"More schools in this country dismiss or diminish the power of poetry than one's that don't. That's a sad fact.
Despite this I've known high school students who carry their own personal journals with many poems, images
and ideas without having had a class assignment to do so. Poetry, like most art, happens even when education
doesn't." - Luis Rodriguez, Hearts & Hands; Creating Community in Violent Times (p.250)
My introduction to the writings of Luis Rodriguez occured during the first days of the Fall semester 2002, when Dr. Cynthia Bejarano
passed out her CJ360 Juvenile Justice syllabi. Included on the required readings was Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A
by Rodriguez. My academic involvement with poetry also began to take shape at the time. In college, I discovered a place for many
personal interests I had growing up that were difficult to assimilate into the public school campuses and classrooms some of us were raised in. Whether it was
taking my interest of journalism and turning it into Hip Hop radio, or taking my passion for the Pad & Pen and discussing it amongst a group of people inside a creative writing workshop or researching and voicing my opinion
of the American justice system... within those walls at New Mexico State University were many opportunities and possibilities I don't think I ever would have
explored (especially in terms of a career) had I not been enrolled at NMSU.
The assignments and group project I participated in for Dr. Bejarano's CJ360 course was the catalyst for what would later develop into the Voices Behind Walls program.
In thinking about creative writing and its potential amongst youth populations in alternative school, juvenile halls, etc. and through participating with
¡Aqui se puede!, an NMSU violence prevention program for at-risk youth in the Dona Ana County, I got exposed to a number of other programs that had been putting in work
for years. By way of the world wide web, I discovered The Beat Within, a weekly publication of writing and art from inside juvenile halls throughout California and
the United States.
In 2004, I got the chance to piece together a presentation and journal article titled "The Violence of Youth; The Presence of a Pen" for the NMSU
Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. The title was inspired from part 1 of Rodriguez' text Hearts and Hands, Creating Community in
Violent Times, which was titled "The Violence of Youth, the Abscence of Elders". Included in the content of the article and presentation were poems
from youth involved with the ¡Aqui se puede! Program and interviews with staff from The Beat Within: Will Roy, Michael Kroll and co-founder David Incocencio.
Coincidentally, that same year the Ronald E. McNair program sent fellow colleagues and I to a symposium at the University of California, Berkeley which allowed me
the opportunity to drop by and visit The Beat Within offices across the Bay in San Francisco.
This newsletter is another shout out to The Beat and a re-publishing of the transcribed interviews we had conducted over the phone 5 years ago. Below and at the
following link you will find those three interviews along with an audio recording of Will Roy's poem titled "I Write". Shout out to Avoid the Lyricist from El
Paso, TX who added his own musical production to the "I Write" piece. | The Beat Within Interviews |
Till this day, I print out the latest copy of The Beat Within from their website, read it and pass it on to anyone else who takes interest in the cover art or who might
be able to use the publication for their own work. Whether it be a classroom inside a juvenile hall, high school, group home, college, or the office
of a public defender, corrections officer, counselor, teacher, writer, etc., The Beat Within is one of those resources I hope finds its way into the daily circulation of
not only whats goin' on inside juvenile halls but for facilitators on the outside, especially if your work brings you in contact with youth that could benefit from
the publication's creativity and message.
If you're reading this and you work in a juvenile hall, group home, high school, or teach a college course that addresses the subject matter of juvenile justice
please consider visiting the website, print out a copy of the latest issue and lay it out on your tables, pin the covers up to your bulletin boards and pass the word. | The Beat Within.org |
Great respect to everyone I've had the chance to collaborate with and props to The Beat Within for inspiring me and every single student I had the priveledge of
building ideas with through the pages and topics published by The Beat on a weekly basis. Til' the end of September, Peace.
"Words transform lives and the things of life. The key for teachers or workshop facilitators who work with marginalized or oppressed communities is to begin
with respect, which can't help but be a respect for individual cultures, languages, creativity and capabilities." - Luis Rodriguez, Hearts & Hands; Creating Community in Violent Times (p.256)
