As part of our ongoing efforts to raise awareness for NYC Books Through Bars, author David F. Walker and illustrator Marcus Kwame Anderson will discuss their collaboration on a new graphic novel history of The Black Panther Party (currently featured in the February book drive for Books Through Bars) To register on Crowdcast (where you can also post questions in advance), go to: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/black-panther-party-book Before we conclude Freebird's February's book drive, we have asked the author and illustrator of the featured title, The Black Panther Party, to talk about the significance of Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Fred Hampton (currently the subject of a new film), and many others in the history of revolutionary politics in America, as well as the role they played as a counterpart to the mainstream civil rights movement of the 1960s and '70s. It's also a reminder that there are still Black Panthers in prison. Read about them here. This gripping illustrated history explores the impact and significance of the Panthers, from their social, educational, and healthcare programs that were designed to uplift the Black community to their battle against police brutality through citizen patrols and frequent clashes with the FBI, which targeted the Party from its outset. Using dramatic comic book-style retellings and illustrated profiles of key figures, The Black Panther Party captures the major events, people, and actions of the party, as well as their cultural and political influence and enduring legacy. DAVID F. WALKER is an award-winning comic book writer, filmmaker, journalist, and educator. Walker is best known for his work in comics, including Shaft: A Complicated Man (Dynamite Entertainment), winner of the 2015 Glyph Award for Story of the Year, and its sequel, Shaft: Imitation of Life. His work for Marvel Comics includes Luke Cage, Occupy Avengers, Power Man and Iron Fist, Nighthawk, Fury, and Deadpool. He’s also worked for DC Comics (Cyborg), Boom! (Planet of the Apes), and IDW/Monkeybrain (The Army of Dr. Moreau). He is the creator of the prose YA series The Adventures of Darius Logan, and author of the novel Shaft’s Revenge, the first new novel starring the iconic black detective in more than forty years. MARCUS KWAME ANDERSONis an illustrator and fine artist. He is the co-creator of the ongoing comic book series, Snow Daze, and has illustrated stories in Action Lab’s all-ages detective series, Cash and Carrie, as well contributed illustration work for the Action Lab series, F.O.R.C.E. If you would like to purchase a copy for yourself, books are available for sale through Freebird's page on Bookshop.org. For making a donation of The Black Panther Party (along with the other books featured this month) to Books Through Bars, you can purchase a copy here: Black Panther Party/Queen's Gambit/Fischer Teaches Chess (freebirdbooks.com)
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.
Victor LaValle joined fellow novelist Mat Johnson for a conversation about H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, tackling beloved genres, and reinventing them for our times. This event was to help raise awareness for NYC Books Through Bars, a non-profit program that helps deliver books to the incarcerated.
In The Ballad of Black Tom (featured in this month's book drive for Books Through Bars), LaValle takes inspiration from the otherworldliness of "The Horror at Red Hook" while subverting Lovecraft's overt racism. In Pym, Johnson muses on Poe's unconventional 1838 seafaring novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and veers into literary territories Poe himself would have been in awe of. If you would like to read books by Victor LaValle and Mat Johnson, you can purchase copies here: https://bookshop.org/
Join a special virtual event with author Albert Woodfox, as he discusses his 40 year journey through the Louisiana penal system, most of it spent in solitary confinement.
Every summer Freebird participates in the annual summer reading series, Books Beneath the Bridge, at the Granite Prospect in Brooklyn Bridge Park. This year we present a talk on When Brooklyn Was Queer, a new book from author Hugh Ryan, a writer and historian of queer culture who is helping to archive and document LGBTQ life in unsung communities across New York City.
Come join us to hear Hugh speak on how vibrant and longstanding Brooklyn's LGBTQ community has been, and one much richer and less isolated than previously understood. In this bicentennial year of Walt Whitman's birth, it's only appropriate to have this discussion with the Brooklyn Bridge as our backdrop. Copies of When Brooklyn Was Queer will be available for purchase and Hugh Ryan will sign following. Monday, July 8, 7 pm; Granite Prospect, Brooklyn Bridge Park |
Book Club at FreebirdInterested in hearing more about the Post-Apocalyptic Book Club, where it's never too late to join? Visit their Meetup group here for more info. They meet typically the third Thursday of every month at the store. Archives
September 2022
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