By Free Minds Intern Maddie Mitchell

As an intern who has heard extensive positive feedback about Free Minds’ various initiatives but has never actually seen any of them in action, I was very excited to attend an On the Same Page session this summer, along with a group of about 25 high school students from North Carolina. “On the Same Page” is the name given to our youth violence prevention program, and is held for middle school, high school, or college students, as well as community groups. Free Minds members who are now at home facilitate each session, by reading and leading discussions on poetry from our exciting literary journal and sharing their personal stories.

In true Free Minds fashion, the first activity the students of this particular On the Same Page session engaged in was a writing exercise. They wrote short poems about who they are and where they come from, with the assistance of fill-in-the-blank pieces of text. Although they seemed to be excited to write, when they were next asked to share these poems, many of them were reluctant and understandably a bit nervous to read these personal pieces aloud.

Yet this hesitant environment completely vanished once the Free Minds members started talking. At this event, we were fortunate enough to have four members with us: Poet Ambassadors Charlie, Eddie, and Delonte, and our very own Lead Outreach Facilitator, Alisha. Each of them discussed their stories in a very raw, honest way that grabbed and held the students’ collective attention: their childhood, what their home lives were like, their experiences of the adult prison system as juveniles, their past and present relationships to their families and friends. These stories were all different, but what was perhaps even more striking were their similarities: namely, that they all cited reading and writing as being therapeutic, transformative tools that have helped to anchor them, and that because of this, they have a strong desire to be a positive presence and pass on good values to their children.

Eddie OTSP

Poet Ambassador Eddie shares his poetry with the audience

Alisha, for example, spoke about how poetry served as her gateway to the outside world. She discussed how, after she wrote her first poem for Free Minds, she wrote a subsequent letter to them requesting several books: “The mail came back, and I thought it was going to be my books,” she said. “But then I opened it up, and it was just a newspaper. So I got angry, tossed it to the side, and forgot about it. But one day, I had finished all my books, so I was like ‘Okay, let me have that stupid newspaper.’ And on it was a sticky note that said ‘Turn to page 17.’ So I turned to page 17, and published there was my poem.” It was a pivotal point that played a powerful role in her incarceration: “It gave me confidence in myself, knowing that other people thought my work was good enough to be in a newspaper for the world to see.”

OTSP literary journal reading with Eddie

At On the Same Page, students read and discuss poems from the Free Minds literary journal

As the afternoon progressed, the students became increasingly interactive. When the members read and led discussions on poems, the students who were once afraid of sharing their thoughts were now incredibly vocal and spoke with measured poise and assurance. I saw that they were encouraged to participate after having glimpsed the Free Minds members’ willingness to communicate their stories and thoughts and poems. To me, therein lies the power of Free Minds: it is a constant cycle of instilling confidence, not only in oneself, but in speaking and writing about personal stories and serious issues such as youth violence. Our Executive Director, Tara Libert, helped Alisha build confidence in herself after seeing her poem in print, just as Alisha (and all our other returned members) is now helping to build confidence in students all over the country, encouraging them to vocalize their ideas.

The successful session ended with the students rushing up to Charlie, Eddie, Delonte, and Alisha to speak with them in-depth and have them sign their copies of our literary journal, which they were delighted to be able to keep! To get more information about how you can obtain a copy of this journal and support our members’ writing, click here: They Call Me 299-359.

To learn more about our On the Same Page programs, or if you know of a school or group that would be interested in having us visit, check us out here: Youth Violence Prevention.

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