'The Beat Within Spring 2013'

The foundation of this online course connects to a timeline of events that started with an NMSU Writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences class called "Writing Inside: Prison Literature", during the spring semester of 2008.  "Writing Inside" required students conduct close readings of various texts including memoir, fiction, playwriting, graphic novel, children's literature, essay, poetry, anthology, and history.  Students researched the global prison experience through the perspective of incarcerated writers and community educators dedicated to promoting the power of writing from the silence of confinement.  Five years later (2012), the course blueprint for Writing Inside was modified to focus on a present day creative writing & arts program called The Beat Within.  The Beat Within publishes a bi-monthly magazine of hundreds of poems, writings, and artworks from incarcerated youth and adults.  Counselors and workshop facilitators are also featured in the magazine's editorial section and in comments that are printed in response to the youth & adults that contribute poems, rhymes, and art.  The Beat Within is an accessible and cost effective resource that offers incarcerated youth an opportunity to develop their skills as speakers, thinkers, and writers.  It also engages community volunteers and literacy development activities between detention facilities, justice groups, social workers, incarcerated youth, and their families.  For 2013, the course's subtitle has changed to "A Compositoinal History of Incarcerated Writing".  Our studies of The Beat Within are further supported by key texts, class projects, and weekly online discussions through the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS).

The image above is a cover for the Spring semester's syllabi and features a photograph by social justice & documentary photographer Joseph Rodriguez.  For more information on Joseph Rodriguez please visit the website:

www.josephrodriguezphotography.com

Also please check out his story by viewing the YouTube click here.