Reginald Dwayne Betts Jr. goes by the name Dwayne. But for the majority of the nine years he spent in prison, he gave himself the name Shahid. It means "the witness" in Arabic. At 16, Betts pled guilty to carjacking in Virginia and was in prison until he was 24. For many years, cultivating his identity -- hard stuff for any teenager -- was a mostly solitary endeavor. Books, and later poetry, became his teacher, his classroom and his peer. “I read anything I could find. Poetry makes you reflect...
Reginald Dwayne Betts Jr. goes by the name Dwayne. But for the majority of the nine years he spent in prison, he gave himself the name Shahid. It means "the witness" in Arabic. At 16, Betts pled guilty to carjacking in Virginia and was in prison until he was 24. For many years, cultivating his identity -- hard stuff for any teenager -- was a mostly solitary endeavor. Books, and later poetry, became his teacher, his classroom and his peer. “I read anything I could find. Poetry makes you reflect...
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