by Dallas Winston, CSP-Solano
I have spent the better part of my life perpetuating a cycle that I now recognize myself to be a product of. I acknowledge this not to play the victim, but rather to retake my grip on the narrative. In this way, I am able to better navigate the trajectory in which it propels me.
Having been left without a solid male role model after the murder of my father, I would later rebel against any prospect of a substitute. Instead, I gravitated towards those influences that appeared glamorous to me. Those influences were often infused with drugs, violence, and other nefarious practices. Then they were glorified through the music and television that children like myself often subscribe to. The result of this for me was the surrendering of my self to a lower vibration, one which provided me an arena that I was content to thrive within. By the age of 23, this had led me to the Corcoran SHU… School of Hard Knocks.
I remember first stepping foot on that yard and observing the words “NO WARNING SHOTS.” Bold as ever, those words spoke to me. They said to me, “Your life means nothing.” I believe this was based on a perception of reality that I invited into my experience through the thoughts of my own. Thoughts that generated a lifestyle of my choosing.
It has been decades of songwriting from a cell, for me, that provided a therapeutic remedy to this plight. It is artistic expression that allowed me the ability to not only cope with my hardships, but also to make sense of them. So now, 20 years later, when I look out from my cell to observe those same words “NO WARNING SHOTS,” I see something different. I see poetry.
“NO WARNING SHOTS: A Celebration of Recovery and Reform through Music, Media, and Art” represents our ability to reconcile the path we are on by channeling the product of our former lifestyle into the greater depth of meaning and purpose that exists within the lifestyles we now live. If we allow the tragedy we’ve known and often caused to breathe life in the many triumphs we mean to inspire, then we can live our amends.
Creative Minds is a collective of musicians, artists, and creators who put that ideology into practice. This sentiment can be witnessed throughout our work: “I’ve known my share of broken hearts and I broke a few/myself, I took this game too far at least a time or two/pour myself into my art so I can share with you/evidence of all my scar tissue…” is a lyric from “Less Traveled Road,” an original score that will appear on our live compilation album set to take center stage at the April 28th special event. This will be accompanied by the Creative Minds art gallery, where our featured artist will be laying their mark on Vans shoes, New Era hats, and handkerchiefs that will later be released to the community for a showcase. In addition, there will be a sneak peak screening of “The Project,” a CSP Solano media product that documents a behind-the-scenes journey leading up to this crossroad. We mean to put on for those who would take interest in our stock, while showing our appreciation for those special people that have expressed a belief in us through their support
We have realized the potential of a vibrant musical and artistic landscape. Our efforts will be providing both therapeutic remedies, and the discovery of career opportunities for mentor-quality artists. These men will one day return to the community, and who better suited to set examples for our youth that the child in me had missed?
These are lofty ambitions, but with the vast wealth of talent on location, identified by a supportive administration, and the progress that has been made under the Agreement to End Hostilities, our goals are within reach. The General Population has sown a seed here in the soil of CSP Solano, and while the labor is often strenuous, with nurturing, it will yield fruit.
In closing, we can’t scrape this canvas clean. But we can choose to experience it from an elevated point of view. From here, we can begin to identify the poetry that is evidenced throughout our life journey. We can envision the possibility of its grand architecture being painted before us, thereby methodically mapping out its each and every brushstroke henceforth. Now we weave our past into our future, with a belief that this portrait holds the potential of a masterpiece, a masterpiece that proves worthy of the human condition. From this place of awareness, nothing is lost, nothing has been wasted, and nothing will be taken for granted. ✦
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