(See tracklist below)
#TBWMixtape
In Memory of Kalief Browder
Arranged by Lee
In the Fall semester of 2015 I taught a course I developed for New Mexico State University (NMSU) called 'The Beat Within, a Compositional History of Incarcerated Writing'. The course was inspired from my undergraduate study with the Ronald E. McNair program which helped first generation college students like myself advance into graduate school or PhD programs. For my undergrad study I discovered a publication of writing and art from juvenile halls around the country called The Beat Within. The publication inspired me and allowed me to connect my life long passion for word play and Hip Hop with what I wanted to focus on when it came to Criminal Justice studies. Later, this allowed me to create a program that gave incarcerated youth a platform to be heard and documented through audio recording and Hip Hop production. The program became known as Voices Behind Walls and was named by incarcerated youth in El Paso, Texas. This program would later locate itself into a juvenile prison in Las Cruces, New Mexico for close to eight years. During that time I picked up a lot of experience I'd later turn into course concepts I proposed to the Criminal Justice Department and taught at NMSU. These courses were focused on understanding "creative justice" and the history of programs like The Beat Within and community members that found ways inside America's juvenile or adult prison system to connect prisoners to creative expression.
For the Fall semester of 2015 I decided to have students focus on a text that just hit the shelves a year before by Nell Bernstein titled Burning Down the House, The End of Juvenile Prison. Preparing for the semester I discovered all kinds of threads to my experience as an undergrad and graduate student including a connection to an alumni of The Beat Within named Will Roy. As I read the text I found out Will Roy contributed research for Burning Down the House and played a major role in bringing the book to fruition. Over a decade prior when I was an undergrad I recorded Will Roy through a phone interview to learn more about The Beat Within. At the time Will was working at The Beat Within and shared his thoughts about the program and his perspective on creative expression. I captured the interview in audio for my research and to broadcast on air for a radio show I hosted at the NMSU station KRUX 91.5 FM. Never before heard pieces of this interview are included on the first side of the #TBWMixtape.
On September 8th, 2015, I decided to incorporate audio into one of our discussion posts for The Beat Within course giving birth to the idea of a course mixtape. In courses prior to TBW Fall 2015 I often utilized audio as part of the course work to connect students to insights from the authors we read or other voices/music relevant to the course content. For this semester, I wanted to curate all of the audio I used or that students shared blending it altogether in mixtape form with music. This goal was inspired from my time at NMSU's college radio station which often involved radio shows built around specific people or moments in history. While I was able to start the Fall 2015 semester strong with a powerful introduction to the #TBWMixtape courtesy of some James Baldwin audio and a Talking Heads instrumental, the semester wouldn't allow me much time to arrange it the way I wanted to. This put the mixtape idea on hold.
As I prepared for the course during the summer of 2015, my research introduced me to the life of Kalief Browder. Before that what I knew about Rikers Island came by way of references in film or music or real life accounts by authors like Luis Cedeno aka DJ Disco Wiz, Hip Hop's first Latino DJ, and social justice photographer Joseph Rodriguez. Both documented some experience about their time at Rikers Island in print. However, Kalief Browder was the first time I'd learn about life for a youth in Riker's juvenile hell. It gave precedence to why I decided to solely focus on Bernstein's text, Burning Down the House, the End of Juvenile Prison for the semester. I also decided to dedicate the course to the life of Kalief Browder. Students were introduced to Kalief through interviews, most notably his Huffington Post interview with Dr. Marc Lamont Hill and civil rights attorney Paul Prestia. We also took a week to reflect on Kalief's own words from an essay he wrote about solitary confinement titled 'A Closer Look at Solitary Confinement in the United States'. We closed with several other supplementary readings, the last chapters of Bernstein's text, and an introduction to a campaign called Shut Down Rikers. The campaign is a response to New York City's injustice and is reflective of a litany of lives that have succumbed to the trauma if in-correction in New York's Riker's Island and other places like it in America that are surrounded by barbed wire and filled to the gills with bodies.
So much has happened in 2016. Throughout the year, I thought about Kalief Browder often as piece by piece I continued to assemble audio for the #TBWMixtape. I revisited the interview with Will Roy from 2003 and also noticed some updates about Kalief's family and their case against the city of New York thanks to tweets shared by Paul Prestia and supporters through the Shut Down Rikers campaign. Some time lapsed during the summer when I noticed the report of Kalief's mother, Venida Browder, passing away from a broken heart. Afterwards I had found out about a documentary that Spike TV and Jay-Z were planning to introduce to the world. While I was hopeful for what this would mean to Kalief's memory, there was something about the presentation of the Spike TV press conference. I thought about what Ms. Browder was feeling at that moment as she sat silently while film producers introduced the audience into what the film meant for the network, justice, and Kalief's story.
I decided to dedicate Side B of the #TBWMixtape entirely to Kalief and the Browder family. Through Kalief, I think often of hundreds of youth I sat down with face to face in the juvenile halls to record their poetry, rhymes, or just to record what they had to share that day about their lives. I approached each session with humility and compassion for their circumstance and a hope that the recording would provide their minds with a moment to breathe, think, and imagine themselves outside of confinement. What we recorded opened space for their views no matter how limited those views were by the isolation of where they were. In time we'd learn from these audios, discuss, share stories, create audio projects, and engaged in a few chess battles. Outside of the facility and til' this day I've replayed those voices on the radio, shared them in the classroom, and played them anywhere I could plug in a set of speakers so others could listen.
This #TBWMixtape is an ode to Kalief and the last class I would instruct at New Mexico State University after teaching there for twelve semesters. While people will continue to read about these issues, watch one documentary after another, get updates from news reports...there's something about the replay value and soul of a mixtape...there's something spiritual about how those voices and music come together to fill the void of silence. Its true to the art of listening and true to the art of reflection and a reconnection to voices like Kaliefs. Connection to the truth and pain of Ms. Browder's own words and her voice. Connection to the voices of Kalief's surviving siblings and older brother Akeem.
#Lee @vbehindw @vbwclass Update 2/26/2017 Tracklist:
