  urlLink Apple - Pro/Video - Jonathan Meyer Robinson : "“The cruelest prison of all,” says barrio poet Piri Thomas, “is the prison of the mind.” He knows first-hand what it’s like being locked up behind real bars, as well as the jails of poverty, violence and addiction. “God, I wanna get out of this hole,” Thomas writes. “I promise if You help me climb out, I ain’t gonna push the cover back on that cesspool…I’ll push my arm back down there and help the others climb out.” Now 76, the Afro-Cuban-Puerto Rican writer, educator and activist has spent 45 years doing just that.
Thomas’ struggle spoke to filmmaker Jonathan Meyer Robinson when he first read the poet’s influential 1967 autobiography, “Down These Mean Streets.” Eventually, the book and its author inspired Robinson to embark on what would become a 10-year journey to bring his documentary, “Every Child Is Born a Poet: The Life and Work of Piri Thomas,” to the screen. " 
