Award-winning poet and University of New Haven professor Randall Horton gives a poetry reading at Carl Robinson Correctional Institution in Connecticut. (Photo: Keenan Hochschild)

Writers’ Talks

Bringing books to life.

How do we remember that those locked up in prison are still a part of our greater society? By returning to prison with writers and poets and artists who remind us that those serving time are our sons & daughters, our aunts & uncles, our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and friends. Writers are bridge builders and sharing their art with the men, women, and children in prisons creates new paths for imagining different futures.

Books also remind us that we are still a part of the world, even while inside. When the Freedom Reads team was opening a library at a prison in Chesapeake, Virginia, one of the guys who was helping to shelve books picked up SA Cosby’s book and said “Man, my mom worked at Lowe’s with this guy!” He then began telling the story about how his mom read early drafts of Blacktop Wasteland, a gritty thriller that won the LA Times Book Award. The excitement about the possibility of SA Cosby coming to that prison to give a reading was infectious.

Terrance Hayes at Otisville Correctional Facility

Poet Terrance Hayes reflects on giving a reading at Otisville Correctional Facility in New York. Terrance wrote us, “They were so engaged we actually talked at some point about the nature of engagement, about the thing we were doing as we did it. I talked to them like practicing readers and writers because that's how they talked. My feeling is any poem you read offers a map, directions/routes for writing. I told them if you write you a writer.”

Black and white sketch drawing of the back of a poet reading to an audience at Otisville Correctional Facility with text annotations about the various characters present. Clockwise: 1, A brother said when he was in college he'd been persuaded somehow that he wasn't a poet. I think he said the sonnet had something to do with it. 2, A man with a dog I did notice until the end of our time asked about the proliferation of ghosts and dogs in my poems. I told him ghosts are real. The dog, a black lab, reminded me of my third dog, bought quickly after my second dog ran off. 3, This brother was my favorite. He had a notebook of prepared questions. And a handful of additional questions in response to answers to his questions. The best kind of student. 4, a beard that nearly swallowed his face mask. 5, And then this brother up front. I guess he just listened for the first half hour before talking about subtext. He said he wrote rhymes. He was not a young man. I mean he felt like a peer so l know he was over thirty. I suspect he thought of himself as a verbal person for his adulthood.
Artwork and notes from poet Terrance Hayes reflecting on his reading at Otisville Correctional Facility in New York. (Drawing: Terrance Hayes)
Poet Randall Horton wearing a navy boater hat and black sweater, smiles by a microphone at a podium, holding a copy of Hurdy Gurdy by Tim Seibles.
Award-winning poet and University of New Haven professor Randall Horton gives a poetry reading at Carl Robinson Correctional Institution in Connecticut. (Photo: Keenan Hochschild)
Reginald Dwayne Betts smiles while signing copies of his book, FELON, for men lining up to meet him at Woodbourne Correctional Facility in New York.
Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts signs copies of his book, FELON, after a reading at Woodbourne Correctional Facility in New York. (Photo: Karen Pearson)
Two women in dark green uniforms smile as Kali Fajardo-Anstine signs books for them at La Vista Correctional Facility in Colorado.
Writer Kali Fajardo-Anstine signs books for women inside La Vista Correctional Facility in Colorado after giving a reading there.

Related

Inside Literary Prize
Performances