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.

Alisha, for e