October book drive for NYC Books Through Bars

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 seriesFollowing 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.