Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, a lawyer, and the founder and CEO of Freedom Reads, an organization with the goal of bringing a library to every cell block in America. We talked with him about what he read – and wrote – while he was incarcerated, and what it taught him about what it means to be free, to be loved, and to be part of a community.

Read a transcript of this episode on our website, and find books by Betts in our library catalog.

There are so many reasons to read – and reread – The Autobiography of Malcolm X. But for this episode, we’re revisiting the book with the perspectives of readers who are, or were, incarcerated. Malcolm X’s story isn’t just radical for its narrative of change and self-improvement; it also encourages readers to think more critically about the prison system itself.

You can read a transcript of this episode on our website.

• Check out our booklist with titles related to The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
• Learn more about the work that BPL’s Justice Initiatives does for patrons who are incarcerated. You can donate recently-published paperback books to the jail and prison collections at Williamsburgh Library or Central Library only during drop-off times. Please contact librarian Claire Mooney (cmooney [at] bklynlibrary [dot] org) for guidance on what to donate, and when.
• Learn about Reginald Dwayne Betts’s Freedom Libraries
• Watch Inside Story, a video series produced by BPL’s Donald Washington and others who are formerly-incarcerated.
• Read about censorship in prison libraries and other radical ways to read with Book Riot’s Reading and Resistance series.

N.K. Jemisin is a New York Times-bestselling science fiction and fantasy writer. She’s a Brooklynite, the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and the first author to win three Best Novel Hugos in a row. We talked to her about Octavia Butler’s influence on her writing, and how she processes the present moment in her own fiction.

You can read a transcript of this episode on our website, and check out our booklist with titles from Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, and more!