Newsletter

Freedom Reads' Monthly Newsletter

The Freedom Reads team and Freedom Library Patrons at the California Institution for Men smile for a photo.

October 2024 Newsletter

Why the Freedom Library Matters

October 31, 2024

Freedom Reads Communications Manager Steven Parkhurst (left), Freedom Reads Library Coordinator David Perez Jr (center), and Freedom Reads Library Production Assistant Michael Byrd (right) sit outside of Cybulski Community Reintegration Center sign.

September 2024 Newsletter

Freedom Reads: Rewriting Our Futures

September 30, 2024

Imani Perry is the winner of the inaugural Inside Literary Prize.

August 2024 Newsletter

Staking My Life on Books

August 29, 2024

Kevin, second from right, explains how to build a Freedom Library to Freedom Reads team members.

July 2024 Newsletter

Freedom Reads: Our Calling

6 members of the Freedom Reads team pose for a photo around Freedom Libraries in a loading dock at Garden State Correctional Facility

June 2024 Newsletter

Freedom Reads: What Started as a Dream

6 men wearing prison uniforms stand in line at Garden State Correctional Facility for Dwayne to sign their copies of FELON.

May 2024 Newsletter

A Public Library Like No Other

CHEFA and Freedom Reads hosted an official partnership launch event at Freedom Reads headquarters in Hamden, CT. From left to right: CHEFA Grant Committee Chair Lawrence Davis, CHEFA Executive Director Jeanette W. Weldon, Connecticut Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz, Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the Connecticut Office of Workforce Strategy Anthony Barrett, and CHEFA Manager of Grant Programs and Philanthropic Outreach Betty Sugerman Weintraub.

April 2024 Newsletter

300 Freedom Libraries and Counting

Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts performs his one-man show, *FELON: An American Washi Tale*, at Buckingham Correctional Center on March 4th, 2024 (left). The Freedom Reads team with bookcases outside of Dillwyn Correctional Center (right) on March 5th – the team opened 32 Freedom Libraries at Dillwyn and Buckingham Correctional Centers in Virginia in March.

March 2024 Newsletter

March Forth with Freedom Reads

In February, the Freedom Reads team visited The Equal Justice Initiative’s (link: https://legacysites.eji.org/ text: Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice) in Montgomery, Alabama.

February 2024 Newsletter

Showing Up: Why Freedom Reads’ Work Matters

February 29, 2024

Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts looks at book in Freedom Library

January 2024 Newsletter

Every Freedom Library is a Promise.

January 30, 2024

Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts and University of New Haven Professor Randall Horton – both highly-regarded, award-winning poets – conduct a poetry reading in November 2023 at Carl Robinson Correctional Institution in Enfield, Connecticut.

December 2023 Newsletter

Freedom Reads News to Celebrate!

December 29, 2023

On October 26, 2023, at Otisville Correctional Facility in New York, Freedom Reads opened its 200th Freedom Library.

November 2023 Newsletter

200 Freedom Libraries and Counting

November 30, 2023