Blog Posts

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

12/31/2020

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

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.

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.

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

10/12/2020

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

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.

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!

Victor LaValle and Mat Johnson virtual event

9/18/2020

Freebird/NYC Books Through Bars presents:
Victor LaValle joins fellow novelist Mat Johnson for a conversation about H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, tackling beloved genres, and reinventing them for our times
Wednesday, September 30, 6:30 pm EST

To register on Crowdcast (where you can also post questions in advance), go to:
https://www.crowdcast.io/e/LaValleJohnsonevent

As part of our ongoing efforts to raise awareness for NYC Books Through Bars, Freebird is hosting a virtual discussion on September 30 with Victor LaValle and Mat Johnson. LaValle's novel, The Ballad of Black Tom, is featured in our book drive this month (you can purchase it, and two other titles that will be donated to incarcerated readers nationwide). In The Ballad of Black Tom, 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. Johnson and LaValle will discuss not just their own efforts at breathing new life into classics, but also current trends of genre-bending in film (Jordan Peele) and tv (Lovecraft Country).

If you would like to read books by Victor LaValle and Mat Johnson, you can purchase copies here: https://bookshop.org/
For making a donation of The Ballad of Black Tom (along with the other books featured this month: Binti and Can't Stop, Won't Stop) to Books Through Bars, you still have time to purchase the September selections here!: http://www.freebirdbooks.com/shop.html

Freebird's September Book Drive for Books Through Bars

9/1/2020

Purchase copies of three works for $30 (35% off retail) to be sent to incarcerated readers nationwide: a Hugo Award-winning novel by Nnedi Okorafor (who has also authored several Black Panther comics), a reinvention of the classic horror tale by Victor LaValle (acclaimed for subverting Lovecraft's racism), and Jeff Chang's standard-bearing study of hip-hop music and culture.

Following August's drive for illustrated works (March: Book One, They Called Us Enemy, and How to Draw Faces), Freebird is offering again three books for $30: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle, and Can't Stop, Won't Stop by Jeff Chang. Speculative fiction--especially from non-traditional perspectives--are in high demand, as are books on pop culture.

Binti is the first in a trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor, focusing on the interstellar experiences of a gifted young woman sent far from her African homeland to study at an acclaimed university outside the galaxy. Okorafor won Hugo and Nebula awards for this ambitious Africanfuturist debut; so it's no surprise that she has been called upon by Marvel to write several comics in the Black Panther series. The Ballad of Black Tom takes its initial cues from the uncanny stylings of H.P. Lovecraft, but the comparisons end there. Like the current HBO series Lovecraft Country, Victor LaValle twists the genre into a dramatic backdrop exploring themes of racism and inequality. And Can't Stop, Won't Stop is Jeff Chang's unmatched study of hip-hop music and culture. As much a social history as an important chronicle of the times which gave birth to the movement, it was named one of Slate's best nonfiction books of the last quarter century.

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 the important work NYC Books Through Bars does, go here.

Indie Bookstore Day--Brooklyn style!

8/19/2020

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