Category: Editor’s Note

Greetings friends of The Beat Within. Welcome to another one-of-a-kind double issue of The Beat Within.  We are honored and thrilled to connect with you all through these special 72 pages of writing and art. There is no other publication like this.  Our magazine truly touches and inspires many lives to write, read, reflect, discover, and hopefully make the necessary changes to lead a healthy and safe life. We are excited to receive the beautiful black etched glass award/plaque our founder, David Inocencio, received on behalf of The Beat Within! He was recognized for last month in New York at

Welcome friends to another fabulous issue of The Beat Within. We certainly hope you will enjoy all the wonderful submissions in this latest issue, there is so much good work being produced by our young workshop participants, as well as by our friends who take it upon themselves to reach out from around the state, inside and outside of the system.  Overall, the work has been quite busy as we embrace 2022, but incredibly rewarding, as we continue to learn so much from you writers and artists who share your truths, your story, as you tackle our writing prompts.  We

Greetings! Here we are in the middle of March, time is surely flying by! I certainly hope everyone out there who is reading this editorial note is doing well? We can’t thank you enough for your time and work as writers and readers of this amazing one of a kind publication, The Beat Within.  One thing we are super excited about is our return to San Quentin. At this point, we are good to go to connect with our writers and friends, whom we have not seen or embraced in over 2 years, thanks to this pandemic.  The loyalty and

Welcome Beat editorial note readers to this latest double issue, 27.07/08, of writing and art from inside juvenile hall and beyond.  Before you begin to flip through this one-of-a-kind issue of writing and art from our many standout contributors, we hope you will take a moment to read our editorial note. This week we are all in for a treat, as our dear friend and colleague, Alyssa, steps up to write this latest editorial note, giving OT a well-deserved break.  For those of you who know Alyssa, lucky you, she is simply an amazing colleague, facilitator, and friend.  We are

Welcome friends to another wonderful issue of The Beat Within. This latest double issue, 27.05/06, delivers plenty of solid writings for you hungry readers. We are thrilled to get this latest magazine into your hands. We are confident you will find inspiration in the following pages. As always, we will pass the keyboard over to OT to get us through the editorial note. We do want to say how thrilled we are, to officially welcome our young writers from the Kings County Juvenile Center! Through the JC Montgomery School in Hanford, CA. A big thank you to Principal Elizabeth Norris

Greetings friends! We are thrilled to bring you our latest issue, 27.03/04! This latest magazine is packed with plenty of heat, so prepare yourself for shared wisdom, knowledge, and insight from our many writers, young and old. We learn so much from you writers, from the new contributors to the OGs who step up and come from the heart. There is something for all of you who are holding this one-of-a-kind magazine. We want to encourage you, writers, to dive a bit deeper with the magazine and not only read your work and your friends, but also check out other counties,

Happy New Year! Welcome to our first issue, 27.01/02, of the new year! Thank you all for your time and work and for playing such a vital role in this one of a kind publication we know and love, The Beat Within.  For 25 plus years we have been doing the graet work and this magazine is proof! Thank you all for being a part of this journey and embracing with us this latest chapter, 2022. Without further ado, lets’ pass the keyboard to our dear friend and colleague, OT!  Welcome! It’s OT once again reporting live to you from

Welcome to our year-end issue, 26.49/50, of The Beat Within.  What a journey we have all been on, as the Covid pandemic continues, and adjustments in our day to day lives are necessary to move forward in a healthy and safe manner. We are thrilled that our longtime colleague and friend, Alyssa, whom many of you know, has embraced the opportunity to take us into 2022 with her thoughts on the past year and of course goals for the upcoming new year, with the last editorial note in 2021  Before we get there we too want to personally thank you

Greetings! It is hard to believe it is the month of December. Where does the time go? We are quickly approaching the winter holidays, as we are weeks away from the new year, 2022, doing our best to wrap up 2021, as we approach our year-end issue. While looking forward to taking a break in the action, as we will take our annual break between Christmas and New Year’s. Until then, The Beat goes on… the workshops continue, and the hard work behind the scenes for this one of a kind publication, The Beat Within. This week we deliver you

Greetings friends! Welcome to double issue 26.45/46!  We know you will LOVE the writings featured in this latest issue, but before you check out the whole magazine, allow us to share the other night. Thanks to the support and sponsorship of the California Endowment, our 25th Anniversary online event “Why I Write”. The night was amazing, with heartfelt stories, poems and testimonies from former Beat writers followed by questions from the audience. We could not ask for a better writer and friend to break down the other night’s festivities than OT, who will share his take on this past Sundays