creative corner: features from 'the beat within'

For this week's Creative Corner, we're doing something a little different! Above is a two-page spread from the latest issue of The Beat Within, a bi-weekly, 60-page publication of creative writing and art from incarcerated people all across California. In 1996, the magazine was founded in San Francisco when David Inocencio, former assistant director of the Detention Diversion Advocacy Program, teamed up with Pacific News Service, a non-profit media/communications organization, to offer writing workshops to youth detained in San Francisco’s Juvenile Hall. When rapper Tupac Shakur was murdered, The Beat Within published its first issue as an outlet for young people to express their intense feelings of loss. For some, it was the first positive recognition they ever received that they had a voice worthy of an audience. Today, The Beat Within staff and volunteers serve more than 5,000 youth annually through workshops operated across California, New Mexico, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, DC. The publication makes a great holiday gift at $12 for an issue or $225 for an annual subscription. Learn more and get a subscription here!