to understand what had happened in their past or their hopes for the future. This allowed me to get a more personal perspective and insight on their life stories apart from prison. Not only did it allow me to humanize those incarcerated, but it also allowed me to better understand what they were going through to a certain extent. I heard about a range of narratives from impactful moments in their childhood as well as events that changed them as a person. Their anecdotes allowed me to get a feel for what each one of them was going through, even if it was just through a telescope view.
I had hoped to do more work like this in the future, so I signed up to participate in transcribing these letters for the course of this year. I was excited to receive the letters and participate in this volunteer work again. This year, it was super interesting to hear about a new perspective with COVID-19. I was able to read about different experiences as well as reflecting on my life and the privilege that I have. Obviously reading about the hardships many had to endure was difficult, but I think that another hard part about this work was to only hear one perspective of one’s life story. Although it was fascinating to read these pieces of writing, it was difficult to only hear one story as I was craving more. I know that reading these perspectives, it was only a narrow tunnel of their life stories.
Apart from that, I really enjoyed being able to help give a voice to those incarcerated. It was fascinating to know that in transcribing these writing assignments, I was able to put a voice out to the public for those who aren’t able to.
I appreciate places such as The Beat Within for giving voices and passion to those that the community can dehumanize so much. This was an incredibly interesting experience to have, and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to work with The Beat Within for the past two years.
-Remmi D.
Thank you readers for taking the time to read this editorial note. We hope you truly enjoy and find inspiration in the rest of the magazine. We encourage you to stay in touch with us at any point in your journey. We welcome the chance to hear and learn from you. Our door is always open. We also appreciate your patience with us as we receive many letters each month and do our best to get back to most of you, or at the very least, send you a complimentary magazine. Thank you all for being a part of this important movement/journey! As we approach our 25th year, we welcome your stories and your connection to The Beat Within. We’d love to hear how The Beat came into your life and what it means to you today, or what it meant to you years ago. We are listening! We appreciate you all. Take care, be well, stay safe.