Sunday, 20 January 2008 | Levent OZLER
Illustrations from the Inside: The Beat Within
 The Beat Within is a decade-old, nationwide writing program for incarcerated youth. "Words not Weapons" is the organization's credo, inspiring these young adults males and females of all ethnicities to learn that words and images are more effective than violence. Illustrations from the Inside features the pencil drawings created by these youth as intimate perspectives on these artists and the system they must struggle through, in some cases for the rest of their lives.
The context for the illustrations is created by a number of contributors who have interacted with The Beat Within and its participants, appreciating how the act of expressing oneself artistically helps heal wounds, as well as decipher the past, present and future. Author Louis E.V. Nevaer writes about The Beat Within and his involvement with the program, seeing first-hand how many of these young men and women respond to having their doodles and scrawls considered worthwhile. San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi shares his perspective on the legal system's handling of juvenile offenders and how a program like The Beat Within attempts to change these trends for the betterment of the juveniles and culture at large.
Renowned photographer Joseph Rodriguez did an entire book about these incarcerated juveniles. His photographs included in Illustrations from the Inside provide visual references of the physical environments these prisoners inhabit. The foreword from novelist Adam Mansbach parallels the similarities between the book's contents and graffiti's beginnings in New York City and how it traveled across the United States.
The power of this work, in the words of Mansbach, is "its complexity and simplicity, its hope and despair, its ancient icons and earnest neologisms, its broad cultural signifiers and intensely personal quirks." Remarkable for its execution, compelling in terms of content and chock-full of varied imagery, from Homer Simpson to extravagant, mural worthy scenes, Illustrations from the Inside humanizes these juveniles in a way that the penal system resists.
|
