NYC Books through Bars

http://www.freebirdbooks.com/shop.html March's pick for NYC Books Through Bars 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 en...ough 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.

On Sunday, March 14 at 7 pm EST, C-SPAN's Book TV will be re-airing our recent discussion with David Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson about their new graphic novel history of the Black Panther Party. Watch at https://www.c-span.org/video/ And don't forget that March marches on with our new Books Through Bars picks, this time focusing on three iconic writers from the catalog of indie publisher, Seven Stories Press. Purchase three works for $30 (40% off retail): Octavia Butler...'s Bloodchild and Other Stories, Howard Zinn on History, and Barry Gifford's Black Sun Rising/La Corazonada. Order at http://www.freebirdbooks.com/shop.html Many thanks to all of you who have participated in our ongoing drive to benefit NYC Books Through Bars! We truly appreciate your generosity at this time (over 7,000 books donated since June 2020!), when those incarcerated face ever greater obstacles getting access to written material.

Check out all the books you wonderful people bought for us in September as part of our Freebird Books bundle! We received 143 copies of Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle, & Can't Stop, Won't Stop by Jeff Chang, and are already sending them out! You can buy the October bundle for one more week at http://www.freebirdbooks.com/shop.html Zone One by Colson Whitehead... Kindred by Octavia Butler, A selection from Beacon Press's ReVisioning History series. Thank you to all you generous folks who help support our work!

One more week to buy our spooky October bundles we curate with Freebird Books. For only $30, you can buy these 3 books for us and they will be shipped to us at the end of the month. We will then use these books to fulfill requests made by incarcerated people who write us for books! - Kindred by Octavia Butler... - Zone One by Colson Whitehead - 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.] Order at http://www.freebirdbooks.com//Kindred%2FZone_One%2FReVisio

Our October bundle of books with Freedbird Books is spooooooooky! This is our monthly bundle that allows you to buy 3 books for just $30 (40% off retail) that we will send to incarcerated people nationwide. Each month, our friends at Freebird Books curate a bundle and then we do a big order at the end of the month. These bundles have helped us fill the 5,000+ letters we have received from people in prison during the pandemic. October's bundle:... - Zone One by Colson Whitehead - Kindred by Octavia Butler - A selection from Beacon Press's ReVisioning History series While our 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.

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/piper-kerman-and/register This is TONIGHT!!! Piper Kerman & Vikki Law in conversation about the importance of sending books to people in prison! ... Part of Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy's "Books Beneath the Bridge" series! Hosted by Freebird Books and us! 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 the incarcerated. 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. 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. To purchase a copy of Orange Is the New Black, go here: https://bookshop.org/a/9278/9780385523394 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. To purchase a copy of Prison By Any Other Name, go here: https://bookshop.org/a/9278/9781620973103 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’.

http://www.freebirdbooks.com//special-event-oct-19-piper-k Announcing Piper Kerman & Vikki Law in Conversation about the Importance of Sending Books to People in Prison! Monday, October 19 at 7 pm EST. ... You won't want to miss this one! This event is part of Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy's "Books Beneath the Bridge" series. 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. Register at https://www.crowdcast.io/e/piper-kerman-and/register

https://www.publishersweekly.com//84594-how-one-book-biz-i Our friend and host Peter Miller is featured in this article about our work during the COVD pandemic to get books to people in prison (not inmates). Make sure to pick up October's bundle of books at http://www.freebirdbooks.com/shop.html... 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.

https://www.greenlightbookstore.com/wishlist/346 We are in need of paperback dictionaries. You can buy some off of our Greenlight Bookstore wishlist or drop off copies at Freebird Books on Saturday or Sunday 12-5pm.

http://www.freebirdbooks.com//Kindred%2FZone_One%2FReVisio October's Freebird Books/NYC Books through Bars bundle This is our monthly bundle that allows you to buy 3 books for $30 (40% off retail) that we will send to incarcerated readers nationwide. Each month, our friends at Freebird Books curates a bundle and then we do a big order at the end of the month. These bundles have helped us fill the 5,000 letters we have received from people in prison during the pandemic.... Freebird is offering again three books for $30: - Zone One by Colson Whitehead - Kindred by Octavia Butler - 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. 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.

http://www.freebirdbooks.com//Binti%2FBallad_of_Black_Tom% Today is your LAST day to be able to buy this amazing bundle for incarcerated readers that we send books to! Thank you to all the generous people who have done so.

http://www.freebirdbooks.com//victor-lavalle-and-mat-johns Victor LaValle and Mat Johnson: A Freebird/Books Through Bars Event TONIGHT! September 30th... 6:30pm EST To register on Crowdcast (where you can post questions in advance), see https://www.crowdcast.io/e/LaValleJohnsonevent 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. This event is 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/ 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 can purchase a copy here: http://www.freebirdbooks.com/shop.html

JUST TWO DAYS AWAY! Register at https://www.crowdcast.io/e/LaValleJohnsonevent/register Wednesday September 30th... 06:30pm (EST) Victor LaValle and Mat Johnson: A Freebird/Books Through Bars Event 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. This event is 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 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 can purchase a copy here: http://www.freebirdbooks.com/shop.html

http://www.freebirdbooks.com//Binti%2FBallad_of_Black_Tom% Just three days left! 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. These are being offered at 35% off their retail price. Please note that these books will be sent to NYC Books Through Bars to fulfill requests from incarcerated readers at prisons nationwide.