Sharing their experiences with medical negligence, incarceration, and the long, sometimes harrowing journeys to get an education, UC Irvine students Lisandra and Ryan Rising talk with Lucid editor in chief Rachael Collins about the transformative potential of a community-centered approach to teaching and learning.

UC Irvine MA alumnx Martha Trujillo shares diaries she composed between the ages of 13 and 18. One of the most raw and real pieces of writing we’ve ever seen, the diaries function as documentation, poetry, art, and resistance.

With his multimedia, autoethnographic essay, UC Irvine graduate student and artist Alberto Lule shows what is possible in undergraduate writing. Identifying with the Palestinian American writer Edward Said, Lule explores what it felt like to be the child of Mexican immigrants and later the incarcerated adult who, “exiled in his own land,” finds himself through education.