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Julio Fernando Velez
Raised in a Puerto Rican family in the Bronx of the 1950s, Julio Velez is a former inmate of Rikers Island Penitentiary and Elmira Maximum Security Prison. After a decades-long battle against perso...view moreRaised in a Puerto Rican family in the Bronx of the 1950s, Julio Velez is a former inmate of Rikers Island Penitentiary and Elmira Maximum Security Prison. After a decades-long battle against personal demons, addiction, and a lengthy rap sheet, Velez discovered a gift for photography and media production, which he uses to offer uplift to others. Half In/Half Out is Velez’s first published work. In his unique voice, Julio Velez uses poetry to tell the story of the loss of his childhood to gangs, drugs, and the criminal justice system. Written over the course of five decades, and touching on themes of death, grief, loss, addiction, love, spirituality, and redemption, Velez’s work offers a glimpse into what it’s like to live as both a captive and a free man, simultaneously half in and half out.view less