VBW Digital Walls (Links)

Voices Behind Walls People & Programs

Digital Walls

The latest update to the VBW site includes a links page recognizing people and programs we've either collaborated with in person or learned of through email/social media correspondence, or research.  The idea came about for two reasons.  The first was from a poem a youth read many years ago in a VBW workshop about the mathematics of counting bricks inside his cell.  The second reason was inspired by the patience we had to develop waiting to host workshop the few times there were delays in transferring youth from their units to the education room.  There were a couple of cases when guards would change shifts upon our arrival or in between the transfer of different groups forgetting all about us.  It required a lot of patience, a lot of waiting.  In one of these waitings, I observed the walls inside the education room.  There were doodles, artwork and writings drawn on the walls from the incarcerated youth.  It made me think about the art of graffiti and it inspired an idea that I've been wanting to add to the website.  A links page, a sort of digital wall of links to people & programs.  An opportunity for us to recognize not only VBW participants, but also other people and programs.  Especially recognition of those that have passed on.  One of those names I've wanted to reference is Malcolm Shabazz, grand child of Malcolm X, who's life was taken from us last year during his visit for labor rights in Mexico.  The link opens a YouTube interview with Malcolm Shabazz by Vizion Filmz that shines light on young Malcolm's work and his connection to advocacy of young people and his experience with the complicated systems of both juvenile and adult corrections.  Like his grandfather, his perspective looked at these issues with a global lens. 

Our Digital Wall will feature and archive links.  Some of those links will be highlighted here on the VBW Blog.  Til' the next link, peace.       

Keywords + Tag = Voices Behind Walls | workshop | poetry | incarcerated youth | creative expression programs | Malcolm Shabazz | Malcolm X | brickwork | cement | walls | prison walls | freedom | outreach | Vizion Filmz | juvenile | network | networking | connection | digital | social media | correspondence | mailing list | VBW | education | mathematics | building | collaboration | future | justice connection

VBW & Community Solutions of El Paso

Announcing VBW's Partnership 
with Community Solutions of El Paso

Over the course of 2014, I've had the pleasure of meeting with Carolyn Esparza of Community Solutions of El Paso to learn about her advocacy work which includes organizing an annual Prisoner's Family Conference, years of work as a counselor, and experience throughout the juvenile and adult correctional system in Texas.  Ms. Esparza is also co-author of The Unvarnished Truth of the Prison Family Journey along with co-author Phillip Don Yow, currently incarcerated in Texas and Advocacy Director for the Prisoner's Family & Friends United, a component of the Community Solutions of El Paso.

I heard of Carolyn's work last year upon attending a theatre event in El Paso that featured Ashley Lucas and an individual who had served nearly two decades in a Texas prison.  The event was an eye opener that included discussion and an opportunity for me to purchase Carolyn and Phillip's text (which Carolyn's kindly signed :).

This week I was notified that a proposal submission to instruct a class focused on The Unvarnished Truth of the Prison Family Journey was tentatively approved by the Criminal Justice department of New Mexico State University for the Spring semester 2015 .  I'm excited to collaborate with Carolyn and Phillip for the class to continue learning from their experience serving the needs of families both in and outside of the prison system.  It's also a perfect time to see the group continue to grow as plans are underway for a prison radio project.  

I plan to post more information related to the Community Solutions of El Paso including information about the upcoming 2014 Prisoner's Family Conference and details of a creative expression contest currently open for submissions. 

Getting to know Carolyn, Phillip and their work has been inspiring... I'm especially thankful for their willingness to share their experience, goals, and  ideas to continue raising awareness around one of the nation's most pressing justice issues - incarceration and its impact on family & community.  

Special thanks to Carolyn for welcoming me, teaching through her conversation, and for the chance to participate.  Stay tuned for more posts on the VBW blog related to Community Solutions of El Paso.

To learn more visit solutionsforelpaso.org.

Keywords + Tag = Carolyn Esparza | Community Solutions of El Paso | Prisoner's Family Conference | Phillip Don Yow | Ashley Lucas | The Unvarnished Truth of the Prison Family Journey | family | community | Voices Behind Walls blog | VBW Blog | Texas | prison | incarceration | institutionalized | advocacy | creativity | discussion | Prisoner's Family and Friends United

Introducing Alvin Lloyd Masters

Introducing Alvin Lloyd Masters
"What from your #childhood inspires the music you #compose today?" 

@vbehindw Twitter: click here

For each VBW Workshop we supplied participants with Beat CDs to inspire their writing.  There are a lot of cool stories in our program's history of incarcerated youth who changed the course of our workshop through their knowledge of music production.

The best volunteers coming from the outside were often those familiar with music or access to music equipment that could exchange knowledge with the youth... inside, the youth familiar with music production, instrumentation, etc. often assumed the role of peer teacher/guide and played a key role when it was time to go back to the unit to work amongst themselves.

We got a lot of flack sometimes from the facility for lending participants the equipment (portable audio recording tools, music software, CD players, beat machines, headphones, etc.) to practice their craft outside of the hour-long sessions that brought us together every other week.  After some convincing, the staff would agree to monitor the equipment's use by checking it out to youth that demonstrated good behavior and the need to use the equipment for workshop purposes.  On several occasions, the youth showed how important having access to the equipment was to their creative process and a means of reaching a goal (completing a beat, writing, collaborating, etc.).  The collateral reward was seeing how it would inspire other youth to show up to the workshop to learn, or simply to listen and celebrate what was being created by the active participants.

One of our first VBW q/a segments is with Alvin Lloyd Masters an American composer, pianist and instructor from the Atlanta area.  He connected through Twitter and posted a note about his Dream Inside a Dream composition that I listened to at the Bandcamp site... afterwards I listened to Cantando and then the Dark Mountains compositions.  His music reminds me of one of our participants who was  most skilled on piano.  The VBW youth was able to write and read sheet music and was self taught.  Over the years I met several youth who demonstrated true potential from what they were able create from the old and sometimes powerless facility keyboard that seemed to always need batteries or its lost adapter.  The keyboard served just as much time as the participants and had its own story too.

A couple of years ago we exchanged emails with a local musician and piano tuner who was willing to donate a piano to the facility.  There is a story of how that came together as well.  Around that time, the VBW participants and myself came up with a wish list of better equipment we imagined we needed to put together a "music area" in one of the vacant classrooms.  A keyboard upgrade, or piano (if possible) was suggested by VBW youth to allow those who knew how to play the chance to practice and learn.  When I arrived home I checked my email and noticed a random message from the local musician I mentioned earlier.  It was the first time I'd ever heard of this person and it left me wondering how I ended up on their mailing list.  The subject read "Pianos for Sale".  After an exchange of emails, he agreed to donate a small vertical piano (Wurlitzer spinet acoustic piano) to our cause.   We were eager to obtain permission from the facility for the donation considering our participants were knowledgeable of how to use it.  Informally, I was given the go if I could find someone willing to donate equipment.  We also connected with a skilled pianist in the community who was willing to provide free lessons pending approval from the facility.  After all was said and done, the proposal including the piano donation we secured was denied by the facility.  For so many years I've watched VBW youth turn the limited capability of a used keyboard into some really cool "beats" that left us wondering... "what if we simply had access to better equipment!?"

Listening to Alvin Lloyd Masters I think of the power of music.  Listening to ((Prelude Triste V))... its a track I look forward to sharing with VOWs and their families.  Though many of our participants may prefer the heavy bass lines & hit hats of a Hip Hop beat, there is a lot the composition by Masters communicates... It inspires a number of ideas for writing topics.  Whether it be a life remembered, the beginning of a journey towards paying for a crime, the thought of optimism, the art of thinking, or describing home (prior or during incarceration).  Though it sounds sad as the word Triste implies, there is a sound of peace to this composition as well... There is the also the sound of solitude... I'm reminded of the routine silence of a typical American detention facility and the "out of sight, out of mind" quality to their construction and location.

You can listen to ((Prelude Triste V)) by clicking on Alvin Lloyd Master's Bandcamp page: click here.  Please also visit the following Twitter post to read Master's response to our VBWq/a Tweet: "What from your #childhood inspires the music you #compose today?" click here. 

Cover art of Dark Mountains by Alvin Lloyd Masters

A Note about Voices Behind Walls q/a Tweet

A Note about Voices Behind Walls q/a Tweet

(VBWq/a*) Visit: twitter.com/vbehindw

Prior to registering Voices Behind Walls with a Twitter account, my impression of the social networking service was that it was a useless way of being inundated by commercial, mainstream, popular media junk.  I started learning how it worked after setting up an account for Hip Hop Alumni in 2013 and liked how the home link allowed for quick reference to people, programs and media I was interested in.  One of the first tweets I "favorited" was a notice from @MrChuckD which read "Unsung just aired a great feature on the life of Gil Scott-Heron also showcasing"Evolutionary Minded"album that re-imagines the music of Gil" ...I realized how useful this tool would become for connecting me to projects I wanted to invest my time and money towards...  and in the case of Mr. Chuck D's tweet, it may have taken months until I would've stumbled across Kentyah's Evolutionary Minded music compilation.  Since then, I've seldom heard anyone else make reference to it! 

I'm a sponge for information (always have been) and pretty much any social media tool I've ever used, whether it was my introduction to forums during the early part of the millennium or the world's introduction of MySpace, Facebook, YouTube... I've enjoyed how these interactive tools connect us to specific sources of info and networks that more traditional channels such as TV, newspaper, and magazine aren't really capable of.  It opened the floodgates (I'm reminded of a song by the Algorithms titled ((War at 120/80 (Floodgates))) to media allowing users to filter and connect with very specific sources of info they can share with peer groups and contacts.

In developing a Twitter for Voices Behind Walls @vbehindw, it's been a great learning experience connecting with so many social justice programs, advocates, and artist that are involved with creative expression, education, and issues centered around mass incarceration.  While I most recently got back on Facebook, I prefer how Twitter functions, especially on mobile devices and as an archive to post or find info relevant to work & study.

  

Today, I've decided to use our Twitter account @vbehindw to highlight specific contacts we're connecting with that agree to participate in a VBW q/a (Question and Answer).  Basically the 140 character question and 140 character reply will provide visitors with some background on a specific person, subject or program to promote what they're doing (whether its to a music page, film trailer, Amazon link to purchase a text, program website, etc.).  Over the past ten years, VBW's activities have involved different types of creative expression including music, education, history, poetry, film, Hip Hop culture, art, play writing, theater, photography, reading, scholarship, academia, chess, performance art, digital literacy, and mentorship.   

As a radio DJ in past years and a non-profit worker today, I've interviewed many people through audio, print, and person... I'm interested in utilizing social media with the similar goal of promoting people's work through a simple exchange of tweets that our followers can share.  I hope that if you're not on Twitter, you take the opportunity to sign up and follow sources out there that are attached to your work, education, and everyday learning.  Hopefully, including ours.

We will highlight and archive (label) VBW q/a's on this VBW blog page.

Peace.

#Lee, Co-Founder/Director #VBW


Keywords + Tag = Twitter | Tweet | tweet | twitter | interviews | question and answer | question | answer | reply | Voices Behind Wall | vbw | VBW | creative expression | promotion | promote | Alvin Masters | piano music | piano | music | education | advocacy | programs | social justice | justice | creative expression | expression | film | books | literature | history | culture | Hip Hop culture | art | photography | play writing | theater | reading | scholarship | academia | chess | performance art | learning

    

Prison Voices Project | The Power of Language

Prison Voices Project

The Power of Language

Tune in Thursday, 10:00 AM (ET)

90.7 WGXC.ORG

"Words matter.  They shape perceptions and understanding, both of past and present events and of future possibilities, and, therefore, future events." - Eddie Ellis

Here is the information that was included in the notice that I received from Community Solutions of El Paso.  Thank you Carolyn!  Click on the link above to tune in tomorrow at 10 AM (ET).

What is the the impact of language on people who are incarcerated or who are returning to communities from lock-up? Cory Greene & Whitney Richards-Calathes presented "Coming Home from Lock Up: Community Perspectives for Imagining Re-entry" at the Prison Studies Conference at the Graduate Center at CUNY in New York City. They argue that we should shift away from the concept of re-entry for those returning from lock-up and use the concept of re-settlement. Prison Voices Project producers Dr. Karanja Keita Carroll, Dr. Alexandra Cox and Cory Fischer-Hoffman engage and elaborate on these themes. 

Keywords + Tag = Prison Voices Project | power | language | WGX.org | 90.7 | Community Solutions of El Paso | incarceration | community | Cory Greene | Whitney Richards-Calathes | lock up | re-entry | prison studies | Prison Studies Conference | voices | Voices Behind Walls | CUNY | graduate | undergraduate | college radio | re-settlement | Dr. Carroll | Karanja Keita Carrol | Dr. Cox | Alexandra Cox | Cory Fischer-Hoffman | institutionalized | corrections | Eddie Ellis | understanding | overstanding
 

Louis Armstrong & 'The Power of Mentors'

Louis Armstrong & King Oliver

The Power of Mentors

"At age eleven Armstrong was sent to a home for juvenile delinquents and stayed there for 18 months.  He loved playing various instruments in the marching band, working his way up to the cornet under the tutelage of the director, Peter Davis.  After he left the home he started hanging around older musicians, asking if he could sit in and play with them.  Eventually he knew enough tunes to substitute in a pinch.  Oliver become his idol.  Like Armstrong, Oliver had dark skin, was raised with church music and blues, and had no father in his life.  Oliver noticed his progress and invited him to his house for lessons at his kitchen table, teaching him "the modern way of phrasing on the cornet," as Armstrong described it.  Oliver taught by example and by verbal instruction how to play a strong lead and not get lost in "figurations," how to play second and thus contribute to collective improvisation, how to attack notes with punch and sustain them with fire."

-Thomas Brothers

Citations
Brothers, Thomas. Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2014. 5. Print.

Joseph "King Oliver" & Louis Armstrong. ca. 1918. Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans. Web. http://www.knowla.org/image/105/&ref=entry&refID=837.

Voices Behind Walls 2014

Voices Behind Walls 2014

A Message by Lecroy Rhyanes

A few notes on 2014 so far... Since the beginning of the year, we were recognized at the J. Paul Taylor Social Justice Symposium by the NMSU Department of Government with a Social Justice Award.  In so far as web activity, we've started a new twitter handle which you can follow at www.twitter.com/vbehindw. The Spring semester at NMSU consisted of instruction with the Criminal Justice Department for a course I proposed/facilitated called The Beat Within, A Compositional History of Incarcerated Writing.  You can review some of our activities and studies at the TBW Blog: tbwnmsu.blogspot.com.  Currently preparing for a course in the Fall called Criminal Justice & Youth Outreach (CJYO), Creative Expression in Juvenile Detention.  This semester we also completed a mixtape for a VBW participant, titled City of the Crosses (a double disc).  We're currently working on a number of mixtapes for VBW eMCees and are in the process of posting our program's first instrumental project arranged a few years ago that is titled the9Album (for the 9 instrumentals that were produced during the participant's time with our group).  The instrumental project will be posted online for download.  In addition, we're working on The Gomez Composition to publish hopefully by 2015, and are staying connected and up to date with The Beat Within publications and topics.  

The website is currently undergoing updates as we start to focus updates around specific activities and initiatives, including our VOW activities (Voices Outside the Walls), and the volunteers we hope to engage through volunteermatch.org.  A lot of our needs involve taking the the content being created in workshop meetings and displaying them online.  We hope to connect with individuals familiar with graphic design, content creators, editors, etc. in the coming months.  

One final note til' the next post (which should be on a more frequent basis from now on) is our activities through the VBW Research Network.  This will act as our permanent archive for information related to our programs and others, including a referral catalog of books that are available at local public libraries and University libraries for research that is specific to creative expression, justice issues, history, and issues relevant to the contents covered in the course work taught through VBW.