Rhyme Writing | Art of Voices #ZHill

Rhyme Writing

"Writin' in my book of rhymes...all the words pass the margin..."

#Nas ((The World is Yours)) #Illmatic

This illustration really captures the essence of what the Voices Behind Walls program was all about.  On this particular evening we had one of the most talented rhyme writers in the prison visit the workshop.  Prior to his visit I had a difficult time encouraging him to be consistent with his participation.  Most of the time I remember our workshop schedule conflicting with other activities that were going on at the prison that he chose to participate with instead.  On another occasion participants that showed up noted that he simply didn't feel like participating.  They mentioned, "hey man, we tried... he just didn't feel like coming."  All the other youth knew he had rhyme skills.  We got the chance to hear him spit a few rhymes once before and right away I knew we had an eMCee in front of us.  In previous workshops, youth that did show up would talk about this guy like he was a myth and how they were going to try to get him to visit so that I could see how good he was at rapping.  

In this illustration, Zachary Hill does an incredible job capturing the experience of attending a VBW workshop and the pensive listening that takes place when youth get lost in the music and take time to write.  The youth standing in the background listening and observing is how some participants start off in our workshop.  For many youth it was a matter of working through the fear, trust, or lack of confidence because of what others would think about what they had to say.  For anyone else not familiar with what was going on, they might look at a youth standing against a wall and think they were not engaged.  But often times those were the ones that would surprise us a few sessions later and arrive with their own book of rhymes or songs that they wanted to share with the other participants.  I recall one of our participants who ended up recording the programs first double disc CD...it took him several months to find his voice.  I remember months later mentioning to him that I didn't realize how long he'd been visiting the workshop because he was so quiet, often in the background, observing, listening, and nodding to the beat.  Eventually he'd grow to become one of our most accomplished participants and song writers in the program.  He was sentenced to the juvenile prison for the remaining teenage years of his life so we got to work with him for a while.  In that time he developed leadership qualities promoting the program's purpose and encouraging other youth to get involved.  It was incredible to see others improve because of his guidance through rhyme.  I saw him as a literacy peer.

Both of the figures in the 'Rhyme Writing' illustration reflect the same person.  The youth standing is a reflection of how the process starts when youth take the time to visit the workshop and see what our environment is all about.  For them to see the equipment, the books, the collaboration, the pencils/pens, composition books, the musical equipment, and other technology. Through their observation and experience they'd eventually arrive to that moment where they were the ones composing songs about their own lives. While some have reason to believe that popular rap music has a tendency to beget negativity to a point where every "rapper"  is a carbon copy of the other, this does not reflect what it means to be an eMCee. Especially when a platform (in our case the workshop) is able to provide space for everyone's truth and/or stories. I thought of their voices and rhymes as their own bar codes.  Even among the hundreds of incarcerated youth I recorded for the VBW program, I never mistook one voice from another ..especially one connected to its own story, its own song.

Special thanks to Zachary Hill for the exceptional artwork and the vibrant and colorful pallets that capture the truth of the original photograph.  It's a scene of many and tells a story you'd have to listen to to believe.

#Lee

Art of Voices is a Voices Behind Walls (VBW) project supported by Community Solutions of El Paso to recruit illustrators through Volunteer Match to help recreate VBW workshop photographs into art.  The photographs were taken during workshop activities in juvenile detention between the years of 2006-2014.  Artistic remakes of the photographs protect the identity of workshop participants by changing details of face and other identifiers.  The purpose of this project is to document the VBW program's history and the creative expression activities incarcerated youth were engaged in.  This project also offers the VBW photographer and illustrators an opportunity to reflect on what the images say about the juvenile justice system and the importance of creative expression activity for youth as a means of education, therapy, self-improvement, community engagement, rehabilitation, positive Hip Hop activity, and mentorship.   

Voices Behind Walls...writing | Art of Voices #JBRuby

Voices Behind Walls...writing
"See the light..."

Introducing Art of Voices participant Judi Ruby and her painting of a youth from the Voices Behind Walls program caught in the act of writing.  This painting is based on a photograph I took with my first digital camera I used to document workshop activities...a Logitech Pocket cam.  This was during VBW's earliest years.  At the time I only knew how to record the spoken word and acapella expressions of incarcerated youth with a microphone and laptop software.  It simply involved a participant sitting in front of our microphone and recording what he wrote on paper. No beats. 

The youth captured in the painting by Ruby was one of the sharpest pens in VBW history.  On his own time he actually found a way to record himself using a stereo boombox that his unit used in their pod.  The boombox had a tape deck he used to record himself rapping to a beat.  Before he was released I got the chance to hear some of his recordings when he brought one of his cassettes to workshop (we called it a demo). In a lot of ways, his efforts inspired our next phase in how we conducted recordings which involved playing beats in the background from my portable CD stereo player while a participant got on the mic.  Over the years other youth who brought recording experience to our workshop from the time they spent rapping with older siblings or friends on the outside would redefine our recording process. 

It would've been nice to have had the recording capability we learned later during the time we spent with the participant who recorded himself on cassette.  Those moments reflected our Hip Hop story of figuring out ways to make something out of the little bit of equipment and technical knowledge we had. In the future I hope to release the recordings of the participant depicted in the paining.

#Lee

Here are Ruby's thoughts on how she approached the painting above for the Art of Voices project: "The original photo for this painting had very subtle contrast because the subject matter was mostly shades of grey and white with dispersed lighting. My usual style employs rainbow colors and a focused light source producing strong shadows. I wanted to introduce color in a way that would retain the subtle contrast of the original photograph and not look artificial, yet add interest to the work. I used the brightest colors on the page being authored by the young subject." 

Art of Voices is a Voices Behind Walls (VBW) project supported by Community Solutions of El Paso to recruit illustrators through Volunteer Match to help recreate VBW workshop photographs into art.  The photographs were taken during workshop activities in juvenile detention between the years of 2006-2014.  Artistic remakes of the photographs protect the identity of workshop participants by changing details of face and other identifiers.  The purpose of this project is to document the VBW program's history and the creative expression activities incarcerated youth were engaged in.  This project also offers the VBW photographer and illustrators an opportunity to reflect on what the images say about the juvenile justice system and the importance of creative expression activity for youth as a means of education, therapy, self-improvement, community engagement, rehabilitation, positive Hip Hop activity, and mentorship.  

Master Control | Art of Voices #ZHill

Master Control

It was one of those days and I must've waited at least an hour before I could enter the juvenile facility to conduct a creative expression workshop.  With no where to sit, I stood and scanned the front entrance at one point attempting to focus my vision through the one way window that housed the master control room on the other side. Though barely visible, I could see the outline of the monitors and guards as they entered and exited the control room.  There was one way in for visitors and one way out.  Above the entrance of the heavy large steel door were the words "Master Control".

In this artwork, I asked Art of Voices participant, Zachary Hill to try and emphasize security and surveillance. The piece also depicts me, the educator, going into the facility with a crate under my arm.  I wanted to focus on the crate which contained books and publications that I'd bring with me and make available to the participants.  It includes a collection of books for what I called our "VBW Library", including copies of the Beat Within publication, a weekly publication of writing and art from incarcerated youth all around the United States and a couple other countries.  I recall during one of those long waits staring at the etched words above the main entrance..."Master Control".  It meant a lot of things to me in the context of the lives held inside, the security staff, and the facility's visitors.  I thought about the kind of writing topic that we could pull from the entrance.  Thinking about spaces we've entered in our lives that we remember most.  What do these entrances into prison mean for incarcerated youth?  What do entrances mean to the incarcerated adult population?  If you've seen A Place to Stand, Jimmy Santiago Baca's documentary based on his life and experience incarcerated in Arizona's state prison it depicts a scene going in.  How are these entrances identified in other facilities?  How does the process of entering these spaces for a volunteer or educator compare or what makes them different?

Below is a Q&A with the illustrator about his approach to the piece and art:

Lee: How would you describe your approach to this illustration in regards to its color and other features?

ZH: First I designated a color pallet to work with. Like you said, the area has a lot of reds and browns in the surrounding color, so I felt a cooler tone would compliment that well... Hence the blue in the clothing, trim and door. The use of blue also helped group some of the more important elements. I also used textures to create a contrast between layers.

Lee: What's your earliest memory that speaks for how you're involved in art today.  What inspires you to create?

ZH: I've always been very involved in art. It's been a huge part of my life for as far back as I can remember. My dad is a high school art teacher, and he's always been a huge inspiration to me. I also just have a very wild and vivid imagination, and creating art is one of the best ways I can share that with people. 

Lee: Generally, what kind of themes do you approach in your work? Are there any other themes related to the criminal justice field that you've explored through your art?

ZH: I really prefer to render out a lot of the details of a piece. I like to keep things as direct and easy to understand as I can. I definitely favor creating new and interesting creatures and landscapes in my work. The conception stage is my favorite. I haven't done much work before in the criminal justice system before, so a lot of this is very new and interesting to me. I have definitely had to rework my thought process with these pieces, which has been challenging but entertaining nevertheless.

**The "Master Control" illustration by Zachary Hill was featured in this summer's syllabus for a course instructed by VBW Founder Lecroy Rhyanes, called Creative Expressions of Masculinity In & Out of Juvenile Detention at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).

#Lee

Art of Voices is a Voices Behind Walls (VBW) project supported by Community Solutions of El Paso to recruit illustrators through Volunteer Match to help recreate VBW workshop photographs into art.  The photographs were taken during workshop activities in juvenile detention between the years of 2006-2014.  Artistic remakes of the photographs protect the identity of workshop participants by changing details of face and other identifiers.  The purpose of this project is to document the VBW program's history and the creative expression activities incarcerated youth were engaged in.  This project also offers the VBW photographer and illustrators an opportunity to reflect on what the images say about the juvenile justice system and the importance of creative expression activity for youth as a means of education, therapy, self-improvement, community engagement, rehabilitation, positive Hip Hop activity, and mentorship.

The Beat Within Since 1996 #TBW20Years

Celebrating 20 Years of The Beat Within

The message below was originally posted on The Beat Within's Facebook which you can view by clicking on the following link: 21.37/38.  The impact this publication has had on my life as an educator is beyond measure.  I'm forever grateful for what this publication has inspired me to do in my own life as a creative arts educator.  I consider the work of the Voices Behind Walls program a branch of The Beat Within tree; I respect The Beat as a foundation for how I've come to understand and involve myself in creative justice.  I'm thankful for having had the chance to be inspired by The Beat and I'm excited about what this publication means for future programming and research.  Also, this has everything to do with Hip Hop and the legacy of Tupac Amaru Shakur.  

Since 1996.   

20 years ago, the first issue of The Beat Within was produced for the young people inside the San Francisco Juvenile Justice Center aka YGC (Youth Guidance Center). This initial issue was on the death of rapper and actor, Tupac Shakur. Little did any of us know that The Beat Within would touch so many lives - beyond San Francisco and the Bay Area - through our weekly writing workshops inside various juvenile halls and our amazing publication. 

This week's celebratory double issue, 21.37/38, which is ready for workshops and our subscribers this week, we celebrate The Beat Within and giving voice to the voiceless. In this special issue, we actually reprint and feature the first writings from those initial workshops inside YGC too! Happy Birthday Beat! 

Here's a sneak peak of this week's cover. The cover art, featuring 2Pac, was the first piece of art ever contributed to The Beat Within, way back in 1996, by our dear friend Noel Danseco.

If you are interested in making a donation (of any size) to The Beat this week, we will make sure and send you this fabulous issue.

Thank you FB friends for all the support.

To donate please visit thebeatwithin.org

Youth Stories, The Art of Zine

Download PDF: click here

This is a zine I discovered about juvenile justice from Project NIA, a community collaborative that aims to think about restorative or transformative justice in unique and creative ways. Recently, I started collaborating online with several volunteer artists through Volunteer Match for our Art of Voices project.  I'm interested in taking some time to read and think about how groups are using art to build dialogue around issues related to juvenile justice.  Project NIA collaborated with the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and the Chicago Freedom School to put together three digital zines about juvenile justice.  Reading further into the project I learned a lot about other collaborations with the justice system and educators that made this zine publication possible.

'Youth Stories' by Elgin Smith is the first of those zines I've downloaded to read this week.  The site where you can download the PDF is linked above.  I first heard about "zines" from a colleague who talked about how she use to put them together back in the 80s and mail them at the post office.  A lot of the content in her zines had to do with music and the punk scene.  The way she made it sound it reminded me of how someone would put together a scrapbook.  During my years volunteering in juvenile prison, I long thought about creative and time effective ways that I could help incarcerated youth present their writing and art to people outside of the prison.  I was heavily inspired by how The Beat Within published the poetry and stories of incarcerated youth and adults.  Zines on the other hand remind me of how a person would approach a scrap book, which I've always wanted to explore since it seems to offer a bit more creative control with the participants, especially in its design.  In the workshops I facilitated we mainly focused on the process of recording voice and music to put together mixtapes, so I ended up collecting a ton of audio and video.  There was still a lot that was documented in writing though and I've always wanted to put together in a creative way that could be accessed as download.

I look forward to reading the zine 'Youth Stories' to learn how the groups involved got together to collaborate with the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) for the zine publication.  Its an important model for thinking about how community and juvenile justice systems can work together in a way that is creative and that engages the voices of justice involved youth. 

Here is a quote from the Project NIA Director, Mariame Kaba... "I am committed to using art as a tool for social transformation and justice.  I believe that art has the capacity to speak across difference and to help educate and incite people to action."

reading... "Tell Me a Story"

Project NIA
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
Chicago Freedom School
Rachel Marie Crane-Williams
Elgin-Bokari T. Smith
Teresa Smith
Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC)
Billy Dee
Chicago PIC Teaching Collective
Mariame Kaba

United Duos | Art of Voices #ZHill

United Duos

The Voices Behind Walls (VBW) program aims to create opportunities for participants to connect with each other.  Apart from creative writing, music recording, and other literacy activities that incarcerated youth were involved in, photography gave participants a chance to reflect on what their collaboration looked like.  In this photo turned illustration we have two participants locking hands...united.  Their place in the picture is important.  Where we hosted the workshop there weren't a lot of spots, if any, that I'd consider good backdrop to take a photo.  We found ways to use the background with how they wanted to pose, whether standing or crouched.  For this photo the hallway was central to their pose.  Examining the image today, the way they decided to pose for the camera says a lot about their style and story.  It took a while for them to collaborate, but eventually they'd learn more about each other's unique skills to create music or write lyrics.  They were one of several duos in the facility that collaborated on ideas for Hip Hop songs and spoken word concepts.  

In Hip Hop, an eMCee (rapper) or beat maker's entire career can be defined by who they collaborate with.  In the 90s, an eMCee like CL Smooth was immediately associated with a beat maker named Pete Rock because of their history making music together.  When we think of the late Guru, we think of DJ Premier.  The RZA, we think of a number of other eMCees from the group they formed (the Wu Tang Clan), such as the Genius/GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface, and others. An example most of the VBW participants were familiar with would be the connection between Snoop Dogg or Eminem with the production of Dr. Dre.  While collaboration being central to identity and how groups marketed themselves in the 90s may not be as prominent in how Rap music is marketed today, it did become a part of how participants in our workshop viewed their identity and involvement in making music.  

VBW workshops gave youth the space to share what they were good at and learn about each other's skills.  While some participants may have decided to work alone, others sought collaboration to improve their skills. This included making music, writing or learning how their styles could come together to create new ideas around a duo or a group of more than three.

    

This illustration represents this idea of creating connections through Hip Hop programming in a juvenile prison and is titled "United Duos".  

The "United Duos" is illustrated by Zachary, a volunteer with the Art of Voices project.  He's an incredible illustrator from the University of Kansas. We look forward to sharing more of his work through Art of Voices. You can learn more about Art of Voices by scrolling down below the illustration. Here are Zachary's thoughts on the development of "United Duos"  

"...the pose I was given to work with already did so much of the work for me. It was really more of a matter of just figuring out what elements to enhance and what could stand to be pushed back. I exaggerated the scale of the arms and hands to draw more attention to them. I also simplified the background so it didn't distract from the figures, since they are a little more important to the message of the image. I also gave them smiling faces to further add that positive vibe to it. To get the idea of unity and keep a warm positive mood, I gave the piece a more harmonious color pallet of yellows and greens." - Zachary

#Lee

Art of Voices is a Voices Behind Walls (VBW) project supported by Community Solutions of El Paso to recruit illustrators through Volunteer Match to help recreate VBW workshop photographs into art.  The photographs were taken during workshop activities in juvenile detention between the years of 2006-2014.  Artistic remakes of the photographs protect the identity of workshop participants by changing details of face and other identifiers.  The purpose of this project is to document the VBW program's history and the creative expression activities incarcerated youth were engaged in.  This project also offers the VBW photographer and illustrators an opportunity to reflect on what the images say about the juvenile justice system and the importance of creative expression activity for youth as a means of education, therapy, self-improvement, community engagement, rehabilitation, positive Hip Hop activity, and mentorship.

Introducing the Art of Voices #Brianna

Introducing the Art of Voices

Art of Voices is a Voices Behind Walls (VBW) project supported by Community Solutions of El Paso to recruit illustrators through Volunteer Match to help recreate VBW workshop photographs into art.  The photographs were taken during workshop activities in juvenile detention between the years of 2006-2014.  Artistic remakes of the photographs protect the identity of workshop participants by changing details of face and other identifiers.  The purpose of this project is to document the VBW program's history and the creative expression activities incarcerated youth were engaged in.  This project also offers the VBW photographer and illustrators an opportunity to reflect on what the images say about the juvenile justice system and the importance of creative expression activity for youth as a means of education, therapy, self-improvement, community engagement, rehabilitation, positive Hip Hop activity, and mentorship. It's also important to understand how the VBW program connected with participants through Hip Hop activity.  Hip Hop opened the opportunity for participants to explore their talents as lyricists/eMCees, singers, writers, storytellers, poets, musicians, beat makers, sketch artist, and other collaborative involvements within and outside of the detention facility.  In addition, the VBW workshop engaged youth in literacy development by promoting reading activity, chess, and encouraging juvenile detention units to work together to support individual and group accomplishments.  Through Hip Hop we also discussed the importance of listening to each other and the world around us.  

The Art of Voices will document these activities and encourage the juvenile justice system to support and promote creative expression programming for incarcerated youth and youth released from confinement.

Below is our first Art of Voices submission by sketch artist Briaanna.  The sketch is titled "Mousey". It captures two VBW participants learning how to program an old keyboard to make beats.  The facility often kept the keyboard locked in a closet since it was missing a power adapter.  The other option to power the keyboard involved batteries which were considered contraband in the facility.  The VBW program acquired approval to purchase a power adapter for the incarcerated youth to turn on the keyboard and use it during workshop time.  Although the keyboard didn't have very many functions to support actual beat production, incarcerated youth still managed to create several sounds they were proud of and that are now part of the VBW instrumental archive.  One of VBW's participants who went by Mousey became known as one of our first "in house producers".  His natural talents on the keys maximized what we thought could be done on the old beat up keyboard.  

Eventually, the keyboard would be used as an incentive by certain staff for good behavior.  This became a problem since any infraction, depending on the staff member, could result in the keyboard being locked back into a closet or "lost".  There were long stretches of time where we'd often find ourselves trying to figure out what happened to the keyboard. 

The expressions of the youth in Briaanna's sketch capture several feelings including sadness, and the depression of living in a juvenile detention unit.  There is also something to be said about their concentration and focus on the sounds being created with the keyboard.  

The poster in the back includes a message I saw on a dry erase board of an education room in the juvenile detention center.  On this particular day I waited at least an hour for the staff to transport participants to the education room to begin VBW programming.  Between reading and listening for any indication that staff didn't forget I was there, I scanned the room and took pictures of what the teacher wrote with my camera.  Reflecting on the original image, I asked Briaanna to include the message in the sketch, except in the form of a poster taped to the wall.  Outdated motivational posters were common place as decoration in the education rooms.  

Until the next sketch, we present the Art of Voices.  A link below will direct you to a VBW audio produced by Mousey titled ((Mysterious Minds)).  The beat was created on the very same keyboard you see represented in the sketch.  

Thank you Briaanna.

((Mysterious Minds))

Instrumental: click here