Blog

I’ve always struggled with the beginnings of things, for me it makes the most sense to meander my way into things. In a way, I meandered my way into prison. I took the crash course: petty crime to carjacking before the midterms of my junior year. I get locked up in December and I might as well have gotten locked up in January. End of the year, beginning of the year – you get to imagine where you’ve been and what you’ve become.

Just 100 days since leaving prison after 25 years and 6 months, and I was going back Inside. Working for Freedom Reads means going back to prison. Freedom Reads went to Missouri to open 35 Freedom Libraries in two facilities and they would be the first two in the state to have the beautifully handcrafted wooden libraries. Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center (WERDCC) received 15 cherry wood libraries built in the New Orleans office; 20 libraries built in the home office in Connecticut went to FRDC (Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center). It was my first trip to open Freedom Libraries with the team and it was intense.

I first encountered Albert Camus’ L’Étranger (The Stranger) in a college philosophy class. It was the first time I came across the concept of the Absurd. As a student navigating a country far removed from the one I had always known, the book gave me language to make sense of a world that felt unfamiliar and strange. I realized this new world could become a place where ambiguity was a refuge, where life’s contradictions could exist without neat explanations. This initial encounter left an impression I have carried with me ever since.

At Freedom Reads, no two days look alike—and no one knows that better than Tyler Sperrazza, Chief of Production Officer of Library Division. Tyler is at the heart of the work that brings Freedom Libraries into prisons across the country.

During the fall of 2021, I drove down a stretch of highway headed towards MCI-Norfolk, a prison in Massachusetts made famous in part by the years that Malcolm X and other prisoners incarcerated there did their thing on a debate team that battled the likes of Harvard and other elite institutions. I was headed there with my Freedom Reads’ team to open our first Freedom Library. It’s a wondrous thing to do something for the first time, and on that morning, having ridden for two hours in the passenger seat, an open laptop as I wrote about the late Michael K Williams, I struggled with the juxtaposition I’ve lived with since handcuffs first graced my wrists: the possibility and potential of Black men and all the public ways we often die too soon. Williams once told me that his dream was to build a center where young folks who were like he once was, desiring more than the violence and poverty around them, could actively envision better tomorrows and learn dance and acting and what it means to be safe. That is part of my dream for the Freedom Library.

To encapsulate their summer spent at Freedom Reads, our interns reflected on experiences that were both deeply personal and profoundly connected to the organization’s mission. A shared sentiment ran through each of their reflections: gratitude for the opportunity to contribute to meaningful work and admiration for the passion of the Freedom Reads team. At the same time, each intern brought a distinct perspective, shaped by the projects they took on and the memories they carried away.

Why do some people love certain books that other people really can’t stand?  That may seem a weird question -- some people like Brussel sprouts and other people hate them, some people like to watch the news or the weather channel or romcoms and other people avoid all that as much as they can, some people love jazz music and others find it boring. To each their own.But when it comes to literature and other works of art, the way that people respond can have deeper meaning.

At Freedom Reads, Allie serves as our Development Manager—but she’ll be the first to tell you that title only scratches the surface. Her work goes far beyond fundraising. From writing grant proposals to engaging with our Library Patrons, Allie is a key part of bringing our mission to life. She’s traveled to all 15 stops of the Inside Literary Prize tour this year, helping collect stories, discuss books, and take photos.

Michael Byrd had just come home after spending 17 years in prison and didn’t even have an ID. Then he was introduced to the team at Freedom Reads through a reentry program called Emerge. In January 2024, he joined the team as a Library Production Assistant assembling and building bookcases, “and going into prisons to open Freedom Libraries.” But that was just the beginning.

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.

A full moon cast a wintry bright light over London while people from all over the world hurried across cobblestoned streets to the seasonal sound of Christmas. Street-corner Santas held gleaming brass bells which they shook endlessly in the cold night. From high-end boutiques glittering up and down and all around in silver and gold, to the pipe smoking vendor selling bourbon laced eggnog with candy cane mixers, to the church choir singing “We Three Kings” beneath a Victorian-era lamppost, the scene in London was about one thing: Christmas. The holiday was here, large and in charge. It was holding the candle of religion in one hand, while balancing the candle of commercialization in the other. Whether or not you or anyone else was in the mood for Christmas, the sights and sounds of the city in December were doing their level best to get you there.