Category: Creative Corner

Every week, our Mission Possible team stays connected with people on the inside, sharing updates, answering questions, and hearing directly about what’s happening behind the walls via JPAY. These exchanges shape our work and keep us rooted in the people most impacted by this system. On the week Calvin Duncan won as Clerk of Criminal District Court, Solomon B., writing from Angola, captured it perfectly:

“Angola is smiling as one of their own
is becoming legendary in his own right.”

– Solomon B.

Calvin Duncan didn’t just win an election; he rewrote what’s possible. The co-founder of the Angola Special Civics Project alongside Norris Henderson, Duncan spent years of wrongful incarceration inside Louisiana State Penitentiary turning cells into classrooms and cultivating a generation of advocates who would challenge the system from within. Now, he’ll help oversee the very court system that once confined him. They built a legacy of civic education and organizing that would ripple far beyond Angola’s walls and that legacy now sits at the helm of the Orleans Parish Clerk of Court’s office.

But perhaps no one grasps the full magnitude of this moment better than the people still inside—Calvin’s former students, his comrades in organizing, the men who walked the same yard and dared to believe that transformation wasn’t just rhetoric but reality.

When we shared the news through JPAY, their responses didn’t just congratulate a friend. They celebrated proof that the bars, literal and figurative, can be broken. They spoke of hope rekindled in a moment when hope felt scarce, of families they’ll now mobilize to vote, of improvised cookouts behind walls to mark a victory that belongs to all of them.

Here’s what they told us.

Yes! This is going to be the weekend to remember! I have to say that I’m beyond excited. I have already decided on how I will celebrate Calvin Duncan win and I’m going to have my very own cook out! You all understand how we improvise behind the walls.

Dewitt E.

Hey VOTE,

Congrats to Calvin! Truly a testament to the power of second chances and the good that can come out of Angola!

Surge S.

Well VOTE we see that you can.t keep a good man down… No matter how hard they try, the truth has its way of showing up at the time when needed. So let Calvin know all the men in Angola is very proud of his success. Even if they are not in tune with the times, sooner are later they will understand what it was all about.

So, keep up the good work and thank you all. One step at a time, it works.

Theodore M.

Hello FAM!

Angola is smiling as one of their own is becoming legendary in his own right. I have not seen this much excitement since Obama won the presidential election.

Smile!… for us here he is a very personal inspiration, someone whom bled, cried and sweated with. He knows first hand how our plight feels as he has walked in our shoes feeling at times seemingly defeated but to be as the Phoenix, rising from the ashes and rising he has along now with our hopes and dreams of one day seeing Angola as free men ready to join in the fight with him.

Solomom B.

Bismillah!

Greeting Fam., Calvin made history! I’m so excited for our comrade, he has cross a boundary that many are afraid to cross. I’ll try to give him a call to congratulate him properly, I’m sure there’s alot that he needs to do first. Keep me posted.

Carl B.

Congratulations Calvin; we are all collectively excited to welcome you as the new Orleans Parish Clerk of Criminal District Court!

Every week, our Mission Possible team stays connected with VOTE members on the inside through JPAY, sharing updates, answering questions, and hearing directly about what’s happening behind the walls. These exchanges shape our work and keep us rooted in the people most impacted by this system.

This month, we asked our incarcerated members: What are you proud of this year?

Their answers reflect growth, grief, joy, faith, resilience, and the kind of everyday courage that rarely makes it past the prison gates. These are their words — in their own voices — shared with permission and offered to the community that has their back.

My biggest joy is helping those who cant help themselves.

Terrance J

This year I’m most proud of having the strength and the courage to keep standing after losing everything.
I’m proud that my losses wasn’t just losses, they were lessons learned and motivation for me to want better and do better. The pain I felt from letting myself down, ignited a fire that will forever burn because I’ve learned from experience.

Chris L

I’m thankful for another chance at life — to make right what I got wrong. A lot of my homeboys are gone, and there’s no second chance under the dirt. I’m thankful for my family, who never missed a beat or gave up on me, even when I was ready to give up on myself. And I have to mention VOTE, who’s been through the same struggle I’ve been in and made it through the storm, now being a voice for those of us who can’t always express our thoughts. I’m thankful for all the opportunities coming my way.

Joseph B

I have a lot to be proud of this year. I hugged my autistic daughter who is now 6years old for the first time in her life on a visit.I’m also proud of graduating from the New Men S.A.V.E. Program at Angola and I’m proud of having a relationship with God.I’m most proud of having the opportunity to dance with my two daughter’s age’s 6 and 9 at the God Behind Bars event Father Daughter Dance at Angola.

Donald R

Usually I’m an antisocial and shy person. I’m a part of a program here called Juvenile Awareness Program (J.A.P.). They bring in adolescents from area alternative schools and we give motivational speeches, perform skits, give testimonies, and do Q and A. I was chosen to be the narrator in last years skit and was nervous to the core. This past October we perform another skit for an alternative school and this time I chose to be the narrator. I wanted to overcome the fear I felt. I did it! No fear. Ever since, I’ve been feeling the confidence in me rise. I challenged myself and won. I know that seems to be a small feat, but if you knew me you would understand how great a feat it is.

Ortiz J

Even after 27 consecutive years of imprisonment, I still have not lost hope. This year my hope was renewed after I graduated from Ashland University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies. I became the first in my family to finish college. Since I am a tutor in this prisons literacy program, my students also feel that they too have accomplished something. And they have, as they motivated me every step of the way.

Walter W

I’m most proud of my decision making in impulsive, and crucial moments this year. As in the past I’ve failed myself for moviing without meaning, indulging in my frustration, anger. For now I’ve found a start of my purpose with understanding I’ve always been what has hindered me from excelling to my potential. I weight my decision making with aligning it towards my future. understanding the term of the
(5 P’s ) proper preparation prevents poor performance. listening to myself or surrounding, others taking heed to sematic issues. I am learning to love me, believe in me , allowing God into my life for I can do NOTHING WITHOUT THE GRACE OF GOD. Being incarcerated is not easy but I’m more free in my mental than I were when I had fredom. All praise be to God for slowing me down to listen, and learn, love … so I can One Day Live, and Not Just Be Living!

Dino M

There are many things I can say I’m proud of this year. My sobriety, prosperity, and my integrity. My sobriety was a demon that I’ve struggled with inside and outside these prison walls until I arrived to Hunt Corr. Ctr. and submitted to a program called (RDAP) that changed my life. My prosperity, came from this program and the help of mentors and my faith in Jesus Christ… it transformed me and I’ve prevailed with my anger and drug addiction to the point that I’m now a pro visionary mentor in training to help those struggling with what I’ve overcame. My sense of integrity had been a challenge in itself… ‘doing things right when no one is looking’… and believe it or not, someone is always looking. This what defines a persons character trait. These three things transformed me into the man I am today. Every morning I wake up,” I ask God whose life I’m go change today because changing one person life could make a difference in generations to come in that man’s life. No Surrender! No Retreat!

Ahmad M

I’m thankful for everything I experence in life good, painful, and bad because our Lord Jesus Christ die for it all. I’m walking around with a cane stick, I have fluid in my right knee down to my toes. Words of encouragement never let your circumstance stop you from moving foward in life. Stand on what you believe in, and put God first in everything you do, amen.

-Terrell B

Well this year was a good year, and i guess we could call it special to.I got my GED this year, it took two years but I enjoyed every minute of it. Hard work and not giving up is somthing I pick up,also a gang of people. A real good! Time.

-Errol F

I can still remember when I first saw you–
a seemingly random night that brought 
a seemingly random discovery, 
was really Providence.

Wading into the depths of time to merge our storied paths.
A small step back into history 
and there you were,
sitting atop the town.

Gracious. Humble. Secret.

I immediately knew I had uncovered something special
something secret
some part of me.

You draw me closer to you.
At first approach, I can feel you embrace me.

Warm. Inviting. Honest.

One deep look into you 
and you begin to whisper your secrets.

Though time has faded and chipped away
You still gleam with beauty and elegance,
Poised there over the city.

I see you grin as you take in all her stories 
and witness all her changes.
Yet you remain unchanged,
A timeless beauty.

Gilded. Golden. Graying. Gracious.

That place in my heart that I share with no one.
My own private room 
of silence, solitude, and security.

I gaze up at you in our secret embrace
and I am lost.

I do not know the year.
I do not know the day.
I do not know the hour.
I only know here.
I only know now.

You hear my fears and see my tears.
When I am away from you, 
my heart sojourns back to you.

A stolen piece of history
Spirited into my world
With no judgment, 
no angst, 
​no noise
Only Grace.

Angelo D. Golatt is currently incarcerated at David Wade Correctional Center.

If you or someone you know is a currently or formerly incarcerated person with creative content to offer, please submit your materials to admin@vote-nola.org and we’ll be in touch! We’ll share the content on social media and always give credit to the artist(s) involved. Any type of submission–whether stories, poems, illustrations, music, videos or something else–are welcome! 

They say reading is fundamental, well what the hell is writing–essential? In school I didn’t know an adverb from an adjective. I knew a sentence had to have a subject and a predicate because Dr. Dre gave that to me in old school hip hop. But I could never get my subject and verb to agree–actually, I still have trouble making them not argue. 

You may have seen a gangsta turn rapper, rapper turn movie star, but you never seen a thug turn writer, and thug does not mean brutal ruffian or assassin regardless of what Webster says. Thug means The Highest Under God.

 

To say that my inspiration to write came from my great love to tell a story is the farthest from the truth. Instead, I was in the hobby shop learning how to make clocks and jewelry boxes. I was getting good, and I was ready to start sending them home to get sold. My college friend had an account on Ebay and sold one of my clocks. This was how I was going to make the money, I thought. I needed to hire a lawyer and get home. 

One day I was called to the Warden’s office. They told me to pack my stuff. I asked “where am I going?” They told me I was going to the dungeon. I’m like, “for what?” All they said was: “you know.” Completely baffled, I packed my stuff, went to the blocks, and sat there not knowing why I got locked up. 

Two weeks later, I got called to an office. An investigator came to talk with me. He had a report in his hand, which he started to read. It said: “Prime Time told me to go to the McDonald’s in St. Francisville. His cousin was there and he gave me some weed and money. I was bringing Prime Time the weed.” 

The report had a lot of Prime Time this and Prime Time that. When I heard this I was able to identify the young police officer who had given this statement. I figured he was under pressure at work so he was just giving them something. He had told them the play, but he didn’t want to tell on the actual player(s), so he used a nickname, and it just so happened to be my nickname. The officer probably thought the people reading the report would never find the person it was about, but that’s not how it works in prison. Even if they don’t know they’ll make it look like they know to avoid the appearance of stupidity. I knew who they were talking about, but that wasn’t my business to tell. 

I told the investigator that I didn’t know what he was talking about, and if I did, I wouldn’t tell him nothing. The man gave me an angry look but quickly recovered. He said he respected that, me being a convict and all. I wasn’t a convict, though. I had just got to prison. I had been there for maybe six to seven months and was still wet behind the ears. If I were a convict, I would have known the next move. 

When I went to court, they read the report. They had replaced every mention of Prime Time with Eyba Brown. I put in a motion to review the original report, but the motion was denied, and I was on my way to extended lock down [solitary confinement]. 

When I was in my cell I told myself that I couldn’t make money with my hands, so I had to make it with my mind. How was I going to do that? I sat in the dungeon for more than 60 days. But if you are in the dungeon for more than 45 days, they have to re-route you to a lesser custody status than you were sentenced to. That’s how I ended up in the working cell block, Camp C. I could have gotten out to play football, but I didn’t want to get stuck in the outer camp, so I made my move to get back to the main prison. As I said, I had only been locked up for a couple of months, so I didn’t know what I was doing. I ended up going to extended lock down for real this time. People stay there for years. You do nothing but sit in a cell for 23 hours. You get only an hour out of the cell each day. 

In Camp C one of my friends was about to go to the main population to play ball for Camp C. Before he left, we walked the yard and strategized. He told me about a commercial idea he had that sounded like a short movie. As I sat in my cell on extended lock down I kept thinking about that commercial, and figured I could come up with a commercial, too. I started thinking about all the really good commercials I could remember and writing down my own ideas. 

Eventually I was sent back to the main prison, C Block. There I met this dude who had a cousin who was studying film at USC. This dude would send his cousin movie scripts. He let me read one: “How to be a Player.” I remembered this movie, so as I’m reading the script I can see the movie in my head. I started writing scripts, too. 

Math had always been my favorite subject because it has structure to it. Writing didn’t. Or at least I thought it didn’t. But I soon found out writing had a formula, too, and formulas are things I understand. My friend from LSU brought me some books on how to be a screenwriter. I wrote four movies and 10 commercials. I learned about the Writer’s Guild, got a list of agencies, and contacted my cousin in Atlanta because Atlanta had a great number of agencies. Only four of them, however, would take unsolicited manuscripts. 

I gave my cousin the scripts for the movie Blast4Me and three commercials: Tag, Runaway, and First Kiss. He told me the commercials were Super Bowl-type commercials, and I gave him the addresses to the agencies. He sent the commercials to the agencies. Of the four agencies, two asked him to come in for an interview. But it was spring break and he went to Daytona Beach instead. 

Of course the pen is mightier than the sword, unless you’re in a knife fight in which case you’d better have a Rambo knife. The pen is a mighty weapon, however, if you know how to use it. In prison you need an army, family or friend support to help your words get heard. And if you’re saying something, how mighty is your pen?

Eyba Brown is currently incarcerated at Raymond Laborde Correctional Center.

If you or someone you know is a currently or formerly incarcerated person with creative content to offer, please submit your materials to admin@vote-nola.org and we’ll be in touch! We’ll share the content on social media, always give credit to the artist(s) involved, and cover the costs of submission. Any type of submission–whether stories, poems, illustrations, music, videos or something else–are welcome! 

What do you really know about me?

What do you know about four brick walls, 
and 15-minute collect phone calls?

What do you know about 20-foot-high wire fences?

What do you know about 
getting screamed at 
and told what to do, 
by an ‘authority’ figure 
who couldn’t walk a day in your shoes?

What do you know about having nothing to call your own?
What do you know about having a four-foot cell with a pisser in it, 
and nothing to call home?

What do you know about having everything stripped from your life, 
and praying you don’t get stabbed when you try to sleep at night?

Before you pass judgement and say I chose my own path, 
let me take a second and give you some insight into my past.

What do you know about growing up below the poverty line?
What do you know about your mother being gone for days,
and you don’t have no idea where she went?
What do you know about freezing in the winter because they’ve turned off the power?
What do you know about going next door to the neighbor’s house 
just to get something to eat?
What do you know about getting kicked out when you’re 16 years old?
What do you know about being forced to sleep in the back of a van,
or on the streets,
because you have nowhere else to go?

So, before you pass judgement about a man you’ve never seen,
Ask yourself:

What do you REALLY know about ME?

Aaron G. Kitzler is currently incarcerated at Angola State Penitentiary.

If you or someone you know is a currently or formerly incarcerated person with creative content to offer, please submit your materials to admin@vote-nola.org and we’ll be in touch! We’ll share the content on social media and always give credit to the artist(s) involved. Any type of submission–whether stories, poems, illustrations, music, videos or something else–are welcome!

Spending all my time,
I’m looking for that perfection;
I dare not stop for anything less…

Spending all my time,
traveling the world for reflection;
I dare not pause for anything else…

I’m looking for that perfect book,
the one with the perfect rhyme;
I’m looking for that perfect look,
the complete and the sublime…

Spending all my time,
I’m looking for the perfect smile;
the one to fill my heart…

Spending all my time,
looking for beauty worthwhile,
a face defined as art…

I’m looking for that perfect song,
the one with the perfect tune;
I’ve been looking for you all along,
the perfect woman to swoon…

I’ve spent all my time,
all my time, looking blue,
But I still have a lot more left,
to spend with silly little you…

Won’t you spend yours as well searching?
Let’s get to know each other;
let’s ride across the universe,
from one star to another…

Let’s spend all our time
together as much as we can.
Even as sunshine falls and stars appear,
we shall dance, we shall dance…Searching

Jeremy Smith is currently incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola).

If you or someone you know is a currently or formerly incarcerated person with creative content to offer, please submit your materials to admin@vote-nola.org and we’ll be in touch! We’ll share the content on social media and always give credit to the artist(s) involved. Any type of submission–whether stories, poems, illustrations, music, videos or something else–are welcome!

To be so much, 
so soon
so real.

To be a sunrise,
a first thought of morning.

To be a star,
a guiding thought in eve.

To be an anthem,
a song of celebration.

To be a page,
a gentle turn of history.

To be loved,
adored,
understood:

seen.

Angelo D. Golatt is currently incarcerated at David Wade Correctional Center.

If you or someone you know is a currently or formerly incarcerated person with creative content to offer, please submit your materials to admin@vote-nola.org and we’ll be in touch! We’ll share the content on social media and always give credit to the artist(s) involved. Any type of submission–whether stories, poems, illustrations, music, videos or something else–are welcome!