Greetings to our Beat Within community! It’s our pleasure to present this latest issue to you, and to continue publishing the deep, personal, and critical work of our incarcerated community across the nation.
This issue’s editorial note features the reflections of three of our interns from Urban High School of San Francisco. Our interns have been hard at work during the school year to ensure that all of authors’ writing makes it to print, and we can’t thank them enough for their dedication. Please join us in welcoming Selah, Ryan, and Mia to our editorial section!
Themes I Could Relate To
I feel like the thing that really stuck with me the most throughout my time with The Beat was how insightful a lot of these passages were. A lot of the authors behind them were around my age, and I felt that a lot of the recurring themes I saw were something that I could really relate to: family, friends, identity, values.
I remember one week in particular, when a lot of the authors chose to respond to a prompt on relationships. One kid was writing about letting go of the relationships in their life that weren’t benefiting them. There was a big focus in the passage on self-improvement, and even more: self-respect.
I cried reading that letter. It came to me the same week that I was really struggling with a friendship of mine, and I felt that the letter was almost written just for me; it was exactly what I needed to hear.
Another week, there was a prompt about who inspires you most. A lot of authors chose to write about a parent or sibling, usually their mom. These love letters to their family members were definitely my favorite to read. I loved learning what it was that these kids loved about the person who inspires them most. Sometimes, it was their strength, ability to bounce back after challenges. Sometimes, it was their humor or sense of style, or charisma.
My favorite passage out of all of these was where an author said that the person that inspired them most in life was themself. I think that this was one of the most insightful things I’d ever read in my life. They said that for a long time, they didn’t really believe in themselves and their ability to get through things.
But now they choose to be inspired by themself every day. They make this choice because if they aren’t inspired by themself, then they know that they will never be able to follow their values. But looking back, they are so proud of themself for getting through all they have and for growing so much. I think that everyone can benefit from being inspired by themself a little bit, and I’m so thankful to the authors of The Beat for helping me realize that.
I found myself wishing so often that there was a way to share with these kids how much their words were helping me. I tried to fit as much as I could into those little two to three sentence responses, but it just couldn’t be enough sometimes.
-Selah, Urban High School of San Francisco
The Barriers Began to Crumble
As the final chapter of my internship at The Beat unfolded, I found myself immersed in a whirlwind of emotions and insights. Writing for students whose backgrounds are so different from mine has been an eye-opening experience, and it makes me reflect on my own privilege as a private school kid.
Before delving into my opinion, it is important to acknowledge my earlier views on the justice system and incarcerated individuals. The barriers separating me from my world were solid and were reinforced by ignorance. But as I began my journey with The Beat Within, these barriers began to crumble, exposing me to the stories of people on the other side.
As we delved deeper into these students’ writing, the power of storytelling became apparent. Their stories painted a vivid picture of resilience, hope and the quest for a better life. The vulnerability expressed in their stories inspired me, challenging preconceptions and forcing me to face the reality of incarceration.
The most profound lesson I learned during this internship was about the impact of incarceration on the human experience. It’s easy to talk about justice and incarceration in a cynical manner but hearing the voices of those directly affected humanized the stories.
The stories of struggles, dreams, and fears expressed in the text transcended the confines of prison walls and were a privilege to respond to.
-Ryan, Urban High School of San Francisco
Why I Have Stuck with The Beat Within
This is my second trimester transcribing for The Beat Within, and I hope to continue my volunteer work in any way I can. If you were to ask me why, my answer would undoubtedly be the people.
This may be hard to understand, considering I have no face-to-face interaction with any of the authors. A lot of the time, I don’t even have their real names. These surface-level details can be important, but these authors tell me so much more about themselves through their writing.
The experience of “getting to know” these authors can feel like it happens almost backward. I often learn more about an author’s most formative experiences than I learn about their day to day life. I could tell you easily about an author’s strongest opinions or deepest intellectual thoughts, but I would get tripped up the second you ask me about their favorite color.
Though this took some getting used to, I am endlessly grateful for these author’s vulnerability. As an extrovert who is endlessly curious about the lives of my peers, it is refreshing to be welcomed into a person’s world in such a quick and novel way.
I have learned so much more about what it means to be incarcerated than reading dozens of articles could tell me. I owe this eye-opening experience to the people behind the pages, who spent time thinking about the prompts and carefully answering. Their experiences speak to me — one young person to another — and I often find myself relating to both their struggles and their triumphs.
These publications are a great opportunity for incarcerated youth to share their voices with a larger audience, and for readers to learn something new. I hope that the positive impact of these opportunities continues to spread and reach a wider community.
-Mia, Urban High School of San Francisco
Thank you, Selah, Ryan, and Mia for your insightful reflections, and for your work with us this term! We hope that you stay in touch with The Beat Within and keep us updated on the new heights your future will take you post-graduation.
And, as always, we extend our deepest gratitude and admiration to the writers and artists whose work we feature in every publication. We’re proud of you and the tremendous effort you put into your workday in and day out. We hope you enjoy this latest issue, 29.25/26!