Incarcerated youths writing new chapters in their lives

Empowering incarcerated youths to write new chapters in their lives.

Free Minds uses the transformative tools of books, writing, and peacebuilding to create a community of support, assisting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated youths and adults to achieve their education, career, and life goals, write new chapters in their lives, and become powerful voices for change.

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News & Events

Leslye Penelope Visits Women’s Book Club at the DC Jail

In December, the Free Minds Women’s Book Club (WBC) held at the DC Jail hosted a special guest, Leslye Penelope, author of The Monsters We Defy. Penelope is a Maryland native and accomplished writer with 14 published works. She brought her story to life for the women of the book club, sharing the magic and history behind The Monsters We Defy, a historical fantasy novel set in 1920s Washington, D.C.

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Featured Poem

Unapologetically Unorthodox

We are so bent
Upon being individualist
& beautiful in our own opinion
That your expectations of natural accordance
Does not exist…
& so persistently shall we insist
That who we are is who we are…
Regardless of your brackets.

Read full poem about Unapologetically Unorthodox
Free Minds Book Club Students

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