Free Minds Poems Win Prestigious Awards

In a Free Minds first, we are proud to announce that five Book Club members have been named winners of The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers 2012 Regional Scholastic Writing Awards. A highly respected panel of Washington DC writers, teachers, and literary professionals selected the poetry and essays of our young members from over 700 works submitted this year as among the most exceptional in our region. Two of our members received Scholastic’s “Silver Key Award” recognizing outstanding achievement for poetry. Three more young writers received “Honorable Mention.” All five young men are still incarcerated.

Alonzo’s mother, Demika reads his poem “Momma Told Me” at the Busboys & Poets event on February 26th

 

 

Family members and the community celebrated their achievements with a reading at Busboys & Poets on February 26th. An enthusiastic audience packed the venue’s Langston Room to hear the teenaged writers read their work. The mother and father of two of our winners read on behalf of their sons in performances that clearly touched audience members, bringing more than a few to tears.

Free Minds Member Alonzo's mother, Demika, and girlfriend Briaynna at the event

Demika, mother of Free Minds member Alonzo, read his poem “Momma Told Me.” When asked what it was like to read his poem at the awards event, she replied, "It was so emotional. I was shaking. All his life people have said to me that Alonzo isn't serious because he's always smiling and joking. I've had to explain to them that Alonzo smiles as a cover up but he speaks through his poetry. He's real when he writes. Once you read his poetry you know him. You can look into his soul. Alonzo and I are so connected now through his poetry. Poetry brings people together."

Upon learning of his achievement, Alonzo wrote us a letter saying: “OMG! I won the Silver Key…Wow! I’m so happy and shocked. You wanna know something? I never thought I’d ever be writing poetry, but now I feel as though I could become a well-known poet!”

We agree with you, Alonzo!

A big congratulations goes out to: Alonzo, DeVonte, Larry, Christian and D’Angelo.

Read some of their award-winning writing!

Literary Journal Released!

Free Minds is thrilled to announce the release of “They Call Me 299-359: Writings by the Incarcerated Youth of Free Minds Book Club &Writing Workshop,” an anthology of essays and poems written, edited and compiled by incarcerated youth from Washington DC.

Free Minds Member Maurice and Program Director Juliana proudly display the new literary journal (Photo Ryan Corl)

 

Every year more than 60 teenaged boys from Washington DC are charged and incarcerated as adults for felony crimes. Some are eventually found innocent and released, other go on to serve sentences that range from a year to life. When they turn 18, they are transferred from DC Jail to federal prisons.

Happy Hour for Word Power attendees smile at being the first to receive the new literary journal (Photo Ryan Corl)

 

“They Call Me 299-359” contains hundreds of poems and essays written by those young men behind bars. After a call went out for submissions to the anthology, entries flooded in from young men around the country to the editorial panel of three—Kenneth, Jonas and Paulo, who are also locked up.

Editor Paulo says: “Writing has reshaped my life and thoughts. It has given me ideas of how to see and live life in a positive spin. Through my writing, I have come to speak to the world. “

The idea for the book grew out of the reaction of families, audiences, law enforcement and judges to public readings of poems and essays from DC’s young inmates. “They Call Me 299-359 gives voice to teens who have grown up in some of Washington DC’s most violent and impoverished neighborhoods. Its authors paint a picture of struggle and fears, but also hope for change and redemption,” says Kelli Taylor, Free Minds Co-Founder and Board Chair.

Free Minds Member Josh shares excerpts from the new collection (Photo Ryan Corl)

Free Minds members home in the community read excerpts from the collection to a packed and attentive crowd attending our “Happy Hour for Word Power”. One attendee who had never heard of Free Minds before being brought by a friend to the event said that hearing the writing gave him hope, “and it really helped me see the person behind the number.”

Copies of They Call Me 299-359 are available for a donation. If you would like to obtain the book, please contact the Juliana Ratner, Program Director at juliana@freemindsbookclub.org or 202.758.0829.

Free Minds is also using the book as a teaching tool as part of its “On the Same Page: Free Minds Poetry in the Community” initiative. If you know of a class or organization that would be interested in having Free Minds Poets present, please contact Juliana.

They Call Me 299-359
By DW

Orange jumpsuit, shower shoes and an arm band
Lost in a cold dream called prison
Four sharp corners, eggshell paint, dusty gray floor
No tears, just my pen in action
They call me 299-359
I push the pen so that I remain happy
Mama and Daddy, these are the unspoken words of your baby’s diary
My orange jumpsuit and number are only the book cover
So please don’t judge
My words are as pure as gold
Not aware of the success these lines hold
I operate this pen to fight the war mentality
So please understand me
They call me 299-359
Orange jumpsuit, shower shoes and an arm band

 

Donate Books for Holiday Book Drive!

This holiday season, Free Minds is hoping to provide members of the Book Club on the juvenile unit with engaging supplemental reading that matches their interests. Please click here to go to our amazon.com wishlist, personalized with requests from the unit. We also encourage you to support local independent bookstores- you can buy books and bring them to our office.

Free Minds Inspires with Screening of the Interrupters

Panelists L-R: FM Members Darius and Gerald, Author Michael Mattocks, FM Member and Reentry Coach Michael, Youth Mentor Brian McEwen (Photo Erin Finicane)

Free Minds was honored to partner with the Benevolent Media Festival and American University’s Center for Social Media to host a screening of the powerful new documentary The Interrupters, the moving and surprising story of three “violence interrupters” in Chicago who with bravado, humility and even humor try to protect their communities from the violence they once employed. Following the film, Free Minds Co-Founder and Executive Director Tara Libert moderated a panel of local leaders Mark Timberlake, Michael Mattocks, Eddie Ellis, and Brian McEwen, joined by Free Minds members Michael, Gerald, and Darius- seven individuals working to interrupt the cycle of violence in DC.

Read further coverage of the event:

From the Center for Social Media
From Benevolent Media
From Bittersweet Zine

Free Minds Hosts First “ Write Night”

Article contributed by Free Minds Volunteer Jaclyn Zubrzycki

As part of a new effort begun this summer, Free Minds is now hosting volunteer Write Nights, where volunteers from throughout the community gather to read and respond to the writing of the young authors of Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop.

Volunteers writing feedback to Free Minds Members in Federal Prison (Photo Carla Ruas)

Free Minds members’ poems are also posted on a blog, but the personal touch is important. Free Minds sends birthday cards, a monthly newsletter, and letters to inmates, and this mail is often the only mail the members receive. At Write Night, volunteers read, illustrate, and respond to the poems – almost all of which deal with tough themes like forgiveness, regret, and loneliness. The poems and responses are then mailed back to their authors in DC Jail and in Federal Prisons across the country, where the feedback is read eagerly and used to improve their writing. One member recently wrote in a letter from prison in Pennsylvania, “Thanks so much for the feedback, the comments helped me look at things from a different point of view."

At a recent Write Night, Darius, a Free Minds Member who has been home for several months, reinforced the importance of the personal notes: “It’s powerful. Their families may not be reaching out to them in that way.” D.C. youth charged as adults are often sent to prisons across the country when they turn 18, which makes staying in touch with family and loved ones even more difficult. Darius said that Free Minds had helped keep him positive and “on the right track.”

Michael, another Free Minds Member, described waiting for mail in prison “like a dog wagging its tail.” He said it was interesting to see the other side of an organization that had been important to him during his 33 months in prison – “I wasn’t a poet before Free Minds.” He said he’d often reread the feedback to his poems again and again while in prison. “It helps you know you’re not there to rot and die.”

Volunteers shared stories about what drew them to Free Minds. Several were former teachers, and two had worked with Free Minds students at the juvenile facility; one had donated books to the organization. Write Night is the newest of several ways for volunteers to be involved: Free Minds has always looked for volunteers to respond to poems on its blog and donate books.

Attendees at a Write Night in September included not only Free Minds volunteers and members, but representatives of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Eleanor Wilson Chapter. They came to present monetary support with a check to fund the new initiative Books Across the Miles!, but they didn’t stop there- they stayed to provide critical writing support by sharing caring feedback on the poems. After Write Night, the DAR representatives were so inspired that they brought copies of poems to their national conference to collect even more feedback.

Daughters of the American Revolution join Free Minds Volunteers and Members at Write Night (Photo Carla Ruas)

Every letter and poem at Write Night finds a reader, and participants leave with the young poets in mind. Free Minds members will get a reminder, Executive Director Tara Libert says, that “People believe in you. You’re not out of mind, though you may be out of sight. You’re not forgotten.”

If you are interested in participating in volunteer Write Night, please email Juliana Ratner, who will pass the information on to our volunteer coordinator.

 

Free Minds Launches Virtual Book Club- “Books Across the Miles!”

Demetrius shows off the list of vocabulary words he learned through Free Minds while in prison. The new BAM! initiative will enable more members to stay involved and learning.

We are excited to announce Books Across the Miles (BAM!), a new initiative funded with a generous grant from the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution and the support of the Eleanor Wilson Chapter to create a “virtual book club” for our members serving time in federal prisons.  Since DC does not have its own state prison, when youth at the DC Jail turn 18 and receive their sentences, they may be transferred to facilities as far-flung as California, Utah and New York.  Obviously, after transfer, they are no longer able to participate in Free Minds’ weekly book club sessions.  Reading and discussing a book with others is an incredibly powerful tool to motivate and excite new readers.  For this reason, Free Minds has launched BAM!

Since 2002, Free Minds has been sending individually tailored book selections to members in Federal Prison. Now, through BAM!, these members will also receive the same book every three months. In addition, they will receive a set of discussion questions and writing prompts about the book. Their responses will be featured in the monthly newsletter Free Minds Connect, which is sent to more than 130 young men in more than 37 prisons across the countries. Free Minds Connect offers a place for our members to engage in a written dialogue about the book they have read together.

Our members have just finished reading the first BAM! title, “Ruined,” a Pulitzer Prize winning play by Lynn Nottage which looks at the atrocities of sexual abuse and rape committed against women by soldiers on both sides of the Congo’s civil war.  This is the first time many of our young men, including Michael, age 21, have ever experienced reading a play.

Michael wrote to us from a federal prison in Pennsylvania after reading “Ruined”:

I just read “Ruined” by Lynn Nottage, and I can honestly say I just got back on this compound. I was just in that small town in Congo at “Mama Nadi’s” LOL. I really did just zone out because I didn’t put the book down until I finished it. At first I was gonna read a certain amount of pages and call it a night. However, the suspense kept me reading from start to finish.....I (wanted to respond before) coming down from this “high” from having a Free Mind!

I learned that anyone in the path of war can become a victim.  The violence of war alters people’s lives by breaking up their families. I think the play is called “Ruined” because what a woman has is sacred. So once it’s unfitfully taken, a woman may feel “Ruined.”

As Michael’s comments, and those of our other members are published in the next issue of The Free Minds Connect, our first BAM! “virtual book club” discussion will begin!

Following is a poem that the play inspired Michael to write:

Youth Ruined
by Michael

Ruined
My youth being snatched away from me
Before I ever had a chance to embrace it and enjoy it
Ruined
My father being snatched to the grave
When I was just ten years old
Ruined
Me thinking I was the man of the house
When I was just a boy
Ruined
Me spending my 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st birthday
in a prison cell
Ruined
Me looking back seeing what I’ve missed as a child
now I see why people say they wish they was a kid again
But it’s crazy because I never had a chance
To be a kid
Ruined my youth

 

Unlikely Brothers Author Michael Mattocks calls Book Club “One of my most powerful experiences”

Unlikely Brothers tells the story of two very different men, their lives, and the revelations brought by a twenty-five year friendship. Mattocks' story is one that Free Minds members found it easy to relate to: in his life he's gone from homeless youth, to grade-school dropout, to neighborhood drug dealer, to DC Jail inmate, to, finally, involved father and published author.

From left: Tara Libert, Free Minds Executive Director, Michael Mattocks, author of Unlikely Brothers, and Free Minds funders Kristin Lindsey, CEO of Global Fund for Children, and Victoria Dunning, Vice President for Programs of Global Fund for Children

"There was always a voice in my head," the author told the book club, referring to his eight months in jail, "saying 'keep planning.' There were other voices too, but I ignored them." The power of those plans is now evident in Mattocks’ appearances on the Today Show, the Diane Rehm Show, and a packed reading at Politics & Prose Bookstore.

But fame hasn't been easy for Mattocks, especially given the content of his books. "The hardest part of writing this book was bringing back all the stuff I did. I would break down. Every day, doing interviews, I get choked up -- but I bite my tongue. I have to."  

Since their audience was a published author, the members of course shared their poetry -- the poems they read are up on the writing blog right now.

Mattocks' story resonated with the young poets, especially when he described his early life. As he was leaving the unit, Free Minds poets lined up to shake his hand and thank him for coming. "You inspire me so much," one writer, D’Angelo, said.

Later, Mattocks expressed admiration for the Free Minds poets. "This is a talented bunch, and confident," he said, clearly moved by the atmosphere of book club. At the Politics & Prose Bookstore reading later that week, he recounted his time with the young men of Free Minds, calling it “One of the most powerful experiences I’ve ever had.”

Watch interview with Mattocks here.

Free Minds featured grantee in DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities video!

 

Catalogue for Philanthropy’s blog “Good Works” Profiles Program Director Juliana Ratner

 

“Runaway Bestsellers”- Free Minds’ Love of Books Extends Even to the Finish Line

Executive Director Tara Libert and Reentry Coach Wilbert Avila represented Free Minds in style at the Washington DC RunAmuck Costume Race. Inspired by time spent running with Back on My Feet, Wilbert pushed Tara to expand her own horizons- although still with a literary leaning! Along those lines, Free Minds needs books! Click here for our new amazon.com wish list of requested titles!

 

Best-selling Author Jonathan Franzen Visits Book Club at DC Jail

Jonathan Franzen (Left) and Brenda Ward (Right), Administrator of Special Projects, DC Department of Corrections

Award-winning author Jonathan Franzen visited the DC Jail last month for a special Book Club session with the Free Minds members as part of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s Writers in Schools program. Prepared with a long list of insightful questions for their guest, the young men on the juvenile unit discussed a range of topics with Mr. Franzen including overcoming writers’ block, the grief of losing loved ones, and pursuing your future.

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