Freebird Books
  • Home
  • About
  • Shop
  • Contact
  • Events
  • Books Through Bars
  • Neighborhood
  • Home
  • About
  • Shop
  • Contact
  • Events
  • Books Through Bars
  • Neighborhood
Picture

March's picks bring focus to three iconic writers from the catalog of indie publisher, Seven Stories Press

2/28/2021

 
Picture
March 2021's pick: Octavia Butler, Howard Zinn, and Barry Gifford--three books for $30 Following February's drive (The Black Panther Party; Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess; The Queen's Gambit) is a bundle co-presented by the indie publisher, Seven Stories Press, and focuses on two perennially popular writers--Octavia Butler and Howard Zinn--as well as a genre frequently requested by incarcerated readers but too often unfulfilled: Westerns. This is the second time we have included Butler in the monthly book drive (the first time was with Kindred), but Books Through Bars can never have enough on hand. Bloodchild and Other Stories is an excellent overview of her writing, that shows off her talent for turning parables into timeless commentaries on our modern world.  Howard Zinn on History is just that, twenty-seven short writings on activism, electoral politics, the Holocaust, Marxism, war, and the role of the historian, as well as portraits of Eugene Debs, John Reed, and Jack London. And rounding out this bundle is a Western novel, which we have been wanting to add for some time (it is one of the most commonly requested genres at prisons), but have taken great care to pick a title that doesn't fall into traditional insensitive tropes about indigenous cultures. Barry Gifford's Black Sun Rising (La Corazonada) is a noir set on the Texas-Mexican border, where a group of Native Americans and fugitive slaves have fled in 1851. One of Seven Stories's most beloved house authors, Gifford's novel also appeals to us for being a rare bilingual edition, allowing Books Through Bars to send this out to Spanish and English readers. 

To learn more about the important work NYC Books Through Bars does, go here. 
Looking for a book for yourself? Check out our page at Bookshop.org, including lists of recommended reads from Piper Kerman, Victoria Law, Albert Woodfox, Victor LaValle, Mat Johnson, and others! 

Want to give a gift card? Freebird has e-gift cards available here for your birthday and holiday needs (and to redeem for future book drives)!

Watch our interview with David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson

2/24/2021

 
powered by Crowdcast

February's picks feature chess strategy, chess literature, and a new graphic history of the Black Panther Party

1/31/2021

 
Picture
Purchase three works for $30 (35% off retail): Walter Tevis's novel, The Queen's Gambit (recently adapted by Netflix to much acclaim), a classic guide to playing chess, and a history of the Black Panther Party, told in graphic form.

February 2021's pick:
Chess, chess, and Black Panther history--three books for $30 
​
Following January's drive (Weight-Free Workout; Cults, Conspiracies & Secret Societies; Backyard Farming: Growing Herbs for Food and Medicine; and Instant Yoga), we focus on three oft requested topics: chess instruction, graphic fiction, and radical history. David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson tell the story of Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Fred Hampton and others through words and images in the recently published The Black Panther Party.  In Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, a YOUNG Fischer--at the height of his talents in 1966 and well before he went off the deep end--collaborated with Stuart Margulies and Don Mosenfelder to impart how to play chess to the best of one's potential. And to complement the more technical aspects of the game, we wanted to include some diversionary reading with the novel The Queen's Gambit, recently adapted into a TV series, and much lauded for its dramatic depiction of competitive chess. 

To learn more about the important work NYC Books Through Bars does, go here. 
Looking for a book for yourself? Check out our page at Bookshop.org, including lists of recommended reads from Piper Kerman, Victoria Law, Albert Woodfox, Victor LaValle, Mat Johnson, and others! 

Want to give a gift card? Freebird has e-gift cards available here for your birthday and holiday needs (and to redeem for future book drives)!

Our inaugural 2021 pick is all about health, wellness, and a reality check

12/31/2020

 
Picture
We carry on our drive with 2021 inaugural picks that feature practicality, physical well-being, and a correction check on insanity

Purchase four works for $30 (30% off retail): a Men's Health guide to working out without weights, simple steps for performing yoga, an instruction booklet for growing herbs, and a sober look at conspiracy theories (a topic commonly requested by incarcerated readers)

January 2021's pick: Health, wellness, and a reality check--four books for $30 

​Following December's drive (
The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2021; Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me by Charlamagne Tha God; and Straight Outta Dodge City), we begin the New Year with books that respond to requests from incarcerated readers on how to garden, stay physically fit, and make sense of conspiracy theory: Men's Health Best: Weight-Free Workout; Cults, Conspiracies & Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, the Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and Many, Many More; Backyard Farming: Growing Herbs for Food and Medicine; and Instant Yoga: Exercises and Guidance for Everyday Wellness.

Why it is important to donate to NYC Books Through Bars

While the NYC Books Through Bars program operating out of Freebird's basement is currently limiting in-person volunteering and drop offs due to COVID-19, book requests continue to pour in from prisons around the country: nearly 300 per week. In response to the challenges of accepting those donations during the pandemic, we have started a monthly program in which specific, in-demand titles can be purchased through Freebird at a discount. These books will be sent to incarcerated readers across the country. To learn more about how NYC Books Through Bars began, and what impact access to reading material has on the incarcerated, check out this conversation we hosted between NYC BTB co-founder Victoria Law and Orange Is the New Black author Piper Kerman: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/piper-kerman-and 

To learn more about the important work NYC Books Through Bars does, go here. 
Looking for a book for yourself? Check out our page at Bookshop.org, including lists of recommended reads from Piper Kerman, Victoria Law, Albert Woodfox, Victor LaValle, Mat Johnson, and others! 

Want to give a gift card? Freebird has e-gift cards available here for your birthday and holiday needs (and to redeem for future book drives)!
​

December's pick features advice, assessment, and blessed diversion--a tonic to a toxic year.

11/30/2020

 
Picture

     Three wise titles for an idiotic year 

Purchase three works for $30 (30% off retail): the latest World Almanac (one of the most requested reference titles by incarcerated readers), a guide to maintaining mental health from the immensely popular radio host, Charlamagne Tha God; and an anthology of fantasy and horror short stories set in the Wild West (all genres very much sought after in prisons)

Many thanks to all of you who have participated in the November drive to benefit NYC Books Through Bars! We truly appreciate your generosity at this time (over 5,000 books donated since June!), when those incarcerated face ever greater obstacles getting access to written material. 

December's pick:
Facts, fantasy, and sober advice book bundle--three books for $30
 

Following November's drive (Webster's New World Dictionary; Webster's New World Thesaurus; USA Today Sudoku Super Challenge 2, Origami Flowers and Birds, and Star Wars Word Search and Coloring Book), Freebird ends a craptacular year with a selection that looks soberly at what happened in 2020, how to manage the stress from it, and where to find distraction in unreality: The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2021; Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me by Charlamagne Tha God; and Straight Outta Dodge City, a "weird western fantasy and horror anthology" edited by David Boop.

November book drive--double the books for the same price

11/1/2020

 
November's pick features reference books, crafts, and games--among the most requested materials at prisons nationwide.
Picture


Purchase copies of five works for $30 and Freebird will match each order with an additional dictionary--(six books total for a collective savings of 35% off retail): a holiday care package for incarcerated readers that will include sudoku challenges, word games, origami instruction, a coloring book, and the always in demand dictionary and thesaurus

Many thanks to all of you who have participated in the October drive to benefit NYC Books Through Bars! We truly appreciate your generosity at this time (over 3,000 books donated!), when those incarcerated face ever greater obstacles getting access to written material. To learn more about how NYC Books Through Bars began, and what impact access to reading material has on the incarcerated, check out this conversation we hosted between NYC BTB co-founder Victoria Law and Orange Is the New Black author Piper Kerman: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/piper-kerman-and

November's pick:
A games, crafts, and reference book bundle--six books for $30 


​Following October's drive (Zone One, Kindred, and a selection of histories), Freebird heads into the holidays offering five titles + one for $30: Webster's New World Dictionary; Webster's New World Thesaurus; USA Today Sudoku Super Challenge 2, Origami Flowers and Birds, and Star Wars Word Search and Coloring Book. EVERY ORDER WILL BE MATCHED BY FREEBIRD with an additional Webster's New World Dictionary. Dictionaries are the single largest request NYC Books Through Bars receives every year, and they can never have enough in stock.


To learn more about the important work NYC Books Through Bars does, go here. 

Video of event with Piper Kerman and Victoria Law

10/22/2020

 
Thanks to everyone for tuning in!  And special thanks to Piper and Vikki for such an engaging and illuminating conversation.
powered by Crowdcast

SPECIAL EVENT: Oct. 19--Piper Kerman and Victoria Law in conversation about the importance of sending books to prisons

10/12/2020

 
Picture
Monday, October 19 at 7 pm
https://www.crowdcast.io/e/piper-kerman-and
Piper Kerman (Orange Is the New Black) and Victoria Law (NYC Books Through Bars co-founder) on the importance of sending books to prisons

Five months into Freebird's book drive for incarcerated readers (over 3,000 copies donated!), we wanted to pause and have a conversation on the invaluable work NYC Books Through Bars does, how these books are distributed to prisons nationwide, and what they mean to the recipients. 

As part of Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy's "Books Beneath the Bridge" series, we are hosting a conversation between Victoria Law, the co-founder of NYC Books Through Bars, and Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black and a former incarcerated reader herself. Law and Kerman will discuss how prisons make access to literature exceptionally difficult, compounding institutional barriers to education. Often books are the sole instruments of learning for a prisoner. Books-to-prisons programs remain some of the few supply chains for making this happen. It's particularly critical now, as many of the incarcerated are in lockdown due to the pandemic.

​As Albert Woodfox--held in solitary confinement for 40 years--put it after helping a fellow prisoner learn how to read: "The world was now open to him"

Piper Kerman is the author of Orange Is the New Black: My Year in Women's Prison, a memoir of her prison experiences, which was adapted into the critically acclaimed Netflix original comedy-drama series. Since leaving prison, Kerman has spoken widely about women in prison and about her own experiences there. She has taught nonfiction writing classes for incarcerated men and women in state prison systems for a number of years.

Victoria Law is a co-founder of Books Through Bars-NYC. She is also a mother, a freelance journalist covering issues of incarceration, gender and resistance, and the author of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women and co-author of the newly-published Prison By Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reform.

ABOUT BOOKS BENEATH THE BRIDGE
In this moment where social justice is at the fore of our collective consciousness, it is vital more than ever to listen and learn from one another. This year’s Books Beneath the Bridge series will feature presenters reflecting on current events and centering marginalized voices, through the lens of their lived experience as well as their communities’.

ABOUT BOOKS THROUGH BARS
Two (and sometimes three) times a week, Books Through Bars volunteers meet at our space in Brooklyn to match requests people in prison have sent us in the mail to the books on our shelves. We mail book packages to individuals rather than prison libraries. Our book collection is donated by members of the community. Because we manage to get by in donated space, with donated books, donated packing materials, and volunteer labor, our only expense is postage. To meet this much needed expense, we hold fundraisers and look for other opportunities for receiving funds.


October book drive for NYC Books Through Bars

10/1/2020

 
Picture
Purchase copies of three works for $30 (40% off retail) to be sent to incarcerated readers nationwide: a zombie novel by Colson Whitehead, science fiction by Octavia Butler, and one work in Beacon Press's ReVisioning History series, that gives voice to Americans often left out of the picture.Many thanks to all of you who have participated in the September drive to benefit NYC Books Through Bars! We truly appreciate your generosity at this time, when those incarcerated face ever greater obstacles getting access to written material.  

October's pick:
Zone One, Kindred, and the ReVisioning History series
Following September's drive (Binti, The Ballad of Black Tom, and Can't Stop, Won't Stop), Freebird is offering again three books for $30: Zone One by Colson Whitehead, Kindred by Octavia Butler, and a selection from Beacon Press's ReVisioning History series:  An African American and Latinx History of the United States; A Queer History of the United States; A Black Women's History of the United States; An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States; and A Disability History of the United States. [PLEASE NOTE: Each order placed will be one of these titles, which average retail for $19]  

Kindred is Octavia Butler's classic work of speculative fiction that merged the slave narrative with time travel sci fi, brilliantly exploring the horrors of slavery as well as lingering racism, sexism, and white supremacy. Before he won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer, Colson Whitehead expertly reinvented the zombie genre in Zone One. Set against a pandemic-ravaged New York, Whitehead ponders how civilization can rebuild itself one person at a time--an eerie, but appropriate book ahead of Halloween. And the ReVisioning History series from Beacon Press celebrates the multiplicity of the American past, with perspectives from groups often written out of official histories: Indigenous, Latinx, African American, feminist, queer, and people with disabilities. Your purchase will help us get a selection of the titles in the series. 

​
While the NYC Books Through Bars program operating out of Freebird's basement is currently limiting in-person volunteering and drop offs due to COVID-19, book requests continue to pour in from prisons around the country: nearly 300 per week. In response to the challenges of accepting those donations during the pandemic, we have started a monthly program in which specific, in-demand titles can be purchased through Freebird at a discount. These books will be sent to incarcerated readers across the country.
To learn more about the important work NYC Books Through Bars does, go here. 

Why giving to Books Through Bars matters

9/23/2020

 
"We are on Quarantine lockdown and no end in sight. The Books that you sent me months ago are still being passed around and enjoyed by all of us here...They help the time go by and keep your head out of here." (8/11/20)
​
"Words cannot express how delighted I was to receive the Hugo and Nebula award winning trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, 'The Broken Earth.' I had a few misgivings before I started reading; a few red flags in the introductory material and some things I had heard through the grapevine about the state of Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction gave me pause. Nevermind! All my doubts were assuaged within the first few chapters of book #1, 'The Fifth Season.' What a fantastic story! As literature how uniquely creative! Thank you so much!" (9/4/20)
Since we started this monthly book drive in June on behalf of NYC Books Through Bars, we never anticipated we would so quickly exceed 1,000 sets purchased for the program (over 3,000 books total)--going a very long way to fulfill the hundreds and hundreds of requests continually pouring in from prisoners nationwide. Books Through Bars and Freebird want to thank everyone for their ongoing donations, and especially at this time when incarcerated readers are experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic in such an acute manner.
​

Even as we get past this current situation, the demand for books at prisons will always remain high.  If you haven't heard about this month's selection, there's still time to purchase the set.  And we will be doing a special virtual event on Wednesday, September 30, around one of the books featured (The Ballad of Black Tom).  Sign up now!  
<<Previous

    Sign up for our newsletter

    Purchase a Freebird gift card here
    Open Hours:
    ​11:00 AM to 7:00 PM
    Saturdays and Sundays
    Info:
    123 Columbia Street
    ​Brooklyn, NY 11231
    718-643-8484

    ​info@freebirdbooks.com

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    November 2019
    May 2019

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly