HEY THERE

Courtesy of Courtney Hanson

by Sherie Jarvis

Thanks for the strength and the courage you have shown.

People blow in the wind forgetting that with help change is growing.

People like me broken but still manage to keep the love flowing…

It was once #metoo, I am #transgender and #black lives matter even in this prison 

where the way I look keeps bad chatter.

I’ve fallen but if they’ll remove their foot off my neck I can get up and breathe.

Scattered scars, bruised heart, memories that don’t leave.

Childhood in a wild hood just now learning to read.

Understand my struggle before calling me a bad seed.

HEY THERE no one was there why didn’t they take the time to love me.

God is near, but why didn’t they physically hug me.

When the masks come off and the smoke has cleared,

when all lives matter and no one is weird just maybe I’ll make it home to say 

HEY THERE.

Special thanks to the The Fire Inside for sharing this poem and poet, published in The Fire Inside, Issue Number 61, Summer 2020 

The Fire Inside is a Newsletter of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners

4400 Market St., Oakland, Ca. 94608 

For Vickie

Help i can’t breathe
Was her only plea
But it was not met with urgency and now beautiful soul gone too soon
Preventable yes
But CDCR is never accountable for their mess
So we stand here and protest
We shout the names of our lost loved one
Vickie we love you
Vickie we will fight for you
Vickie you won’t die in vain
Vickie we are sorry
Sorry because we couldn’t save you from a system that enslaved you
The same system that claimed they wanted to help you
Failed you
We, your sisters and brothers, are sorry that we are still powerless in 2019 from preventing these systems from destroying our families
CIW u r guilty
Of inmate cruelty
I have no reason to lie
I once was a victim you see
No more hiding behind these gates
The truth has been told
We’re shutting you down
I promise you that
even if cost me my soul
Screaming no more deaths is becoming a little too old
We are taking the power back
We will see that to it that you get closed
For good
Thank you

by Taylor Lytle

[Editor’s Note]: Originally published in The Fire Inside (Newsletter of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners), Issue Number 60, Fall 2019.

Institutional Diaspora of Black Americans will be Represented at 29th Celebration of African American Poets and Their Poetry.

On Saturday, February 2nd, 2019, in Oakland, California, at the Oakland Public Library, West Oakland Branch, Multi-Purpose Room, from 1 p.m. through 4 p.m., will be the 29th Celebration of African American Poets and Their Poetry. This year’s theme is aligned with the 2019 theme of Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s Association for the Study of African American Life and History (EST 1915). ASALH’s 2019 theme of Black Migration emphasizes the movement of people of African descent to new destinations and subsequently to new social realities. While inclusive of earlier centuries. This theme focuses especially on the twentieth century through today. “When speaking of the Black experience, I’ve coined the phrase ‘Institutional Diaspora’ as the mass migration of Blacks from their American homes to America’s prisons,” says Donald “C-Note” Hooker. Inspired by the theme of the event, C-Note created an original work for the event entitled, American Negro: A Migrant’s Story. It poetically chronos the mass migration of American Blacks from their West African homelands to America’s prisons.

Catch the recital of American Negro: A Migrant’s Story at the 29th Celebration of African American Poets and Their Poetry or read it online at Mprisond Poetz.

Event: 29th Celebration of African American Poets and Their Poetry
Date: Saturday, February 2, 2019
Time: 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Location: Oakland Public Library, West Oakland Branch, Multi-Purpose Room
1801 Adeline Street, Oakland, CA 94607 (510) 238-7352
Contact: Oakland Public Library, West Oakland Branch, (510) 238-7352 or event organizer, Ms.Wanda Sabir (510) 255-5579 or info@wandaspicks.com

Mprisond Poetz
American Negro: A Migrant’s Story
https://mprisondpoetz.wordpress.com/2019/01/13/american-negro-a-migrants-story/

My Concrete Hell

I sit here and I look around
I can’t believe this is where I’m found
This is my world, in this cold, dark, cell
My concrete Hell

A tray of food through a hole in the door
There’s no chairs to sit on
So I eat on the floor
Nice cold showers three times a week
From a knob on the wall it comes out weak
This is my day
In this cold dark cell
This is my concrete Hell

The clothing I wear a stained, and used
From my bra, to my underwear, socks and shoes
No one to talk to,
No one to care
So I sit on my bunk, and that the walls I stare
All alone in this cold, dark cell
This is my life
This is my concrete Hell

My 3″ mat on a concrete bed
A stainless steel toilet
Is my right next to my head
I sit on my bunk, and look around

This is the place where I am found
All alone in this cold, dark cell
This is my punishment
My concrete Hell.

by Katrina Blasing

The Girl of Yesterday

I’m trying to find my way
Back to the girl of yesterday
Back to the girl I used to be
Back to when I was free
Free from the darkness of today
Free from the sadness inside me
How I get there I’m not quite sure
I only know I have to try
I Won’t Give Up, lie down, or die
I’m out there somewhere, I know I am
So I’ll keep on looking and I’ll find my way
Back to the girl of yesterday

by Sandy Blazinski