Welcome back, The Beat Within is proud to publish another stellar issue of writing and artwork from our incarcerated community around the country! As we awaken into Spring, we hope you are able to look forward with hope and inspiration.
This issue’s editorial note is brought to you by two of our recent interns from Urban High School of San Francisco, Delilah and Oscar! In her reflection essay, we learn that Delilah found community among our incarcerated writers who bravely process their grief in our pages. With Oscar, the power of writing one’s truth becomes a source of inspiration and fortitude in his own life.
Please join us in welcoming Delilah and Oscar to our editorial section!
Seen and Understood
I was extremely excited to begin working with The Beat Within because of how passionate I am about the social justice system.
Last year, I took a course focused on studying the voices of incarcerated people, which culminated in a field trip to the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, CA. I came into the class with a privileged perspective and a lack of prior knowledge.
To be completely honest, I was scared of incarcerated people because I viewed them simply as the acts they had committed. However, as we began studying primary sources from people inside, like reading their letters and listening to podcast interviews, learning their stories helped humanize them to me, and my internalized bias against them disappeared.
When I first began transcribing letters for The Beat, I viewed it as something I was doing to help others, but what I found was that reading and reflecting upon the writings of others, specifically those who were writing about grief, was also helping me to process my own.
Earlier this year, my father passed away. I felt so alone, unable to find others who had experienced a grief so heavy to hold. However, as I began to transcribe the letters of incarcerated people, reading about their process of dealing with the trauma of losing a loved one, I felt seen and understood in a way I couldn’t feel supported elsewhere.
I was particularly moved by the poems I got to transcribe because they had been written so thoughtfully and evoked so much emotion. My favorite poem was from an anonymous incarcerated person that I transcribed during week four:
Loneliness surrounded
By walls of high security
Sometimes it’s quiet
Sometimes it’s loud
Surrounded by people
But I never felt so lonely
Days so dark
The Lord brings light
To wash my sins in the blood of the Lord
I found myself motivated by the dedication many incarcerated people explained that they had to pursue education. It was so inspiring to hear how hard they had worked to earn high grades, and it made me happy to hear how they took pride in their accomplishments.
Reading about all the roadblocks incarcerated people face while attempting to pursue a GED helped put into perspective how truly privileged I am in regard to my educational opportunities, something I won’t take for granted knowing others fight so hard for.
I’m so grateful for the opportunity to read so many firsthand accounts of life within the incarceration system because I found myself deeply connecting with so many people inside, as well as further learning about the injustices within the system. It was amazing to hear how incarcerated people were still able to pursue joy, given the constraints they faced inside.
-Delilah, Urban High School of San Francisco
Speaking Goals into Existence
I strongly enjoyed my work with The Beat Within, because it gave me a new perspective on the lives of incarcerated people, and it gave me a new appreciation for the small things within my own life.
In many pieces that I transcribed, a common theme of missing family and loved ones showed up, and it gave me a much greater appreciation for the fact that I’m able to see my family and loved ones almost every day. I also saw a strong connection to God and religion within many writing pieces that I transcribed.
It made me understand that many incarcerated people struggle finding hope, but expressing their faith gives them a hope that can only be erased by their own doing, which was really inspiring to me.
What was challenging about this work was hearing what incarcerated people go through. Whether it was hunger-related, poverty-related, or violence-related, the experiences people went through made me gain a lot of respect for them, because they’re often still trying to be positive and hopeful for a better future, despite all of the trauma that they have faced throughout their lives.
Seeing positivity, creativity, and humor expressed by people who are going through a difficult time inspires me to have more fortitude and positivity within my own life. From this experience, I’ve also learned that writing is a great way to get your thoughts, emotions, and messages out of your head. I feel like if I started writing about my life in a similar fashion to the pieces I transcribed, I’d have a better understanding of my own feelings.
Writing seems like a great way to “speak” your goals and aspirations into existence. If not used in those two ways, writing is also just a great way to express yourself. Some of the pieces I transcribed were rap lyrics and poetry, and I was reminded of how I expressed my creativity through drawing as a kid.
Overall, working with The Beat Within taught me a lot about the lives of incarcerated people, the emotions they experience, how they stay hopeful and positive, and how we could use these methods in our own lives. Moving forward from this experience, I hope to find new ways of supporting incarcerated people throughout the United States, while also applying what I learned to my own life.
-Oscar, Urban High School of San Francisco
We appreciate the hard work and dedication our Urban interns put into The Beat each and every term, and we always look forward to hearing about how the testimonies of our writers impact them. Thank you again Delilah and Oscar, and we hope that you stay in touch with us!
We wish you all a positive “spring” into the new season. May the longer days bring hope and ease into all of our lives and pave the way to a brighter tomorrow. We hope you enjoy this latest issue, 29.11/12!