Please contact Lisa Lavaysse if you would like to purchase the full PDF or a printed copy of this issue.
Continue ReadingReality Hurts
by Phong Dang BANG, BANG, BANG!!! With no regard for human life I recklessly shot four times into a group of my rivals and Phung Thanh Nguyen is lying bloody on the floor. I wake up startled as the reality of what I have done hit me! I open my eyes and I’m back in my tiny cell sweating from the nightmare that I had caused. Serving twenty-three years into my incarceration I try to gain insight into why I became this monster. And I start to reflect… I was born on January 24, 1975, in Saigon, the capitol of Vietnam.
Continue ReadingFrom Her Dream
by Chris I’m reading a drawing just tryin’ to stay busy, this white room is shrinking I’m getting dizzy, I’m tired of waiting, contemplating and debating on the next thing to do, with all of these guards, I’m trying not to be rude, sitting thinking ‘bout my family and momma, I hate to say it but the woman’s just drama, all that woman does is yell and scream, I hope she wakes up from her dream, starving herself washing it down, she drinks herself so she don’t have to frown, I try not to think about it so much, it starts with a
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Please contact Lisa Lavaysse if you would like to purchase the full PDF or a printed copy of this issue.
Continue ReadingOne Vote…Priceless!
by Eddie “Edito” DeWeaver Witnessing my father experience negative contact with law enforcement helped to form the false belief system of a fourteen- year-old, “that nothing I could do would change the world.” At that time, I had no idea how far I was away from the truth. Now sitting in this prison cell, I can say that I did change the world…for the bad. Fortunately, my story continues to get better, as I began to rst take responsibility for my past, and also, to believe in my power to impact the future…for the good. When it comes to voting,
Continue ReadingSo Tired
by Teezy I’m tired of being here to be honest. Coming here over and over is not cool at all. I wake up every day and ask myself, “How did I get here?” I never thought that I would ever be here. I’m tired of this street life. I’m tired of watching over my shoulder everywhere I go because of the things I’ve done to people in the past. I can’t leave my house without having a gun with me because there’s people that want to take my life because of my poor decisions. Before my other brother got shot in
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Please contact Lisa Lavaysse if you would like to purchase the full PDF or a printed copy of this issue.
Continue ReadingIt’s All About Attitude
by Dortell Williams Some time ago, I got a call to the dentist’s of ce. I wasn’t expecting a call; I had no problems or complaints. But when staff calls, you know you gotta go check it out. So I went in there and there they were: the dentist and two assistants. Nothing unusual about that. The odd thing was that they were all smiling- and looking at me! Now you know that’s weird, at least on this side of the wall. To be polite, I smiled likewise. The shorter nurse with glasses said I looked confused, but maintained her
Continue ReadingAnxiety
by Brittany Anxiety will ruin you and being locked up doesn’t make it any better. The counselors act like they understand what you’re going through. They think locking me up in a small room with no windows will help calm me down. I can’t just breath through my anxieties, it’s not that easy. I’m sitting here shaking, crying, heart pounding and I can’t catch my breath. The staff just tells me it’s going to be okay. Now, it’s not going to be okay. I am sitting in Juvenile Hall after the most traumatic experience of my life. Not knowing what is
Continue ReadingLit Crawl 2016
One of the most anticipated literary nights of the year, San Francisco’s world-famous Lit Crawl attracts close to 10,000 people, and features over 400 authors in just three hours. Lit Crawl brings literature to the streets, featuring smart and silly, worldly and wacky events in venues usual (bars, cafes, galleries, and bookstores) and unusual (police stations, tattoo parlors, barbershops, and erotica boutiques). For 20 years, the Beat Within has been publishing the soul-stirring poetry and essays of kids locked in juvenile hall in and outside the San Francisco Bay Area. Come learn about this extraordinary program, get inspired, and learn how you can help! Please
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