hi Robert,I just read your letter to Heather as well;that's always informative for me as well,to know the conditions you are living in.The more we know the better,I would say.I truly hope that your arm is healing properly.I wrote a message to Jen.Well,I've the feeling we become friends.:)A lot happened lately.In July mom had a big feast and my daughter Leslie from CA was there with her family.And I noticed how their two children grew.Adric,9 and Claire,7.The latter even spoke a thank you word at the dinner for her grandmother,in Dutch!I saw photos of Adric making in wood a step and a birdcage.My daughters gave me in March,when I was visiting George a DNA kit.Because a Indian nun in Argentina told me I could have Mongolian roots?She had lived there!But I haven't.I've French/German ancesters,English/Irish ones,(a lot less),then Scandinavian,(even a lot less!)and finally(even more less),from Iberia:Spanish/Portuguese ancestors.I've the grandchild from my sister Joke(Yoke),Roxanne,who became Quinn,a transgender-they live in NY-who also did that same DNA test,and he too has more or less the same all European ancestors.He studies anthropology in a college in Wisconsin.I had in summer(truly very hot here!)a workshop of the chacras,our 7 energetic levels,in Orval in the southern part of BE where people speak French.As you know by now I speak Dutch and a few more languages.love it!During the weeks,I give on Wednesdays an hour Dutch to Nazim,as a volunteer.He's from Afghanistan,and is 25.He lives here for about 3yrs and had already Dutch lessons before,to integrate in my country.He's a very kind person.We get along very well.Two weeks before all seemed alright when we started the course.At the end of it, he told me he had problems.I asked if it was around finding a job here?He also had gotten something on his smartphone during the lesson.He then told me his brother of 16 died!What?!American planes had thrown a bomb in Afghanistan where his family lives(he is here alone)and 8 people died!His brother and his friends were in a house by then.I saw his brother(he looked like a 20yr old;they have barren conditions there!)alive and then in his casket!I was literally in shock!Tears came in my eyes.All I could do was comforting him by holding my hand on his shoulders.Like his mom would have done;she is only 50.He had described with joy all of his siblings and now... he wouln't come the next week.And I took then care for 5 days of Lynn,4 and a half at the coast,in their apartment in Koksijde.That was a very pleasant time with that little girl.The weather was just excellent.we delved a long tunnel from the sea to let water run in,we ate ice cream while we saw a tennis match in a stadium,we worked in the 3 new books, doing games,& learning numbers,also writing them,we went to the library for 10 books she chose(fairy tales),we danced the lambada in our living room,she listened to English and Dutch cd's,we played in the sand,looked at our prints,put shells.xRita
I have only just started reading your post, but your words about being an abolitionist because you detest crime were so clarifying that I wanted to at least start the work of transcribing your words so that as many people as possible could read them. Of everything I've read by scholars and journalists, nothing ever was that clear and concise a description of what abolitionism is about. I look forward to reading and helping to transcribe as much as I can of your work.
An inmate is likely not going to commit suicide, or fails to commit suicide, during active relative program engagements, as the Sound Mind Streamer is a 24-hour a day in-cell program accessible to all inmates by simply turning on their TVs. Especially the younger "all-night program" inmates.
The Content: (music appreciation, creative writing therapy) The primary content is TYPE BEATS instrumental music. This urban perspective music induces creative writing of letters, short stories, raps, song lyrics, etc.
The sonic stylings are generated from the spiritual sources of constructive behavior of innercity youth, even more so for inmates who draw, paint, do beadwork. The expanded arts and crafts that require an artistic focus music backdrop.
This music also provides the soundscape for urban and ethnic dancers within the prison population, where bodies in motion from exercise and dance become meditative, creative, and promotes a new return to constructive attributes of persons. (innercity youth)
When inmates know that other inmates are also tuned into the Sound Mind, it becomes a social environment where no one person feels along, with a low spirit.
To supplement the music appreciation therapy, The Sound Mind Streamer will also feature morale building, educational and informational movies, documentaries, and other ethnic urban perspective visual images of:
a) prominent LGBTQ community leaders (ancient and modern) b) screen savers and wallpaper visuals (relative content, nothing lewd)
ZERO COST TO THE STATE: The free user content is sourced as an open invitational for content donors.
This method ensures that not even the Inmate Welfare Institution Fund will be tapped for funding.
The Sound Mind Streamer drags the oldest California prison into the future for presentation of content and programming, specifically for the constructive engagement for a new generation of a condemned population.
Plan of Action: 1. Pitch Sound Mind to interested condemned inmates, an almost impossible feat due to the multiple separate exercise yard groups and housing locations.
2. Pitch Sound Mind to prison officials, including the religious department, mental health department, education department, and the media center.
3. Pitch Sound Mind to perspective content donors.
4. Create condemned LGBTQ spirituality group to produce and present the launch of The Sound Mind Streamer into active continuous play/timeline programming on a SQTV media center channel.
5. Launch The Sound Mind Streamer.
Lead by creation
Floyd Smith #K-72700 San Quentin State Prison San Quentin, CA 94974
The Sound Mind Streamer (Program Development Proposal)
[Picture of author. He is wearing glasses and has his eyebrows raised. A tiny smile is on his lips.]
By Floyd Smith
Sound Mind 1. The Vision: (ethnographic/urban LGBTQ perspective) a) To create an innerprison streamer of music, movies, documentaries, sporting events, and ethnographic visual content for the engagement of, and for, the spiritual uplift, for the influx of a younger demographic of the condemned population. URBAN LGBTQ.
b) The Sound Mind Streamer is the first ever innerprison content broadcast generated through the San Quentin Prison Media Center cable TV line that is generated from condemned population.
c) The Sound Mind Streamer is also produced and programmed by the first ever LGBTQ spirituality group on condemned row, citing an equal opportunity to participate in spiritual programs within the prison, free from sexual discrimination.
The Program: The Sound Mind Streamer is an in-cell program where any and every inmate at San Quentin State prison can participate by turning their TVs to the designated channel, so that no inmate is denied access to programming.
This program is a paradigm shift from LGBTQ inmates either not having programs and/or being forced to participate in other programs on a "tolerated" basis, or a proselytizing agenda for future conversion into groups that view LGBTQ experiences as "an ABOMINATION", "INFIDELS", and other social subculture demeaning labels existing antithetical to LGBTQ nature.
Production Team: This is not a group setting for people to sit around and talk about how gay they are or to solicit empathy.
The Sound Mind Streamer production team is made up of a cross section of the condemned population to collect related content, building timelines for the presentation of content: 1. LGBTQ persons 2. PFLags, Friends, and parents of 3. Straight allies of
The team's primary function is to provide content that generates dialogue beyond eight people sitting in a group room hidden from the very prison population that requires clarity. This model is "service provided based," specifically for the "crowded closet" community who won't participate in a group setting of old program models.
The Need: Researchable facts conclude that San Quentin State Prison has been designated for the housing and programming of LGBTQ inmates, yet they are the most undeserved in program opportunities designed for LGBTQ perspectives, awareness, education, and information on the prison's general population mainline. It is totally non-existent for the condemned population.
The Sound Mind Streamers in-cell program provides engagement programming without LGBTQ inmates being spit on, beat up, jumped, having urine tossed on them, and/or systematic ostracisms within the institution.
Okay, so, maybe I was just a kid growing up on the streets of Compton, California, not afraid of nothing due to being numb to violence and danger. But I did have one fear: letting my homies know I could sing and play drums in church and direct the choir. That could get you beat up.
Mama would say, "Boy, God has not given you the spirit of fear, but of a sound mind. Get your head right, and getcho lil' narrow ass out there and be who God made you to be."
Then Mr. Grant would say, "Awwwhh, the Apostle Paul, Second Timothy, Chapter One, Verse Seven: For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Rest in peace, Mama. I'm being who God made me to be. Here comes the sound mind of your seed.
Sound Mind 12. Divine Urban Serenity No lewd or pornoz please
Google Kehingle Wiley arts and images
Kehingle Wiley is more than an artist. His work reflects the exact cultural expression we want to display on screen of The Sound Mind Streamer. So imagine Kehingle's work below as a still visual. When inmates put their headphones on, they will hear Chill Type Beats. Yes, each art piece paired with each instrumental urban perspective. Google Chill Type Beats.
Imagine Two Spirit Art. Now imagine images, photos, and art of eunuchs from every culture: India, Korea, Greece, Africa, Arabia, etc. Now imagine each image paired to the Type Beats that represent each culture of the origin of the visuals.
All free access content that inspires, uplifts spirits, and expands cultural diversity and awareness, which adds a new power up mentality for viewers.
The images of the iconoclast Kehingle Wiley alone allows for a new generation of incarcerated inner city youth to view themselves in the fine arts. The Sound Mind Streamer expands this cultural diversity through direct exposure.
===
Sound Mind 13. The Origins
Today I learned that my mother passed away. All of the death row mental health staff have gone home. There is no priest, pastor, Native American chief, no Imam here to consult my low spirit. The last person I want to talk to is this cop that keeps banging on the cell every twenty minutes with a metal beeping device.
I can't tell other inmates that my mother abandoned me when I was 13 years old. After a full childhood of physical abuse and neglect, I'm remembering every second of it as I write this body of work. They don't create TV shows about what I need to experience right now.
And just like that, it dawned on me that it was my mother who made me direct the church children's choir. It was my mother who couldn't stop hugging me when I was called up to sing with the choir of my older sister's middle school graduation. It was the only time she ever hugged me. Yes, in public. Willowbrook Jr. High, 1999 graduation.
She introduced me to the love of her life, Mr. Grant, a legendary music teacher in Los Angeles, California. He managed groups like A Taste of Honey and taught band leader Rickey Minor. It was Mr. Grant who mentored me about music appreciation and how my hip hop generation would carry on our cultural traditions of the fine arts when we've lost our minds.
My mom would say things like, "Music sooths the savage beast." And Mr. Grant would say, "Awwh, Congreve, music has charm to soothe the savage beast." Music therapy for a new generation requires inclusive ethnographic related content which is engaged with respect and value. They even used music to help us face fear.
Sound Mind 10. (Interested in donating content? Leave us a comment.)
The primary focus for the supplementary movies, educational, and informational documentaries and short films is two-pronged.
1. To provide viewers with liberated factual content that reflects the constructive development, evolution, and presence of inspirational LGBTQ urban perspectives/experiences from around the world.
2. To lift the spirits of and boost the morale of LGBTQ incarcerated Americans and all Sound Mind viewers who are contemplatively reality driven to expect better quality from self. Knowing that The Sound Mind Streamer is a special engagement environment specifically designed for them, open, closeted, allies, and the interested, self-contained with ZERO COST to the state.
===
Sound Mind 11. The Short List
The following list of movies and docs that we are asking donors to send us for viewing by way of DVD. Email Billie Mizell, San Quentin State Prison for direct donor instructions and information, or to leave comments.
*primary related
1. Judge William Thomas - first gay black man federal judge 2. * Moonlight - Oscar winner for best film 3. * The Wound - South African foreign film festival 2017 4. * On The Street - homosexuality in Africa 5. The Imitation Game - Allan Turning 6. * Glen Burke - baseball legend, black gay man, Oakland A's 7. Black is Blue - 2015 San Fransisco black film festival 8. American Dreamers - 2015 San Fransisco Latin film festival 9. Viento Parte - 2015 San Fransisco Latin film festival 10. His Wedding Dress - 2015 San Fransisco Latin film festival 11. Alaska is a Drag - 2015 San Fransisco black film festival 12. * Pose - FX TV series by Ryan Murphy 13. * Tough Guise - hip hop documentary 14. * Dakan - first West African gay film 15. Dancing Boys of Afghanistan - doc (PBS?)
Please use the above list as a baseline model for your content donations.
The following is a list of public servants whom I've personally reached out to on this matter and, even more specifically, after I too was spit on through the gate, had to sternly and effectively physically defend myself against condemned inmate self-appointed gay taskforce. A correctional sergeant who exposed his erect penis to me through his uniform while propositioning me for sex in return for program advancement, who still works here, by the way. And I was forced to spend a total of 12 years in a single-man cage for exercise yard participation in a filthy dark area of SQSP that is both totally covered and wrapped away from direct sunlight.
Yes, I just said I spent 12 years with NO SUN because I'm open about being gay. Yes, the only one, out of 4,232 inmates, and not one of these people have done anything to prevent and end the ongoing abuses.
1. Facility Captain Avila = "Opening a non-designated yard here is too complicated." 2. Facility Lieutenant Torres = "I'll have a talk with Sergeant Rodriguez." 3. Warden Ron Davis = "I'm not opening another condemned yard." 4. Governor Jerry Brown = NO SHOW 5. Barbara Boxer = NO SHOW 6. Barbara Lewis = NO SHOW 7. Maxine Waters = NO SHOW 8. Jackie Spiers = NO SHOW (but please get well soon, great servant) 9. CDCR Director Kernen = NO SHOW (retired) 10. PREA Officer De Young = "Insufficient evidence that employee misconduct occurred." 11. The ACLU c/o LGBTQ division = Failure to respond 12. GLAD = Failure to respond 13. Kamala Harris = NO SHOW 14. Flying Over Walls = Community failure 15. SQ Law Officer = Covered up employee misconduct
RSS
The Content:
(music appreciation, creative writing therapy)
The primary content is TYPE BEATS instrumental music. This urban perspective music induces creative writing of letters, short stories, raps, song lyrics, etc.
The sonic stylings are generated from the spiritual sources of constructive behavior of innercity youth, even more so for inmates who draw, paint, do beadwork. The expanded arts and crafts that require an artistic focus music backdrop.
This music also provides the soundscape for urban and ethnic dancers within the prison population, where bodies in motion from exercise and dance become meditative, creative, and promotes a new return to constructive attributes of persons. (innercity youth)
When inmates know that other inmates are also tuned into the Sound Mind, it becomes a social environment where no one person feels along, with a low spirit.
To supplement the music appreciation therapy, The Sound Mind Streamer will also feature morale building, educational and informational movies, documentaries, and other ethnic urban perspective visual images of:
a) prominent LGBTQ community leaders (ancient and modern)
b) screen savers and wallpaper visuals (relative content, nothing lewd)
ZERO COST TO THE STATE:
The free user content is sourced as an open invitational for content donors.
This method ensures that not even the Inmate Welfare Institution Fund will be tapped for funding.
The Sound Mind Streamer drags the oldest California prison into the future for presentation of content and programming, specifically for the constructive engagement for a new generation of a condemned population.
Plan of Action:
1. Pitch Sound Mind to interested condemned inmates, an almost impossible feat due to the multiple separate exercise yard groups and housing locations.
2. Pitch Sound Mind to prison officials, including the religious department, mental health department, education department, and the media center.
3. Pitch Sound Mind to perspective content donors.
4. Create condemned LGBTQ spirituality group to produce and present the launch of The Sound Mind Streamer into active continuous play/timeline programming on a SQTV media center channel.
5. Launch The Sound Mind Streamer.
Lead by creation
Floyd Smith #K-72700
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin, CA 94974
(Program Development Proposal)
[Picture of author. He is wearing glasses and has his eyebrows raised. A tiny smile is on his lips.]
By Floyd Smith
Sound Mind 1.
The Vision: (ethnographic/urban LGBTQ perspective)
a) To create an innerprison streamer of music, movies, documentaries, sporting events, and ethnographic visual content for the engagement of, and for, the spiritual uplift, for the influx of a younger demographic of the condemned population. URBAN LGBTQ.
b) The Sound Mind Streamer is the first ever innerprison content broadcast generated through the San Quentin Prison Media Center cable TV line that is generated from condemned population.
c) The Sound Mind Streamer is also produced and programmed by the first ever LGBTQ spirituality group on condemned row, citing an equal opportunity to participate in spiritual programs within the prison, free from sexual discrimination.
The Program:
The Sound Mind Streamer is an in-cell program where any and every inmate at San Quentin State prison can participate by turning their TVs to the designated channel, so that no inmate is denied access to programming.
This program is a paradigm shift from LGBTQ inmates either not having programs and/or being forced to participate in other programs on a "tolerated" basis, or a proselytizing agenda for future conversion into groups that view LGBTQ experiences as "an ABOMINATION", "INFIDELS", and other social subculture demeaning labels existing antithetical to LGBTQ nature.
Production Team:
This is not a group setting for people to sit around and talk about how gay they are or to solicit empathy.
The Sound Mind Streamer production team is made up of a cross section of the condemned population to collect related content, building timelines for the presentation of content:
1. LGBTQ persons
2. PFLags, Friends, and parents of
3. Straight allies of
The team's primary function is to provide content that generates dialogue beyond eight people sitting in a group room hidden from the very prison population that requires clarity. This model is "service provided based," specifically for the "crowded closet" community who won't participate in a group setting of old program models.
The Need:
Researchable facts conclude that San Quentin State Prison has been designated for the housing and programming of LGBTQ inmates, yet they are the most undeserved in program opportunities designed for LGBTQ perspectives, awareness, education, and information on the prison's general population mainline. It is totally non-existent for the condemned population.
The Sound Mind Streamers in-cell program provides engagement programming without LGBTQ inmates being spit on, beat up, jumped, having urine tossed on them, and/or systematic ostracisms within the institution.
Mama would say, "Boy, God has not given you the spirit of fear, but of a sound mind. Get your head right, and getcho lil' narrow ass out there and be who God made you to be."
Then Mr. Grant would say, "Awwwhh, the Apostle Paul, Second Timothy, Chapter One, Verse Seven: For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Rest in peace, Mama. I'm being who God made me to be. Here comes the sound mind of your seed.
Divine Urban Serenity
No lewd or pornoz please
Google Kehingle Wiley arts and images
Kehingle Wiley is more than an artist. His work reflects the exact cultural expression we want to display on screen of The Sound Mind Streamer. So imagine Kehingle's work below as a still visual. When inmates put their headphones on, they will hear Chill Type Beats. Yes, each art piece paired with each instrumental urban perspective. Google Chill Type Beats.
Imagine Two Spirit Art. Now imagine images, photos, and art of eunuchs from every culture: India, Korea, Greece, Africa, Arabia, etc. Now imagine each image paired to the Type Beats that represent each culture of the origin of the visuals.
All free access content that inspires, uplifts spirits, and expands cultural diversity and awareness, which adds a new power up mentality for viewers.
The images of the iconoclast Kehingle Wiley alone allows for a new generation of incarcerated inner city youth to view themselves in the fine arts. The Sound Mind Streamer expands this cultural diversity through direct exposure.
===
Sound Mind 13.
The Origins
Today I learned that my mother passed away. All of the death row mental health staff have gone home. There is no priest, pastor, Native American chief, no Imam here to consult my low spirit. The last person I want to talk to is this cop that keeps banging on the cell every twenty minutes with a metal beeping device.
I can't tell other inmates that my mother abandoned me when I was 13 years old. After a full childhood of physical abuse and neglect, I'm remembering every second of it as I write this body of work. They don't create TV shows about what I need to experience right now.
And just like that, it dawned on me that it was my mother who made me direct the church children's choir. It was my mother who couldn't stop hugging me when I was called up to sing with the choir of my older sister's middle school graduation. It was the only time she ever hugged me. Yes, in public. Willowbrook Jr. High, 1999 graduation.
She introduced me to the love of her life, Mr. Grant, a legendary music teacher in Los Angeles, California. He managed groups like A Taste of Honey and taught band leader Rickey Minor. It was Mr. Grant who mentored me about music appreciation and how my hip hop generation would carry on our cultural traditions of the fine arts when we've lost our minds.
My mom would say things like, "Music sooths the savage beast." And Mr. Grant would say, "Awwh, Congreve, music has charm to soothe the savage beast." Music therapy for a new generation requires inclusive ethnographic related content which is engaged with respect and value. They even used music to help us face fear.
(Donate Content Now)
By
Floyd Smith
Sound Mind 10.
(Interested in donating content? Leave us a comment.)
The primary focus for the supplementary movies, educational, and informational documentaries and short films is two-pronged.
1. To provide viewers with liberated factual content that reflects the constructive development, evolution, and presence of inspirational LGBTQ urban perspectives/experiences from around the world.
2. To lift the spirits of and boost the morale of LGBTQ incarcerated Americans and all Sound Mind viewers who are contemplatively reality driven to expect better quality from self. Knowing that The Sound Mind Streamer is a special engagement environment specifically designed for them, open, closeted, allies, and the interested, self-contained with ZERO COST to the state.
===
Sound Mind 11.
The Short List
The following list of movies and docs that we are asking donors to send us for viewing by way of DVD. Email Billie Mizell, San Quentin State Prison for direct donor instructions and information, or to leave comments.
*primary related
1. Judge William Thomas - first gay black man federal judge
2. * Moonlight - Oscar winner for best film
3. * The Wound - South African foreign film festival 2017
4. * On The Street - homosexuality in Africa
5. The Imitation Game - Allan Turning
6. * Glen Burke - baseball legend, black gay man, Oakland A's
7. Black is Blue - 2015 San Fransisco black film festival
8. American Dreamers - 2015 San Fransisco Latin film festival
9. Viento Parte - 2015 San Fransisco Latin film festival
10. His Wedding Dress - 2015 San Fransisco Latin film festival
11. Alaska is a Drag - 2015 San Fransisco black film festival
12. * Pose - FX TV series by Ryan Murphy
13. * Tough Guise - hip hop documentary
14. * Dakan - first West African gay film
15. Dancing Boys of Afghanistan - doc (PBS?)
Please use the above list as a baseline model for your content donations.
(Just saw the wrong spelling. Not my transcription. Not to say I type perfect)
Hi xzyzst, Jules here checking on your material. Proud of you. x Ju
Yes, I just said I spent 12 years with NO SUN because I'm open about being gay. Yes, the only one, out of 4,232 inmates, and not one of these people have done anything to prevent and end the ongoing abuses.
1. Facility Captain Avila = "Opening a non-designated yard here is too complicated."
2. Facility Lieutenant Torres = "I'll have a talk with Sergeant Rodriguez."
3. Warden Ron Davis = "I'm not opening another condemned yard."
4. Governor Jerry Brown = NO SHOW
5. Barbara Boxer = NO SHOW
6. Barbara Lewis = NO SHOW
7. Maxine Waters = NO SHOW
8. Jackie Spiers = NO SHOW (but please get well soon, great servant)
9. CDCR Director Kernen = NO SHOW (retired)
10. PREA Officer De Young = "Insufficient evidence that employee misconduct occurred."
11. The ACLU c/o LGBTQ division = Failure to respond
12. GLAD = Failure to respond
13. Kamala Harris = NO SHOW
14. Flying Over Walls = Community failure
15. SQ Law Officer = Covered up employee misconduct
—XZTZST (exist)