It Could Happen Here - CZM Book Club: Poems by Incarcerated Authors -- with In The Belly Magazine

Episode Date: June 14, 2026

This week, In The Belly is doing a take over to feature the poems of incarcerated writers in their own voicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is, getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is, getting a new one put up in its place. I'm Akela Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 is about both of those things.

As I was watching these statues come down, I was thinking about what it meant that I grew up in a majority black city, in which there were more homages to enslavers than there were to enslave people. Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. June is Black Music Month, and on the Drink Chams podcast, we're speaking with the hottest names in the culture, like Sway Lee. Do you realize how legendary you are? I appreciate that. I'd be seeing it, but I'm like, man, I still got, like, so much more to do.

Like, Prince, he dropped like 30 albums. We dropped like five right now. That's the rate we got to be going. Yep, that's a good attitude. No matter the era, Drink Chams brings you the biggest name. and the most unfiltered conversations. Listen to Drink Chams from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Can superstars even exist the way they used to? 2016 was sort of that last era of monoculture, where we still consume things in community. Everybody wanted to be Beyonce at that point. I don't think we'll ever see another beyond. What does it mean to be black and eat in America? You will never make me feel bad for being a black girl, for being a black American girl, ever. From music to food to the conversations shaping black culture right now,

therapy for black girls is bringing it all to the mic. Listen to therapy for black girls on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. If you're watching the latest season of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, you already know there's a lot to break down. Gorsha accusing Kelly of sleeping with a merry man. They holding Kay Michelle back from fighting Drew. he has financial issues. On the podcast, Reality with the King,

I, Carlos King, recap the biggest moments from your favorite reality shows, including the Real House Wise franchise, the drama, the alliances, and the T, everybody's talking about. To hear this and more, listen to Reality with the King

on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Also Media. Buclum, Buclum, Buclum, Buclum,

Buclum. Hello, and welcome to Cool Zone Media Book Club, the only book club where you don't have to do the reading because I, or in this case, the authors themselves, do it for you. That's right. We have an author-read episode this week, a bunch of authors, three different authors,

because this week we are continuing our collaboration with In the Belly magazine, which is a revolutionary abolitionist publication, and for incarcerated people and their communities. And they do really good work, and you can go check them out. I first learned about them when I went to a fundraiser benefit show for them and had a real good time and danced a bunch. And this week, I'm going to end up not talking as much. It's so nice.

And instead of me talking, I'm going to let these incredible poets share their words with from inside the prison system, which obviously means that the audio might not be up to our usual standards, but our amazing audio engineer, Eva, has been working really hard at making it sound okay. And also, what do you expect? They are calling from inside a nightmare,

from the nightmare factory that our society keeps, like the Omelas child, just sitting there, only instead of one child in the Omelos, It is almost 1% of the U.S. adult population. And I don't think prison is a good idea. I don't think it worked. Anyway, part of the reason that we're doing this collaboration when we're doing it is because this past week, abolitionists celebrated June 11th,

the International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. And we know, and you know, that under racial capitalism, all prisoners or political prisoners. And it is an honor and a duty to support and uplift prison rebels. Anyway, I'm a shut up, and you can hear these people talking in their own words. This first poem is called The Process. I need a personal strove light. I need the shadow box on my goals because steel, sharp and still, right?

Because success is what I make it and the recipes may vary. Because amateur night provides a learning curve that you can never tie. of because I might just step my game up as the game excels itself. If I may, can I progress and let my actions be just as rhetorical as the question. Let my mind build a war against all these immigrant thoughts. Let innocence die in the name of growth and adversity aspire muscle on this marathon ahead of me. Let the song stop if I fall out of rhythm with the universe produce and let nature take its course for every seed that threaten the sprout.

I need a game time decision before the schedule even comes out. I need a caption before the camera flashes, a canoe before the river parts on the sea of opportunity. I need my mileage before the road is paved, ahead of the curve so much I couldn't help but fly straight. Let the routine take its toll. That labor and love that work ethic transpires. That excelled is well deserved. That enter push, that intuition sets off. that exhaustion that exfoliates advancement.

The sweat, the tears, the anger, the joy is all a part of the process we need to stay in bed with in order to get birth to everything we desire. That's the process. Matthew Garcia put another raw reflection. Bad bunny. We should take more photos, pictures that capture important pictures that connect us to moments of consequence. Where we hold dear to the essence of the actions we cherish so much, keeping track of our history's footprints,

where eye contact and conversations work in tandem to express the value of social interactions in the moments that shouldn't be forgotten, no matter how much gratification came after. Still, some things we have to hold on to like soft kisses or the interests we invested in wishes that one day we will make it, and retribution will be made in repayment for everyone that generated a pleasant fragrance and gave occasions that felt like celebrations.

Low times when it gave you elevation. And even now when you replay it, it's recognized as something sacred. Take a look in your heart's photo book and don't just reminisce for benefit. How could we forget the people whom tears were shared or together you got back up after you fell in bled? Stories that narrate a purposeful pass. Those who shared their last and made you laugh. The rhythm that persuaded the unforgettable dance, because life is too short and goes by too fast.

This first one's called Was It a Drug? It's about the same old song, really. It goes like this. Was it a drug deal gone wrong? Or was it gang related? It's like our life leaking on the pavement, hums, add a tone. out of tune to their eardrums, because frequently, too frequent to me, they misquote our lines like

our red, tie-died tees don't scream to the world like feedback. They compose notes for the news station about the new statistic, but their disharmony sounds flat to the unheard, whose street language confounds, and stage presence incites imitation, yeah, our slang be resonating. We were born refugees, orphans with no songs from our homeland. We record our melodies in a mournful octave in brick tent cities where the anthem is survival of the fittest who relate to their gangs and it's only natural to select the art of the drug deal and pitch in pursuit of happiness when the law of the land is. We got the right to bear arms and stand our ground on our blocks and defend our castles. We call that a remix. It was a preemptive strike against an adversary

who had weapons of mass destruction and was known for committing war crimes, and now the world is a safer place, Your Honor. And now there's going to be an ad, and there's not really going to be an ad transition. It's just going to be ads now. Pride Month, Toronto. Pride is an opportunity for you to create your own space, to celebrate your existence. Iheart Radio is proud to be an official sponsor of Pride Toronto Festival, and we won't stop. Celebrate Pride.

Turn up the love and listen to IHeart Pride. Canada, your 24-7 radio stream and the only playlist you need for your Toronto Pride celebrations. Pride is so great because it gives a whole bunch of people this visibility that they've never had before. We have a ton to celebrate Toronto. Happy Pride! Iheart Radio. Hey Ontario, come on down to BetMGM Casino and check out our newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show. Only at BetMGM. Access to the Price's Right Fortune Pick is only available at BetMGM Casino. BetMGM and GameSetM and Game says remind you to play responsibly.

19 plus to wager, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BenMGGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is. Getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is. Getting a new one put up in its place.

As long as there's a politics of race in America, There's going to be a politics of remembering the Civil War. To get to school, I had to go down Robert Ely Boulevard. Get to the grocery store, I had to go down Jefferson Davis Parkway. If you're an historian and you leave out half of what the history is, you're not doing your job. I'm Akila Hughes. In Rebel Spirit, Season 2 goes deep on both of those things. The fights, the politics, the people who won, and my personal campaign to add something to the Kentucky State House that's actually worth the wall space.

We are more than our bodies. We contain essence. We contain spirit. How do you represent that? They are just fueling a fire that is really catching. You'll see what I mean. Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

June is Black Music Month, and on the Drink Chams podcast, we're speaking with the hottest names in the culture, like Sway Lee. Do you realize how legendary you are? I appreciate that. I'd be seeing it, but I'm like, man, I'm sorry. still got, like, so much more to do. Like, Prince, he dropped, like, 30 albums. We dropped, like, five right now.

Like, that's the rate we got to be going. Yep, that's a good attitude. You also hear stories from industry legends and hip-hop pioneers, like Fab Five Freddy. I directed when Nas' early videos. Which one? One love. Wow. Yes.

I literally filmed in his apartment in Queensbridge. His moms were still up in that apartment. Nause was just beginning to take off. His pops used to live near me in Harlem. His dad introduced him to a whole lot of, you know, conscious stuff, and he made a young prodigy. No matter the era, Drink Chams brings you the biggest names and the most unfiltered conversations.

Listen to Drink Chams from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And we're back. Matthew Garcia, what another raw reflection, roses. I sometimes wonder if I heard more. people then I benefited. It's hard trying to evolve when you're limited.

Adoption and the peril of the hoods stole my innocence. Violence and drugs in the villages ruins the parents which ultimately poison the kids. I network building bridges. Fighting my heart out of friends and foes witness. My commitment

in trying to be the difference. Still combatant the hate the crabs and the barrel are wicked. It changes happening, the pendulum is shifting. But this is in America God telling there isn't no golden ticket. I used to fake it a lot just to kick it, thinking my perseverance would persuade folks to get it. I was just wasting time like I could spare minutes. How does that make sense when you living with a life sentence?

Thought I found love a time or two. You could crumble when you find out your day one was lying to you. Confused with clues because you know, better. Yeah, you broke some hearts before, so you know better. Said, I can't stand those serpents. I've seen some of my heroes get killed by their closest. For me, my moments are urgent. I want to be on the other side before opportunities door closes. Before I die, give me my roses. I want them now, not when I'm in the ground like my fallen soldiers. Please bring me soup when I need it. Don't come around when this battle was beaten, knowing I'm depleting, you're still eating.

I'm outgunned and they still cheating. I guess when the outcome is victory, they'll start believing. Thank you. I got another one for you, man. This one is called I Am. I wrote this while I was in solitary confinement. It just represented everything I needed to get off my chest at the time. I am.

I am a dog. Not in the sense of my bark, my bite, my breed, instinct, or characteristic. but in a sense that I'm handcuffed behind my back with a black leash hanging from between the cuffs. Two white correctional officers hold the leash as they lead me outside to another cage about the size of a bathroom and a mini mansion. 2021 and I wonder what my ancestors are saying. What are they thinking? How do they feel about what they are witnessing from above from below? I wonder what's third good marks for thoughts on the 13th Amendment.

Legalized slavery under the guise of criminal punishment. I am a co-star in the documentary on social justice going wrong, a victim of an aggregated sentence sanctioned by a hypocritical judge who only saw what he assumed my face represented, not with my soul represented. A distant memory buried in the cemetery of his clouded judgment, carelessly wiping away my life like sweat from his brow, a dust off of his shoulder.

Legally thrown out the window, only evidence weighed was my creed, color, culture, age, dialect and tax bracket, the latter which I never considered because it was too low to acknowledge. The master, I mean correctional officer, and locks my cage. It's time for me to go inside. Whatever I am, he has a job to do, and my job in his eyes is to make his job easy. As I'm being led to a smaller cage, my cell, the size of your bathroom if you live on Section 8, other prisoners stand at the cellgates looking on Longulogy. I can't stand in sight, but I'm accepting of it at the table.

the same time. My cell door shut and the CEO give me that look. You know that one, it's smugged, and if superiority had the expression, that would be it. I am locked up on top of being locked up for having an audacity to buck against the system and exude pride in the way that they view a bad influence. Like the runaway slave who dared to protest, I have to be disgraced this manner publicly in order to keep their train moving. I am a prosecutor's dream, not the one with mixed feelings but the one with no integrity, hungry for investment during election year, newly with a chip on his shoulder and a hefty mortgage. Who do you think he's willing to sacrifice? If justice ever had a blindfold on, this is a time for her to take it off. If there was ever

a time for him to do more than bend the rules, why not now? When he's up against me, young blacken, society's footstool, their doormat to the back door, and yes I say back door due to his deviousness. Some planning evidence here, a lie to there by man of uniform and man of the cloth. A false statement reiterated by an officer of the court. Wouldn't hurt too bad, right? Why not?

What's another life as long as the piece is fit into his makeshift puzzle? As long as he can prove that you were already on the wrong path anyway, and as long as your faces on most of the news reels. I am too high-spirited, and the sale that's meant to diminish it in the system that

says lower my pitch. I I am casual and calm when I need something from the COs, a counselor, unit manager, a parole board, because that's the only way I have a slight chance of getting it. To be alert, proud, or outspoken, or prideful will leave me helpless. The pride of the bare necessities is my nudist toilet paper. My body is not enough. They want my self-esteem, self-respect, dignity, and everything that encompass my soul. They want a humble pieme into my thoughts turn to mush,

until my fire turn into a spark, and until my voice is non-existed. They want a shell of a man until I'm nothing but a mannequin for the storefront of CCX. I am a nasty taste in the juror's mouth. The Caucasian one who looks going on paper but represents everything bad. The one who's never knew a black man personally unless he was a standout. You know the Obamagos, the football star, his 90% white high school, or the biracial guy that he used to work with that spoke so proper, who ended up becoming CEO.

How the hell am I supposed to live up to that? They're his proof that he's not racist and I'm his proof that he's not. The oxymoron that benefits no one. They justify his thoughts, actions against me and not justify his thoughts, actions against them. I have to convince 11 more people like him for better or worse than I'm innocent of a crime that fits my stereotype. All under the guise of them being my peers. All under the system with a hidden fix of voter suppression, I just lost the targeted communities, along with the job market that believes discriminatory practice, which leads to the ineligible.

of being a jury. So what the hell was I thinking? I am a firecracker that's borderline legal depending on the setting in need of a drone to take me away, if only mentally. I am in prison. And the hick towns of all hicktons were the kind I never met that benefits off of my presence but hates it at the same time. I am on call, but for who I don't know, that's just how I feel like I'm waiting on some type of ignition, some super conscious valid reason to blow and go kamikaze. I am offbeat and constantly trying to align myself as they consistently switch their alignment. I am a patient in this mythical hospital is known as the penitentiary. And only reality, the same thing that's trying to kill me was set me free.

This next one is called futile plea. Just because we reproduce it doesn't mean we ain't products of it. You know, we did not invent this. You know this heaviness pressing down on us and us pressing down on them who are also us. You know, for half a thousand years, the slaves chained in the hold of the ship have to eat, sleep, shit, and piss in the shit and piss that falls from above, the same as how it falls on those below. Everybody got to shit and piss. Somebody got to live at the bottom of the slave ship. We did not invent. this. We were born here in this shit and we

climbed through it if we could figure out the shackles. To the top, stepping on anybody who can't figure out the shackles. So even at the top, we don't feel clean, even when we say we do. Some of us broke the rusted shackles

and began to climb but got trapped mid-escape so we got murdered or maybe just whipped and chained up tighter. And now we play cards in this shit. the hands we were dealt our hands wet slick from the piss and the shit and we act like we don't notice it from the bottom of the hold of the slave ship we watch the world we look up and watch the shit fall we look around and hate each other like we forgot who invented this shit in other words it's

easier to blame ourselves than come together and capsize this boat this ain't our boat. Please remember, contrary to the stereotype, we have always known how to swim. And now there's going to be more ads. And these are the ads that support this show. Pride is like love. You feel it in your heart. IR. Radio, Canada's number one streaming app for radio and podcasts, including IHart Pride Canada, your favorite hits and must-have party bangers, plus personalized and curated playlists like back in the day Pride. Together, celebrate. Take pride with you.

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BEDMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. June is Black Music Month, and on the Drink Chams podcast, we're speaking with the hottest names in the culture, like Sway Lee. Do you realize how legendary you are? I appreciate that. I'd be seeing it, but I'm like, man, I still got like so much more to do. Like, Prince, he dropped like 30 albums. We job like five right now. That's the rate we got to be going.

Yeah, that's a good attitude. You also hear stories from industry legends and hip-hop pioneers like Fab Five Freddy. I directed when the Nas' early videos. Which one? One love. Wow. Yes. I literally filmed in his apartment in Queensbridge.

His moms were still up in that apartment. Nas was just beginning to take off. His pops used to live near me in Harlem. His dad introduced him to a whole lot of, you know, conscious stuff. He made a young prodigy. No matter the era, Drinkchamps brings you the biggest names and the most unfiltered conversations. Listen to Drink Chams from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is.

Getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is. Getting a new one put up in its place. As long as there's a politics of race in America, there's going to be a politics of race. remembering the Civil War. To get to school, I had to go down Robert Lee Boulevard. Get to the grocery store, I had to go down Jefferson Davis Parkway. If you're an historian and you leave out half of what the history is, you're not doing your job.

I'm Akila Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 goes deep on both of those things. The fights, the politics, the people who won, and my personal campaign to add something to the Kentucky State House that's actually worth the wall space. We are more than our bodies. We contain essence. We contain spirit. How do you represent that? They are just fueling a fire that is really catching. You'll see what I mean. Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And we're back. With another raw reflection, liberation. I thought I lost everything when I lost freedom. Then I discovered that I was never free when comprehending freedom's meaning. For a long time I was rebelling and grieving, fighting everything, yelling and screaming, moving off the impulse instead of understanding the essence of thoughts, cerebral thinking. Times come being safe, but my actions weren't confirming I'm believing in a higher power, waking up from nightmares, sitting like a coward. Not frightened by pain of danger, but by seconds, minutes, and hours. when you're stuck in the mountains, removed from familiar people in views,

sensory deprivation, a part of your mind you can lose. And because of your sentence, you can't participate in school. Only 10% of long-termers can occupy those rooms where education is being disseminated. Acting like you don't care, but you really hate it. Heartburned day, hoping it don't get disintegrated. Going to the law library studying similar cases, working laborers, shives and pennies out of payments. Have you ever wanted something so

bad that even in your sleep, you crazy? It's not money, it's not sex, it's your liberation. Not purposely, but overwhelming. It's a poor system. Because you telling them you don't want to die here, but you don't think they listen. Confirring with so many in close

quarters, no wonder why these friction. Persecution for long embraces with family like long other than kisses. Please no visit them wrongs in the Senate centuries are the striccest and complaining about these conditions retort off and crickets. What would you do if you ain't kill nobody? The life is the senses and you're surrounded by snake's arm with so much venom.

Opposition is your own feeling like the devil's sentiment. The clock is ticking and you're getting more grades. You was a child when you came in. 18 years old was the age. Acting like you're not hurt, but it's acting. You're the protagonist in your play. Write word after word, but the narrative don't change. Separation.

Separation. Separation is what I need. Separation. Separation. And liberation, I believe. Separation. Liberation. Liberation.

I hope I see. Thank you. So this last one is called bioluminescence. It's a little bit more optimistic. We, the wretched, receive no respite. We revolve living forever in revolt, some revolution yet we wither daily and by generations rather than bloom a new creation, folded in frustration, hard, cold. I'm studying mechanics so I can know how things work, so I can build something and destroy something.

I'm studying explosives and foundations and structures. I'm studying engineering so I can know how things stand, so I can bring them down, so I can make them fall. I'm studying demolition and making plants. I'm studying plants and how they begin in darkness unseen, and some are known to burst through cement, but really they just found a way through the abstraction in the concrete the substance used to lay the foundations. Hard, cold, but not impenetrable by beauty formerly conceivable. sealed in dirt which some call soil rich, dark, and filled with nutrients, mainly those needed for plant life, you know, without which we'd all die. Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, NPK, the ingredients listed on the labels of fertilizers used to bake bombs which break foundations

and bring down structures. We're all made of the same stuff. I'm studying seeds and soil and fertilizers and mechanics and engineering. because we, the wretched, remain concealed until we realize we're rich and dark, surrounded by everything we need to break through foundations to bloom. So I'm studying horticulture and photosynthesis because we don't need to receive anything. We don't need a respite. Yes, we have been surrounded by death, which precedes decomposition, which deposits what life is composed of. We're all made of the same stuff back into the soil, which makes it rich in nutrients. We are seeds hidden in darkness.

We are surrounded by richness potential, concealed beneath foundations that are hard and cold. So I'm also studying warmth, which is found in we, in closeness. Some organisms that grow in darkness make their own light, which is called bioluminescence. Recently, scientists have discovered this phenomenon in humans. I'm studying we, the wretched, in closeness in darkness surrounded by death, how we are rich and how we make our own light

and how we will break through foundations and destroy structures by becoming gardens, wild and untended, blossoms and trees tangled together vines and weeds rooted in richness from death-making life, light. Boom. Thank you for listening. Poetry just has that power and art in general, I think, has that power, whether it's visual or, you know, whatever medium happens to be the way that you express yourself. So I really think that in the belly has to be a part of that, right? We're doing political education at the same time where we're humans growing into humans. You know what I'm saying? Like, so that's part of that growth in development process.

It's not just essays and analytical thinking and logic and understanding the politics. It's understanding ourselves and each other. It's dope because Polo told me once I said, anything could be a poem, right? And it just made the way I look at the paper different because I started realizing how to use white space, how to put words in different places to kind of change the rhythm and change, you know,

how you have to say it when you speak it out loud. I think one of the poems where I really, really, play around with that and try to utilize that is bio-luminouss. And it's one thing to hear it. Well, looking at it on paper, it just looks, you know, it's different, you know, how I put it together. And also in that same vein, like line breaks. And, you know, sometimes when you go to the next line, the last word that you stop on before

you go to that next line, if you keep going, it means one thing. But if you stop right there, it means another thing. And sometimes when we're expressing something, we're talking to each other, it means both things. You know? Like, they don't just mean one thing, you know,

and so that's kind of where I like to see how things, you know, kind of mean everything, how things are relative and how they relate to each other.

And also analogies and metaphors. I'm always trying to figure out how these things fit together, how they're the same. You know, how is what I'm going through the same as what you're going through?

How is it universal to the truth that we all kind of recognize and experience even if we can't articulate them? Like, I can just keep going over a piece over and over again and, you know, and just looking at it and re-seeing it, right?

Like, seeing it all over again and saying, hold on, wait a minute, what if I do this? What if I change this? How am I getting closer to the truth? Right. I actually wrote that in a poem reason. I would say it's art if it's true, right? Because that's how I feel. Like, it's, that's what I'm trying to reach with each one.

It's some truth of the, you know, what is the root of this thing I'm trying to say? How can I get all the way to the bottom of it? How can I cut away everything superfluous and get to what is the root of it? You know, the bare truth of it. And revision is like so necessary for that process. I'm in conversation with, you know, the people who I think may read this or the people who I'm imagining I'm talking to, even if no one's ever going to read it. Or, you know, I'm in conversation with George Jackson and Franz Fanon.

I'm in conversation with Ames to Serre. I'm in conversation with Angela Davis. You know, I'm thinking about a side of Shakur and what she would think about this as I'm coming up with this idea and what I'm trying to say here, you know, would she agree or would she argue with me? You know, I'm never alone when I'm writing a poem. That was the voice of Yahir, one of the inside editors of In the Belly.

Our poems today were in order that they were read. The Process by Remy Bad Bunny by Matthew Garcia Was it a drug by Yair? Roses by Matthew Garcia I Am by Rennie Futal Plee by Ayer Liberation by Matthew Garcia

Bioluminescence by Yaya And her authors are All right, my name Jeremy Mulligan, I do a lot of writing under the pseudonym Remy, A.K. Rio, I published six books. You can check me out on Amazon.com or PRpublications. You can also find me on my podcast, walking the track. I want to shout out my brothers. That's all along with me on this ride in Harry Yair for giving me this opportunity.

Shout out Matthew Garcia. Check him out too on his Facebook. And you want to see any other my writings there available on minutes, 46.com as well. So, you know, check me out, man. I'm here. I love it right. I'm ready to go. Peace to everybody. My name is Randy Carter, aka. Yair, for y'all who don't know me. I'm currently held captive in the Pennsylvania imprisonment industry. I'm an organizer, a facilitator, student, mentor, and sometimes a poet. I'm also editor and contributor for In the Belly magazine. You can check us out online, support us on Patreon. Follow us at Belly Zane. Follow me at underscore yair. Also support my fellow in the belly editor, Pierre Pinson, aka Polo.

Go to support him at free pierre.org. I want shout out to my bro Jeremy Mulligan, who writes under the pseudonym Remy, aka Rio. He's an author, educator. Find him on YouTube for his podcast, walking a track. Another shout out to my brother Matthew Garcia. He's a dope poet and author. Also runs a mentorship program here at SCI Chester called Real Rap. He gives us a platform for men like me to teach classes to the younger generation who got caught up in this system. So you can follow him at Matt Raw underscore 1980. We also heard from Matthew Garcia.

From his substack, quote, Matthew is incarcerated at SCI Chester in Pennsylvania. For him, poetry isn't a hobby. It's how he maintains his humanity, processes his experience, and strives to remain the provider he wants to be for his family. You can find his poetry on Substack at the Garcia Project or on Instagram at M-A-T-R-A-W-U-N-Skore-N-E-N-E-R-A-W-N-E-N-E-E-E-L-E-E-L-E-L-E-L-E-L-E-W-E-E-W-E-E-W-E-W-E-W-E-W-E-W-E-W-E-W-E-W-W, and if you want to support their work, You can find them at Instagram at Bellizine

and subscribe to the newsletter and print magazine at patreon.com slash in the belly. You can also learn more about June 11th, the International Day of Solidarity with Long-term Manoricus Prisoners at June 11, but that's not spelled out. That's like June 1-1. Dot no blogs like N-O-B-L-O-G-S dot org.

And you can find a pen pal and start writing someone today. My name is Margaret Kiljoy, and I'm incredibly grateful to Hazel, who helps with the episodes, who made this episode happen. And also shout out to Eva, who does her audio and went above and beyond this week to help make this work. And so, yeah, see you next week for more probably short fiction. We'll find out. That was good.

That's back in 2021. I wrote that. but yeah I hear you from Columbus too man I'm from Detroit you both from the Midwest I used to be in Columbus sometimes out that way It could happen here as a production of Cool Zone Media for more podcasts from Cool Zone Media visit our website coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeard radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources where it could happen here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is, getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is, getting a new one put up in its place.

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