Please contact Lisa Lavaysse if you would like to purchase the full PDF or a printed copy of this issue.
Continue ReadingMonth: September 2024
Ed Note 29.27/28
Welcome back, readers and writers of The Beat Within! We’re thrilled to be with you and to present another outstanding publication of writing and artwork from our incarcerated community members near and far. For this issue’s editorial note, we’re inviting three of our interns from Urban High School of San Francisco and their teacher, Courtney Rein, to share their perspectives on transcribing for The Beat Without, the back section of our magazine dedicated to featuring the voices of incarcerated adults. Courtney is also our lead facilitator for workshops in San Quentin State Prison and Central California Women’s Facility. Please join
Continue ReadingIt Made Me Cry
-The Real Trix, Santa Cruz Today, I’ma write about who I turn to when life gets hard. To be completely honest, I don’t feel I have anyone I can truly turn to when shhh gets hard. Don’t get me wrong — if I need a place to crash for a night or two, I got people, or if I need to borrow a couple bucks. But when it comes to emotional support or moral support or even just someone to vent/talk to, I don’t feel I got no one. I have to say I’ve always been my own rock. At
Continue ReadingMy Grandparents Are My Best Friends
-JG, Stanislaus My grandparents are my best friends. Growing up I was usually always getting in trouble because they are very strict, but not as much no more. There’s a lot as to why, but now I know they just wanted the best for me. It’s too late now, but I should have listened to them. I do regret a lot of the things I’ve done, but I wouldn’t take it back because we have a good relationship now. To be honest I’d do it all over again. What I would take back though is some of the things I’ve
Continue ReadingOvercoming Adversity
-Michael Peterson When I was eighteen years old, I enrolled in the United States Marine Corps. When I got off the bus at the front perimeter of Paris Island, a drill instructor recruiter ran over to me and yelled really loud, “Why do you want to be a marine?” I answered that on my dad side of the family, there has been a Marine in every generation going back to the first ten men enlisted into the Marines and tons tavern. One of those ten men was William Jewell Peterson, enlisted as a captain and in charge of arranging special
Continue ReadingAudacity
-PoetryIt is a courageous battle we fightTo bear utter darkness and hunger for lightTo look beyond this cage into the starsWe dare to dream behind prison barsTo embrace the beauty beneath our scarsThe audacity to hope within lock and keyTo create harmony in this turbulent seaTo understand who we areValue who we could beThough physically confined, we are spiritually freeI once was blind, but now I seeThe tiniest seed becomes a treeWe learned a truth, do no harm by touchDo not judge anyone but lift everyone upTo not be a hurdle, strive to be a bridge, in the least a
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Volume 29.25/26
Please contact Lisa Lavaysse if you would like to purchase the full PDF or a printed copy of this issue.
Continue ReadingEd Note 29.25/26
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
Continue ReadingEmotions All Over the Place
-Kente, Santa Cruz I cry when my emotions are all over the place, when I am feeling sad or mad or frustrated all at the same time and they just all come out. Sometimes I can’t control it and it just comes out. The last time I cried was last Tuesday when I was in court listening to my parents talk about how much I’m a good kid and the judge still decided to not let me come home and be with my family all over again. I wasn’t alone. I had my lovely lawyer right next to me making
Continue ReadingCreating a Vision
-Jose, Santa Clara After more than three years of being incarcerated, I have developed and created a vision that I once never had. For so many years, I was blinded to the fact that there was so much more that being contained in a single environment that is built to keep the people of color down. The system that those so-called good Samaritans “government” implemented on our people, was to “teach us a lesson” or to break bad habits, but all it’s done is just make us more mad and more hungry. Some individuals will never get out of the
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