Earlier this year, San Quentin’s The Sound Mind Company group held the nation’s first Annual Interfaith Banquet for its Condemned Row LGBTQIA+ Residents and Straight Allies Group.
The program, written in 1999 by condemned resident Floyd Smith, suffered from years of delays and after Covid, the group finally returned.
The banquet took place in a San Quentin Rehabilitation Center hospital group room. The rooms are currently outfitted with single person management modules to prevent cross-unit, cross-exercise-yard-group pollination per condemned unit compatibility regulations.
Several residents voiced interfaith recitals and poetic digressions with ethnographic-type background beats. Transgender resident Ms. June Robinson delivered the keynote address.
The gay resident R&B singer and songwriter Parallaxboi performed original music.
Smith relayed a presentation that highlighted how the exacerbating underlying childhood trauma still holds true especially for a large “private expression community and incredible PFLAGs [Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays] like our [resident] co-founder Johnny Avila.”
Seven residents received certificates of participation for the condemned innovative recreation and wellness media program. For their co-founding of the original version of Acting With Compassion and Truth, SMC recognized Michael “Yoshi” Nelson, an executive director at Restorative Justice, and Jarvis “Lady Jay” Clark. SMC, the nation’s first LGBTQIA+ innovative rehabilitation program presented honorary flowers to the honorees.
Finally, The Sound Mind Company (SMC) has created The Sound Mind Streamer, an incarcerated LGBTQIA+ Affirming Rehabilitation Institution television channel for submission into the Free App section as a part of the GTL tablet program.
The Sound Mind Streamer’s primary content has roots in education, in queer presences in ancient history, and in social and economic autonomy. It would provide a safe space for persons who would want access to queer-affirming rehabilitation programming.
SMC would like to thank the Warden, PIO Lt. G. Berry, and CRM Lt. Gardea for making the event possible. All SMC volunteers and supporters received flowers.
