FINAL ‘MOUTHS OF OTHERS’ TALK FOR TERM

Incarcerated individuals are often seen in a negative light, but incarcerated youth advocate and poet Noah Schultz is trying to change that mindset by traveling to disadvantaged schools in low-income areas and telling his story.

It’s a story he explained to an MHCC audience on Wednesday, in the latest appearance in the ongoing Mouths of Others speaker series, held in the Visual Arts Theatre.

How it began

At the age of 12, Schultz, a Portland native, started selling drugs full-time. He was labeled by his school as “ADD,” “ADHD,” “bipolar,” and having “impulsive disorder.”

These labels made him feel “dumb” and “out-of-place” among his peers, he said: “I wasn’t accepted for who I was.”

He was told who he was before he even knew himself, and he started looking up to gang members in order to fit in. By age 13, he was jumped into a gang and when he turned 16, his mom left him and his abusive father and his life began to spiral without her there.

In his Mt. Hood discussion, Schultz poetically described his experiences while incarcerated. With every verse, his emotion ebbed and flowed, conveying his story beautifully.

Prison sentence

When he was 17, he was charged with a Measure-11 (mandatory, minimum-sentence) crime – attempted murder – after he “pistol-whipped” and shot at a man who stole $3,000 from him, he said. Because he was in a gang at the time, he said that he felt like he had to “prove himself” after the embarrassment of the theft, and attacked the man in his home.

With his plea-bargain conviction, he was sentenced to 7-and-a-half years in the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn – the same amount of time that his father was sentenced, to the same exact prison, when he was younger.

In his first poem, titled “Prison Stories,” he spoke of how his father, his hero, would tell stories about his time in prison. Schultz pondered this cycle of incarceration, from father to son, and whether it was a “cycle or coincidence,” he said. In a third poem, he spoke about how the prison reminded him of the processing of cattle: “It was like walking into a zoo.”

From rags to riches

Just two years after he completed his sentence, Schultz, has earned his high school diploma and two college degrees from Oregon State University, has started a clothing brand called Forgotten Culture Clothing, and gone on a two-month “Inspiring Action Tour” at 10 correctional facilities across the U.S., where he showed the award-winning documentary on his story, “Perception: From Prison to Purpose”.

He came to MHCC to speak about the power of vulnerability, individuality, the human spirit, and love, he explained.

He told the audience, “There is hope – but only if you have faith.”