Radical Reversal highlights the reformative abilities of the arts by bringing poetry, music, and music production workshops—along with performance and recordings spaces—to detention centers and correctional facilities. In this bonus episode, Radical Reversal co-founder Randall Horton shares recordings from three youth writers and performers who worked with Radical Reversal at Jefferson County Youth Detention Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Poet Patrick Rosal makes a guest appearance on flute for the track "Aint No Love in the Streets."
To watch readings by poets whose work engages with the crisis of mass incarceration in the US, check out Voca for recordings from the Poetry Center's Art for Justice series.
Radical Reversal highlights the reformative abilities of the arts by bringing poetry, music, and music production workshops—along with performance and recordings spaces—to detention centers and correctional facilities. In this bonus episode, Radical Reversal co-founder Randall Horton shares recordings from three youth writers and performers who worked with Radical Reversal at Jefferson County Youth Detention Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Poet Patrick Rosal makes a guest appearance on flute for the track "Aint No Love in the Streets."
To watch readings by poets whose work engages with the crisis of mass incarceration in the US, check out Voca for recordings from the Poetry Center's Art for Justice series.
[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]
Julie Swarstad Johnson:
[00:00:02.85] Thank you for joining us for a special episode of Poetry Centered, coming to you from the University of Arizona Poetry Center. I'm Julie Swarstad Johnson. In this bonus episode, we're bringing you recordings of youth poets and songwriters through Radical Reversal, a program that installs performance and recording spaces in detention centers and correctional facilities where they conduct poetry workshops, seminars in music and music production, readings, and performances.
[00:00:33.45] Today, we'll be hearing from three youth writers who worked with Radical Reversal at Jefferson County Youth Detention Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Our host for this bonus episode is Dr. Randall Horton, co-founder of Radical Reversal. You may recognize Randall as a past host of Poetry Centered and a participant in the Poetry Center's Art for Justice Program, which commissioned new work in poetry around the crisis of mass incarceration in the US.
[00:01:01.38] Randall does amazing work. And we're so glad to have him back on the show for this special episode. Randall, thanks so much for joining us again and for sharing these young writers' work with us.
Randall Horton:
[00:01:15.46] Good evening. My name is Randall Horton. And I am co-collaborator of Radical Reversal. And we have successfully installed a recording studio/creative space here in Birmingham, Alabama. And I'm actually recording inside studio room 111 in which we were down here this summer and installed the space and began programming at the intersection of poetry and music, along with myself and my collaborator Devin Brahja Waldman.
[00:01:48.24] We also had help from our collaborators here, the Black Arts Academy. Special thanks to Dez Wilson, Martez Files, and Jamie Lewis. And we just could not have been possible without the collaboration of the director, Monique Greer, who has been instrumental in allowing us to realize the Radical Reversal vision in how we approach those entangled within the carceral state.
[00:02:22.92] And since that time, we've actually installed recording studio at Suffolk County House of Corrections in Boston, Massachusetts. And we're currently slated for installation in Minnesota, Faribault, on March the 20th this year. And so I wanted to focus on Birmingham here inside the studio in which we created here and working with the kids. And I wanted to highlight three kids which we thought kind of gives a really great example of everything that we're trying to do creatively and artistically and how we allow these kids to express themselves.
[00:03:03.57] One thing to keep in mind that each one of the kids that you hear, the kid's name would be an alias. We're not allowed to give their real names given that they're youths. But we hope you enjoy listening to what they have to say.
[00:03:18.94] And first up is White Boy, who's an aspiring hip hop artist and has been writing rhymes and recording them to beats here at studio room 111. We sat down with White Boy to talk to him about the poem, Imagine. And we wanted to ask, what was it like in terms of that process and what did the poem mean to him.
[00:03:48.97] And afterwards, what you hear is that poem recorded to original music by Travis Scott, one of the Radical Reversal team members.
[00:03:59.38] [MUSIC PLAYING]
White Boy:
[00:04:05.94] My artist name is Lil White Boy. And I'm inside the Jefferson County Youth Detention Center right now. Today is December 1st. And my poem is Imagine. Why I wrote the poem, because I grew up in the hood and I know what it feel like coming from the hood, coming from the struggle. I lost plenty of people, lost a lot of friends to the street. A lot of my partners dead.
[00:04:30.84] Growing up, I had my mom and dad. My mom was in and out of jail. My dad was in and out of jail. I know how poverty feels. No food, no lights, nobody, all that. I know how it feel to struggle.
[00:04:46.51] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:04:49.89] Imagine. Imagine. If you had to walk up in my shoes, hey, we're went a whole week with no food, no light. Spent a whole week with the same clothes and shoes on. No menace so we forced to rob. Scared so we had to carry a gun, so we won't be killed. Seeing your homeboy laying dead. Hope there's no breath in them. His last word was I love you, brother. It get real scary in the hood.
Randall Horton:
[00:05:38.41] And next up, we have Lil Dee. We set here in room 211 to talk with D about her poem, Pain. One of the things that we wanted to do with when we're working with the young women here at Jefferson County Youth Detention Center, we wanted them to really explore what it meant to think about some of the things that they had been through and through a poetic lens and being able to communicate those and express those without fear.
[00:06:10.90] And so what you hear after you hear Lil Dee talk about the poem, you hear the poem, Pain.
[00:06:16.42] [MUSIC PLAYING]
Lil Dee:
[00:06:22.79] I'm Lil Dee, y'all, from End, grew up in End. Name of my poem is Pain. What inspired me to write it, because I'm in jail, we in pain my whole life. I have been through a lot of that. My mama went out, 14. My daddy when I was 11. you feel me? Pain, it changed me. I ain't want to get in the street. But it was going on at home. And sometime, the light weren't on. You feel me?
[00:06:47.85] So I had to go stay with my friends. I've have been through a lot. So I'm going to turn it into something. You feel me? How I felt when I was writing. I didn't really-- I hadn't been through anything. It was just like-- you feel me? I ain't going to lie. It kind of broke my heart. But I'd be just like-- yeah, if my folks was here, I wouldn't even be the person I-- I mean, today, my mom, it's just like losing your parents at a young age.
[00:07:21.18] It can change. I start doing stuff to ease my mind, knowing when I come down, I'm still going to feel the pain. You feel me? I'm not going home for weeks. Just out there in the streets. You feel me? Ain't having nothing to eat. You feel me? My grandma cash avenue, but I'm getting tired of that. So you feel me?
[00:07:39.35] I'm like, I got to do something. I'm tired of handouts. You feel me? Doing stuff, a little hustle, they get money. You feel me? I want no money. Do you feel me? Keep me straight. Get that money for now. I'm like, so you feel me? Now, I got to-- I got to do something. This ain't going to work.
[00:07:59.12] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:08:00.55] But I can't. I'm knowing that my heart full of pain. Wanting to give up but it gets better. Asking for strength, my heart really clever. Got to stop abusing these drugs. You don't make it no better. Giving my love was the worst thing I ever did. Only thing I got in return was a fifth. But I learned everything ain't peaches and cream. Loving them that love you don't mean a thing.
[00:08:26.67] [MUSIC PLAYING]
Randall Horton:
[00:08:35.95] And next up, we have Lil K. Lil K has a song called Ain't No Love in the Streets. And we saved this one for last to give you some context in terms of what happens, in terms of the Radical Reversal experience. We worked with the women in Jefferson County Youth Detention Center, the young women. We worked with them last. And when we brought them in, they wanted to see what the boys had done. And so, instantly, there was this sort of competition, healthy, in a very healthy way.
[00:09:11.93] But one of the things, when we were working with the girls, we gave them-- and we wanted to give them an exercise to talk about finding some of the beauty within the ugly and the tragic that they've seen, because, for context, most of these kids come from these different sections of Birmingham, Alabama, which they called the bubble, translation, the hood, translation, one way in and one way out, translation, they're often stuck in these sort of individual silos of oppression.
[00:09:44.50] When I asked them to sort of write about some of the beauty they seen in all of the negativity and ugliness, Lil K raised her hand. And she got me with this. She said, but what if you don't know no beautiful? And that kind of got to me. And I had to think about it for a minute because these kids seen a lot. And so what I did was we gave Lil K an exercise-- a couple of exercises-- to write some essays about to answer a series of questions about some of the things that may be going on in her life.
[00:10:23.83] And after she did that, we told her to write a poem or a rap. And what you're going to hear is Ain't No Love in the Streets that came out of that experience. But just let me say, when she first got up on the mic, she could not get the words out. It was just very emotional. And so what we did, we called her back in the day afterwards with her buddy, Lil E. Lil K and Lil E, who was her support, worked this thing out, along with the correctional officers that was in the unit.
[00:11:01.69] That should be noted. And so what you hear is Ain't No Love in the Streets. And it was so beautiful that we got the poet, Patrick Rosal. Yes, Patrick Rosal. We got Patrick Rosal to put a flute on it. We got one of the Radical Reversal band members, Brandon Regan, to put some guitar to it. Des Wilson from Black Arts Academy actually created the beat on the MPC one.
[00:11:35.71] And there was a whole lot of collaboration with this piece. And every time someone comes into the space, we play this piece. And it tends to get a standing ovation. Again, Lil K, Ain't No Love in the Streets.
[00:11:51.37] [MUSIC PLAYING]
Lil K:
[00:12:29.49] I said I never had it easy. Got it out the mud. Watching mama starve to feed me. You know what it was. Sitting in the dark fainting. Feeling from them drawers. Watch the streets take my mama. She addicted to the hood. Sleeping in the truck. Chillin' with them thugs. Watch my grandma burned to death. It's hurtin' to them drugs. See my party in their catch. It's hard not to trust. Watch my mama to walk out on me. It's hard then not to love. Ain't no love in the streets. I learnt that at an early age. Family changed on me. I just pray for better days.
[00:13:03.18] No hope in my angst. No leaving to an early grave. I hope for dear my mama know that what she did was not a thing. Ain't no love in the streets. Ain't nobody trying to change. Trying to change. Ain't no love in the streets. Ain't no love. I said we got to make a change. Make a change. Ain't no love in the streets. Ain't no love. Ain't nobody trying to change. Ain't nobody trying to change.
[00:13:27.74] Ain't no love in the streets. I said we got to make a change. Everything I ever did, I did it out of pain. Watching mama suffer, I thought we'd never make it. Was raised up in the streets. [INAUDIBLE] A lot of people causing pain. At an early age, my sister passed. She said my mama dying. That's messed up. But then, as I thought, it would be fine. Trying to mess with mine. Boy, you got a better chance of dying.
[00:13:56.12] And the only one, my sister on the ground, won't open her eyes. I got to crying. Thought my sister dying. I didn't know what to do. I told my mama you can get the step before I get you two. Then the sister came and took it from me. What else I can do? So tired of rainy days. I just want the skies to turn blue. Ain't no love in the streets. Ain't no love. Ain't nobody trying to change.
[00:14:17.28] Ain't nobody trying to change. Ain't no love in the streets. Ain't no love. I said we got to make a change. Make a change. Ain't no love in the streets. Ain't no love. Ain't nobody trying to change. Yeah. Ain't no love in the streets. I said, we got to make a change.
Julie Swarstad Johnson:
[00:14:53.49] Thank you so much to White Boy, Lil Dee, and Lil K for sharing their writing with us Thank you, Randall, and everyone at Radical Reversal for the work you do. Listeners, thank you for joining us. It's going to be a little bit before we have new episodes for you to enjoy. But in the meantime, you're always invited to explore Voca at voca.arizona.edu.
[00:15:18.14] There are over 1,000 hours of recordings to enjoy. Thanks again for joining us, and we'll see you next time.
Sarah Gzemski:
[00:15:26.45] Poetry Centered is a project of the University of Arizona Poetry Center, home to a world-class library collection of more than 80,000 items related to contemporary poetry in English and English translation. Located on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson, the Poetry Center library and buildings are housed on the Indigenous homelands of the Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui people.
[00:15:52.32] Poetry Centered is the work of Sarah Gzemski-- that's me-- and Julie Swarstad Johnson. Explore Voca, the Poetry Center's audiovisual archive online at voca.arizona.edu.