Category: Editor’s Note

Greetings friends! Welcome to double issue 26.43/44.  As we continue to celebrate our 25th year of service, we are honored to have our colleague OT share the latest. The other night during our workshop, OT was inspired by us all to rap the following piece to the young men during a recent workshop. We encouraged him after the session, to build an editorial note around the piece and that he has. Thank you.  This whole issue is amazing, as we are thrilled to showcase all the writings and art featured in this issue from our amazing workshop participants who step

We would like to welcome you readers back to another double dose edition, 26.41/42, of the one and only The Beat Within. This is the only magazine keeping it real for you readers one thousand percent for 25 years! This week we pass the mic or should we say keyboard to our dearest colleague, OT.  Most of you know OT by now, if it’s through this editorial note, or for the few of you who have met him over Zoom in our workshops. Regardless, he is great person with plenty of heart and we think his following message will truly

Greetings friends of The Beat Within! Welcome to our latest issue, 26.39/40. It is such an honor to share with you all this latest publication of writing and art from inside juvenile hall and beyond. Over the last month, we have been incredibly touched and humbled when dear friends, colleagues, peers, associates, and even strangers reach out to us and offer their respects to us for accomplishing 25 years of The Beat Within. It seems like yesterday we were just getting this program off the ground in San Francisco.  Fast forward  25 years and wow, have we seen and done

As we embrace our 25th anniversary of this good work, it is only right to look back on how this all began.  There are several moving parts that play a key role in The Beat Within’s success, besides the San Francisco Juvenile Justice Center aka Youth Guidance Cntr (YGC), aka the “Mothership” for being so open to the idea of our weekly groups back in 1996. It was Marynella Woods, former social worker in the Public Defender’s Office Juvenile Division, taking a chance on our founder, David, way back in the early 1990s.  It was also Jack Jacqua, cofounder of

Happy 25th Anniversary to the one and only, The Beat Within! What a benchmark! What an amazing journey! We have definitely learned plenty from those early days back in the 1990s, to where we are today, September 2021.  We are humbled and full of gratitude for this trek we have been on. From the early days, when San Francisco, the mothership, was where we were birthed the magazine, as the youth shared their feelings on the death of Tupac Shakur, to where we are today in nearly 25 + sites. We are touched and very proud to be on this

Greetings! We are incredibly impressed with the amount of writing many of you are sharing with us each week, thank you.  We would like to welcome you readers back for another double issue of writing and art from our amazing friends – young and old – inside and outside of the system. We are also incredibly grateful to you writers who are embracing this opportunity for the first time.  The chance to have your voice heard is important. To tell your story is important and to educate your take on our topics means plenty to us and our many readers. 

Another week, another Beat! We are thrilled to get this latest issue of our amazing publication into your hands. There is plenty of great writings to be shared and to be able to produce this one-of-a-kind publication every two weeks means the world to us. We can’t thank you, writers and artists, enough for all your time and work. The dedication of your writing truly shines in these pages! We can’t thank our many partners, allies, and friends who help make this program a success for all of us. This is the kind of work where you can’t do it

We are knee deep in Summer, yet the start of school is right around the corner! Where does the time go?  We certainly hope you readers are doing well, staying healthy, while preparing for the upcoming fall season!? If you have been following the news it certainly appears to be yet another challenging season, as we are still dealing with COVID and new variants.  We encourage all of you to continue to wear your masks, wash your hands and be mindful of people’s space. We are hearing of too many good people who are fully vaccinated and are still testing

Better late than never! After nearly 2 years, we finally took a break to celebrate family and friends last week up in Lake Tahoe, CA. It was great to getaway and enjoy this amazing place, especially given how COVID kept us all away until recently, but unfortunately that put the magazine on pause, and we fell a few days behind.  Our apologies.  You may question internally, why could someone not step up in one’s absence, well, as a tiny non-profit, we don’t always have the people power to have folks cover for the good work, but we know you understand,

Greetings! Hard to believe we are now in the month of July! Half the year is gone!! We hope 2021 is moving in the right direction for you all!  We can’t thank you enough for your continued support, as readers and stories. The recent work coming from our very insightful writers is so impressive. We are honored to showcase the amazing talent and heartfelt writings from our young and old, who courageously step up each week to teach and share through their journeys, free and incarcerated.  This latest double issue, 26.25/26, will truly not disappoint.  We are incredibly moved by