<p>When a poetry anthology was slid under young Betts' cell door 23 years ago is when the <a href="https://millionbookproject.org/" target="_blank">Million Book Project</a> -- an endeavor to slide thousands of world-opening books to readers in prisons across the country -- really took root. Betts is an award-winning poet and author of several poetry collections, including Felon: Poems, Shahid Reads His Own Palm, and Bastards of the Reagan Era. His Memoir, A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison was awarded the 2010 NAACP Image Award for Non-fiction. Betts also served on the Coordinating Council of the Office of Juvenile and Delinquency Prevention under President Barack Obama. He continues to work as a poet, lawyer, public speaker, and artist.  You can learn more about his work <a href="http://www.dwaynebetts.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>

The Many Ways to Tell a Story: James McBride

The Freedom Takes is a podcast from the Freedom Reads, produced for listeners in prison and out, that explores the relationship between literature and freedom.

Freedom Reads was founded in the knowledge that in a world with prison cells, freedom can begin with a book. And in a country with two million people incarcerated, the offer of a million books to provide solace, affirm dignity, enable imaginative escape and bridge human differences is a duty. So we are sending tens of thousands of books into prisons and juvenile detention centers across this country. 

On the show, poet, lawyer, and founder of Freedom Reads, Reginald Dwayne Betts talks to some of the authors of these books about their lives as writers and as readers, and about what it means to them to be free.