I recently participated in the launch of a book to which I had contributed. The book, ”When You Hear Me, You Hear Us,” is a collection of poems and essays on youth incarceration and justice. Most of the authors are brilliant young people.
The Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop put the book together and interviewed me in 2020 for my piece. Naturally, I wanted to reread it before the virtual event, and when I did, I was shocked.
The interview happened months before I’d ever heard of EJUSA, before I had talked with the team or our board. Yet in telling my story, I was already anticipating a different system and a vision for that system that redefined what justice could and must be:
There’s a lot of harm done to people before they (cause violence). So I do hope, at least, that there’s some softening around how do we really get justice, and how do we define it differently, and how do we truly center the needs of survivors and victims in ways the traditional system hasn’t? So that we can meet this moment where, as a country, we’re reckoning with issues of race in ways that we haven’t before.
Revisiting my story, I remembered the excitement I felt as I explored EJUSA’s vision for the first time. I recognized that it was the foundation for building something new and better, a system that could deliver healing and safety after harm — exactly what my family needed after my father was assaulted many years ago.
I also thought about the definition of justice. I love that EJUSA has asked and answered an essential question…What is Justice?
If you appreciate literature and need some inspiration, I encourage you to buy “When You Hear Me, You Hear Us.” Our young people have something important to say.
