July 2024 Newsletter
Freedom Reads: Our Calling
Founder's Take
This is what they don’t tell you: men and women, people in prison, laugh. They will not say that we get wise, make discoveries, struggle with more than the inexorable weight of time. And Freedom Reads celebrates that. The reasons for this celebration, at least for me, have become most relevant these days – when the losses of the world feel innumerable and remind me of time marking days off a calendar that seemed would last forever.
All of this is to say that another person I have worked to get released from prison was denied parole. To say again, amidst dealing with the denial, I have had to deal with, as we all do, the nagging feeling that what you’re doing has no value. That the losses are not just heavy enough to eclipse the wins but make the wins laughable.
And then you get a phone call. I was in our office. Jermaine Bell had just read our newsletter and was calling me to give me props. Shahid, you really out there doing the damn thing. What struck me was how he talked about our staff, about being moved by the essay David Perez wrote about coming out to the men he was incarcerated with. Jermaine told me how the guys inside were creating book clubs and that men at the prison where he is doing time, who have no access to Freedom Libraries, are asking the DoC to make it happen for them.
This call reminded me of the last time Jermaine hit me up at the right time. I was in New York preparing for an event. It was January and Jermaine had just been denied parole for the third time since I’d been helping him. You know, the wins make you feel like you can run through a brick wall. But the losses, the losses are the brick wall, on top of you, while you are wrapped in a straitjacket. But Jermaine called me that January day to apologize to me for not checking in on me.
It's wild. I like this quote from Harold Bloom — “We read deeply for varied reasons, most of them familiar: that we cannot know enough people profoundly enough; that we need to know ourselves better; that we require knowledge, not just of self and others, but of the way things are.”
But I think, too, what reading does is give you the ability to see the things at the lower frequencies and that’s the sight that has you picking up the phone for a friend at the right time. Freedom Reads has always been about showing up when you’re needed. And it’s never been about me showing up for people, it’s been a thank you for all the times people have showed up for me.
Reginald Dwayne Betts
Freedom Reads Founder & CEO
Freedom Libraries Opened at New York Prison
This month, Freedom Reads opened five new Freedom Libraries at Groveland Correctional Facility in New York. Freedom Reads had previously opened two Freedom Libraries at Groveland.
To date, Freedom Reads has opened 345 Freedom Libraries in 41 adult and youth prisons across 12 states!
Freedom Reads: More than a Job
Freedom Reads Library Production Manager Kevin Baker writes about his role overseeing the building of Freedom Libraries and opening them in cellblocks across the country.
For many of us here at Freedom Reads, this is far beyond a job, a career even. It is a calling. It is about several of us coming together under Dwayne Betts, building an organization to take his dream of putting books into every cellblock at every prison in America and making it happen.
Meet Freedom Reads’ 2024 Summer Interns
This summer, Freedom Reads welcomed five interns to the team. They worked on everything from automating our letters database to researching and writing impact reports to producing videos for social media. We are so grateful for their contributions to the team!
Inaugural Inside Literary Prize to be Awarded August 1
We are excited to announce the winner of the inaugural Inside Literary Prize on August 1! Over 200 judges incarcerated in prisons across the country voted for the winner of the inaugural Prize. Follow Freedom Reads on social media for the winner announcement!
Freedom Reads in the Media
This month, the Richmond Free Press reported that Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts is slated to receive the Library of Virginia’s honorary Patron of Letters degree this September. The degree is the institution’s highest honor. Plus, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on the upcoming announcement of the inaugural Inside Literary Prize.
Why this Work Matters
Each newsletter we aim to share at least one letter (or excerpt) from one of Freedom Reads now 25,000-plus Freedom Library patrons. Freedom Reads receives many letters from the inside. They mean so much to us. And we respond to each and every one of them.
As far as how others are receiving the Freedom Libraries: in one of the groups I attended we had a whole entire discussion on the topic alone. I feel that the Freedom Libraries by far exceeded any expectation of a mention or thought of a block/pod library. I believe that the staff/administration didn’t know the magnitude of the Freedom Library’s quality. I vividly recall the awe of the staff as we, in the group, went around the room taking turns naming the authors & books we all had either selected to read or had already finished reading…
Our work isn’t possible without your support. Thank you for supporting us in our vision to open a Freedom Library in every cellblock in every prison in America.