Q: What are your living arrangements and job? A: I am currently with family in Sacramento, but will be transferring my parole to Berkeley to attend school and live on campus. I also work a full time job with Asian Prisoner Support Committee leading special projects like publishing an anthology of prisoner writings and leading an internship program for system impacted individuals. Q: Favorite foods? A: There’s a saying by my friends about the “COVID-15,” representing the 15 pounds they gained during the quarantine. I feel like I’ve gained three times that amount. The food is soooo good out here. I am very fortunate to be with a family that loves to cook and try new dishes every Friday. I haven’t encountered anything I disagree with yet. But I’m really loving sushi right now.
Photo courtesy of John Lam
John Lam, on Berkeley campus, focused and committed to fulfilling his goal in political science.
gram for the brightest underprivileged Asian Pacific Islander (API) high school students in Southern California through my sister’s non-profit organization, APIs Mobilize. Through that program I was able to help facilitate and introduce students to lectures by the top API lawmakers in California. Through that program we provided more than 33 scholarships to students and mentorship with top executives of non-profit and for-profit organizations all the while exposing them to a career in public service. In addition to my work with the youth, I have been involved with two organizations, one in Southern California called API RISE, and the other in Northern California called Asian Prisoner Support Committee. Through both programs, I help provide assistance with reentry, such as job leads, resources and education.
Q: Any other information you wish to provide, please feel free to do so. A: I was once a youth offender serving a life sentence, never knowing when I will ever go home. I used to see guys parole and wished so badly it was me. Tomorrow was never certain; freedom was an abstract concept. Yet I lived as if I would go home tomorrow by focusing on school, staying out of trouble, giving back, and giving it my all in my self-help groups. If you have the opportunity, take the Victim Offender Education Group, if there is a coding program at your prison, please do yourself a favor, TAKE it! It is true what they say: They can never take away your education. I would actually go one step further and say you can build on your education and draw from your experiences when you come home. You can achieve your wildest dreams, things you cannot even begin to imagine. Learn to own your story and believe in the power of your personal narrative; your freedom and your future depends on this. When you come home, there will be a group of us that will be there to support you, so don’t fear not having anyone to come home to. Don’t think you’re too old or too young to start your process of change. Don’t waste your time; make the most of it and believe in yourself. I will see you when you get out.
Because San Quentin Killed Two More Today By Ed “Foots” Lipman
They wrapped Big Fran in plaster and put him on a bed to heal & to watch each approaching stranger with dangerous eyes ... The cops assigned to guard his door can’t understand that what’s become to past to them can be heard breathing softly on The Yard thru the eerie quiet of this prison hospital early in the dawn. But Frank knows better; he’s learned today is as much a part of yesterday as is tomorrow; and that there are no innocent bystanders except most little children and a few truly beautiful women, both of which are said to be in short supply inside San Quentin. (the soft rain blows in, he watches it pattern the sheets but cannot move to reach the window ... ) The days will probably move in slow procession and sudden move arise to cause concern; but still he watches, knowing all the while that after all paranoia is nothing more than increased awareness. (from my window I sometimes see just his hands – they grip and flex like small animals, restless at the ends of his arms, waiting) — for Big Frank Tubach
after surgery, SQ 1975
FALL 2021 WALL CITY 9
