Shaka Senghor

When did you first fall in love with your mind?

How old were you?

I would have been at that point, probably 27 or so.

I was in solitary.

So 1999, 2000.

And it was through the journaling process.

And I found this incredible human being who had been covered up by trauma, shame, grief, all the things, anger, the things, this cloud that I carried around.

And I found myself working through that cloud.

And I was like, oh, this beautiful human being exists.

And if you can embrace this human being, this little boy who had all these dreams and desires,

Like you'll never be, you know, held captive by anything.

And that's when I began that journey.

It was the most, it's the most beautiful.

My mind is the most beautiful place that I exist in.

Wow.

So solitary confinement is 23 hour lockdown every day in the most chaotic, barbaric, inhumane environment imaginable.

It is the one thing in America that I don't think people are even aware of the brutality that exists in that environment and what it's designed to do.

It is literally designed to break a human being and to ensure that when you leave there, any semblance of humanity no longer exists.

And to be able to discover my own mind in that environment was both survival, but also a spiritual reckoning that, you know, I'm fortunate I was able to go into solitude inside of solitary.

Wow.