I’m alive
Today [November 6th] marks my one-year anniversary of being released from imprisonment. A lot happened in a year.
I got out with two jobs that I helped create for myself while I was in, All Rise Magazine and Liberation Literacy.
I became a yoga instructor and volunteer with Living Yoga through a scholarship.
I was invited to be on the strategy team of the Metropolitan Alliance for the Common Good.
I was made president of the board of Phoenix Rising Transitions.
I got in three car accidents-one sliding on ice attempting to turn; one where I was stopped at a red light and a person ran into my car from behind going 35 miles per hour where I had to go to the emergency room for whiplash; and the third where I hit debris stuck in the middle lane of the freeway that ripped off the front right side of my bumper.
I spoke at Reed College with my close friend and co-worker Jarell.
I was featured in Lewis and Clark Law School’s Week of Mass Incarceration and held a class on the differences of prison reform versus abolition and told my story.
I was allowed to hold a workshop at Lewis and Clark’s 38th Annual Gender Symposium regarding the masking of self in captive spaces. It was one of the most well received events during that week and is the thing I’ve done that I’m most proud of since release. My own Sermon on the Mount, I would say.
I was homeless on two occasions and had to live in my car at a rest stop when not working.
I was denied lifesaving medications that came out while I was in prison for my Cystic Fibrosis because I wasn’t sick enough, according to my insurance.
I was hospitalized for two weeks and had at least one visitor every single day I was there, which meant the world to me.
I was diagnosed with PTSD and kicked out of a re-entry program due to not being criminal enough, and not having a problem with addiction.
I was one of two featured storytellers at Living Yoga’s annual gala, that was one of their most successful in recent time.
I was interviewed live on KBOO’s Prison Pipeline radio show and got warm feedback on all fronts.
I’ve made wonderful networking connections, ascended professionally while being on a roller coaster personally, and found that I can strongly impact people and make spaces for those that others try to silence or ostracize, simply by sharing my experience and doing my best to behave as Christ of Nazareth once did on this earth.
Thank you all for your help, welcome, guidance, patience, care, concern, love and ability to hold me accountable when necessary.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive.
-Joshua Wright