Illustrations from the Inside: The Beat Within - Tapa dura

The Beat Within is a nation-wide writing program for incarcerated youth that is ten years old. Words not Weapons is the theme, getting young adults male and female, of all races to learn that the power of words and images is stronger than violence. While a couple of volumes of poetry generated by this program have been published, Illustrations from the Inside: The Beat Within focuses on the drawings that these kids do, almost entirely in pencil. Remarkable for its execution, compelling in terms of content and chock-full of varied renderings of everything from Homer Simpson to the violent deaths of friends and family, these illustrations humanize these juveniles, in a way that the penal system resists.