We are thrilled to give you readers this beautiful publication every two weeks, as we slowly but surely approach our 25th year of service (come mid-September) of writing and art from inside juvenile hall and beyond! Who would have thought that this tiny non-profit based in San Francisco would touch so many lives over the last 25 years? Think about all the publications, all the workshops, all the letters/submissions sent to us, with the desire to be published, to touch a life, to share a story, to educate and inspire!? What an honor to be doing this work with you all! Thank you for your incredible dedication to yourself and our many-many readers, as you embrace this powerful platform to share and teach while sharing your truths with one another.
There is plenty of praise and thanks to go around. We could not be this successful if it wasn’t for you writers and artists who take The Beat Within program and publication seriously. From workshop participants to those of you, who find the time to write and share your thoughts, and then send it out to us via US mail, with the goal of being published, thank you!
We want to thank every single Beat facilitator who is mentioned in our masthead on page 3, from those of you who type, edit, and respond to the various pieces, to those of you who give your time in your respected communities to touch the lives of the young people that we embrace each week in our writing workshops.
We also want to thank all your wonderful friends and advisors, who have offered great insight and support this past year. We could not walk with such confidence without you all. The time that you have given to The Beat Within means the world to us, and for that we thank you for sharing a part of you, being our advocate(s), in helping us to improve this amazing program as it embraces the unthinkable and unimaginable, 25th year of service.
Our past, we do not forget. We thank all of you old writers, artists, facilitators, editors, typists, interns, funders, advocates and friends. You all have played such a vital role in the story of The Beat Within, and for that we thank you. We know The Beat for better or for worse is something you will never forget either, it is such a magical and important program, particularly the writing workshops, where we have this priceless opportunity to go inside the juvenile halls, visit schools, county jails, state prison, community-based organizations, and other institutions to work closely with our participants – young and old.
Speaking of workshops, as most of you know, we are currently in various institutions around the state of California and beyond, conducting over 100 writing workshops a week and thanks to our many partners, giving many writers, inside and outside, the chance to weigh in on our topics and be published! What an amazing opportunity!!! None of this would have happened if it weren’t for you amazing facilitators, partners, and supporters.
As we approach the month of May, and we gear up for the second half of the 2021 season, we are in need of new volunteers. See the attached flyer to this page. If you know of anyone please share the info. As the world begins to open up and the opportunity to return to the various sites slowly happens, we need some good people to join us and be a part of our team. After a year off, and leading groups via Zoom, we now need new energy, from the respected counties we visit, to support and work with us. Please consider. Please share!
We are super excited about the second half of 2021, and you all being a part of this ride in some capacity. Since we are slowly but surely coming back to some normalcy, or shall we say the “new-norm,” not sure what that looks like quite yet, as we all continue to do our part, getting vaccinated, wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing practices, and washing our hands, we can’t tell you how excited we are about reconnecting with many of our friends – writers and artists, to building off a year of virtual learning, letter writings, etc. We are excited to see you all. as well as foster new relationships, and partnerships, to seeing where this special program takes us, this next chapter. We do look forward to more speaking engagements, workshops, and poetry readings with our community of friends and partners, while sharing in our work with communities that do not know of us at all, to further raising our visibility around the state/country/world, to traveling when the time allows and reconnecting with our friends, to meeting new colleagues who have an interest in what we do.
We look forward to seeing you all soon, or at the very least, hearing from you in your letters and submissions. If we miss you, don’t hesitate to put your pencil to paper and write us, we’d love to hear from you. Thanks for your patience with us. We appreciate the love and understanding that you show us in each letter and interaction.
This issue goes out to YOU, for taking this work seriously – from the lead facilitators and editors, to the college interns, to the volunteers, to our many-many teachers/participants (young and old), to our old school writers, to those of you who are great fans of The Beat. We appreciate you from the bottom of our hearts for realizing how special of a vehicle this publication and program truly is – The Beat Within, giving voice to the voiceless, since 1996. We wish you all great success! See you soon!