Category: Editor’s Note

We welcome you readers back to another double dose edition of the one and only The Beat Within. It’s OT once again coming at you guys live from the land the quakes and shakes, and the hot volcanic rocks of Managua, Nicaragua.  Once again, we have completed another wonderful magazine. We have some great writing this week and some very good topics. One of my favorite topics of the week was making up for lost time. This was a very interesting topics as for all those that find themselves locked up, time becomes an essence. It’s measured in days, months,

Welcome to the latest issue of The Beat Within, with some locations off enjoying a brief summer break to rest and recharge, we are still here to share these amazing authentic voices and stories with you. To encourage community and commonality with everyone that touches this magazine.  You are not alone, so we hope you join The Beat Within family by reading some of these stories. Perhaps you read something that sounds like a more challenging situation than your own, or maybe it might sound like something you have actually experienced yourself. Either way, The Beat Within wants you to

The Beat Within is back again to help amplify your voices and your stories. To share them with the larger community and the world. In partnership with the community, we work with high school student interns every year and here are some of their final reflections on the experience of helping to type up your writing for publication.  It takes a village of people and dedicated team work to pull of this publication every two weeks! We appreciate meeting with you every week, sharing conversations and putting all your thoughts, dreams and challenges in print for you to share. We

We hope you enjoy this issue of The Beat Within as we tackle topics of summer, choice and grandparents. Thank you everyone for your constant community, we are so humbled to share another issue of this communal magazine with you. As summer heats up and school is out for vacation, we want to publish a few reflections from the last group of student interns from Urban High School. These students help The Beat Within week in and week out by typing up workshop writing from many different locations and we really appreciate the extra help! As you can imagine, there

Welcome Beat Contributors and Beat Readers! We’re proud to present to you our latest double dose edition of the one and only The Beat Within. Our magazine brings us the latest truths and honest stories from our beloved youth, and a sprinkle of knowledge from our adult contributors in our BWO Section.  They share great insight, knowledge and game. This week we are blessed to have two stupendous interns from Urban High School sharing their Beat Within experience. They have been helping us type and edit, to make sure we put out the magazine every other week.   We are

A slightly different version of this Editor’s Note was first published in The Beat Within about twenty years ago. We are reprinting it here for two reasons. First, we want you to think about all the changes for the better that have happened over the years. For example, there are now a variety of useful programs, from meditation, mindfulness and real psychological counseling, to your ability to take college courses and earn degrees that promise a better future. But, at the same time, much of the criticism of the system we wrote about is as true today as it was

We welcome you readers back to another double dose edition of the one and only The Beat Within. It’s OT once again coming at you guys live from the land the quakes and shakes, and the hot volcanic rocks of Managua, Nicaragua.  I’m blessed and tasked once again to share some positive insight with our Beat Readers and writers, so let’s get to it ladies and gentlemen. As always, I love to touch on one of our weekly writing prompts to drop my two cents on how I feel about the topic and this week the topic that kept ringing

Welcome Beat writers and readers from across the country and around the world! We’re so glad to have you with us, and to have the honor of publishing the testimonies, opinions, and stories of our incarcerated community for the past twenty-eight years.  Our recent topic on the Los Angeles County decision to bring back the death penalty struck a particular chord with our young writers and with this issue’s editorial contributor, Michael Kroll. Michael brings decades of experience to the pages of The Beat, and we’re grateful to showcase his history and critical eye on this important topic. The questions

Greetings to our readers, writers, and broader community of The Beat Within! We’re bringing you another groundbreaking edition of writing by and for incarcerated youth, and we can’t emphasize enough how grateful we are to have you with us. It’s no easy task to put this publication to print every other week, but with the support of our incredible community, we’ve been able to make it happen for three consecutive decades.  We’re bringing Michael Kroll to the pages of our editorial section, who some of you know as “Einstein” and many more of you know as a dedicated workshop facilitator

Hello and welcome to our Beat community near and far! With longer days ahead and the fields in bloom, we’re so glad to have you with us today and always.  For this issue’s editorial note, we’re bringing our good friend and colleague OT to our pages as he reflects on his personal experience with one of our recent prompts, “Things I Hate to Hear.” No matter who or where we are, no matter our age or maturity level, there’s certain phrases coming from certain people that really gets our blood boiling. Welcome, Omar, to the editorial pages!  We welcome you