Freedom Reads Library Coordinator David Perez DeHoyos sat down with Hector, Freedom Library Patron at MCI-Norfolk, to talk about all things books. Read their conversation below.
Q: What was your reaction to the Freedom Library when it first opened?
A: I felt like it was a good thing. It introduces a different energy into the unit, into the prison system. So that was a pretty dope thing to see. Something that is actually taking the steps to feed us with some knowledge and an investment in us.
Q: What was the first book you picked up from the Freedom Library?
A: It was Claudia Rankine’s Citizen. That one was a lot of short stories that spoke about different experiences. It spoke about Serena [Williams] struggling in not being accepted in the tennis world. And the only reason I picked that one up was because I read a book in Emerson when I was at school, and that's when I got introduced to Claudia Rankine, and I liked one of her readings in school. And when I seen that, I picked it up. It was a short read, but it was pretty dope.
Q: What other books have you read from the Freedom Library?
A: We Were Eight Years In Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates. We got introduced to that one as well in school. With a couple guys, I was speaking about him, and the guys were really saying how talented of a writer he is, and that's something that I really want to work on. So reading that book, people told me that he would really challenge your writing to make you see things differently with his style. So I picked it up based on writing, and then I enjoyed a lot of the stories that came with it from him speaking about Obama and the White House and all those different things.
Q: What are you writing?
A: I'm doing literary foundations right now in school. I really like personally writing my story. So I try to find many different creative ways of writing my story and different styles and stuff like that.
Q: What kinds of conversations have you had with people surrounding the books that are in the Freedom Libraries?
A: From the guys that I've had conversations with, it's been very positive, it's been great. We've been challenging each other to read different things, asking different perspectives. I spoke to you about Locking Up Our Own. That one really brought up a lot, and we’ve been having a conversation about that because it's a book that was written from things that was going on in the 70s, and then just looking at where we're at today, and kind of reliving that same cycle of mass incarceration and all the things that come around from that. A lot of guys was appreciative of it.
There's been many recommendations that brothers have told me to follow up on with certain books that was there, from the Frederick Douglass books, from the Malcolm X book. There's so many different books that's in there that I haven't gotten to that a lot of people have been recommending.
Q: I remember doing my time and meeting people who didn’t know how to read or write. Have you experienced that?
A: I went through it a lot, especially being in a lot of the settings with a lot of older gentlemen who have come through. We've been in program settings, they haven't been able to read or write. And even knowing from the backgrounds of, obviously, where I'm from – I have family that hasn't been able to read, because since childhood you were taught to just work. If you were the oldest, you just worked, you didn’t go to school. So it isn't too foreign to me to actually come across that. For others, it seems like, ‘oh they are just being lazy,’ but I've known people who didn't even know how to write their names, and it seemed like a lot, but it really is a reality.
So definitely coming across that makes you appreciate it more, being able to have that ability. Because, like you said, it seems like something that everybody can do, but even being able to read doesn't even give you the same comprehension either. We can read, but you can have a certain different level of comprehension as well. A lot of us can take that for granted as well.
Q: How do you navigate that when there's a situation that comes up like that?
A: When other people are going through it, I'm just really supportive of it, because I know what that struggle is like on a personal level. My father wasn't too literate, so I kind of personalize it a little bit when I see people struggle. So when I do see that, I do my best to help.
Q: What is your favorite book in the collection?
A: I’m sticking with Locking Up Our Own.
Q: Are there any books you’ve read in community with other people? Or, that you’ve recommended to others after reading?
A: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen is one that I’ve passed on because a lot of guys had read or known about Claudia Rankine. It’s a really easy read, so guys that I want to start reading, I passed that book forward. It's a simple read, it's engaging, it has many different stories. The stories are good, but they're sad, because obviously it has to do with a lot of discrimination and a lot of situations that take place. I read that book in a day, I just sat there and I was reading it story by story, waiting for the phone. When I passed it on, guys was literally reading it in two, three days, if that. We had a lot of conversations about it. It actually changed my views on Serena Williams and a lot of things that she went through.
Q: Is there a book that you read growing up that had a big impact on your life?
A: I was really into James Patterson, into the Alex Cross [series]. Just the whole story of it, it was just engaging. It just caught my attention.
It's crazy, because today I wouldn't really be too into it. How much has changed. So, if I was to pick one book that I could say is my favorite, I would have to say The Alchemist. It just had so many jewels, it was an easy read as well. I couldn't put it down. I read it again in here. I'd be reading it, and somebody would come to my cell real quick to ask something, and I'd be mad that I had to stop reading. It's a really good read.