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  • GET INVOLVED
    • Join Our Email List
    • Bring Free Minds to Your Group
    • On the Same Page: Write Night
    • Intern or Volunteer With Us
    • Give Poetry Feedback
    • Work With Us
  • DONATE
    • Donate Online
    • Other Ways to Donate
    • Employer Matching Gifts
    • Donate Books
    • New! Merch Store
  • About Us
    • Mission & Vision
    • Who We Are
    • In The Press
    • Supporters
    • National Projects
    • Resources For Educators
    • Resources For Incarcerated People
    • New! Merch Store
    • Contact Us
  • Our Work
    • Book Clubs and Writing Workshops
    • Reentry Services
    • On the Same Page
    • Books by Free Minds
    • Connect Magazine
    • Congressman John Lewis Fellowship
    • Thrive Under 25
    • Success Stories
  • News & Events
  • Poems
  • Contact Us

Reentry Book Club: Our Members Shine This Fall

News & Events

Reentry Book Club: Our Members Shine This Fall

By Free Minds Book Club | November 18, 2025 | 0
A group photo of Free Minds members holding certificates from their apprenticeship graduation.

Fall is a season of transformation, and at Free Minds, members embody the season with powerful book club discussions  hands-on learning, healing, and celebration. Building Strength Through Shared Wisdom Our…

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Summer Highlights from the Prison Book Club

By Free Minds Book Club | August 19, 2025 | 0
Members of the Free Minds staff in the office, smiling at the camera

Free Minds believes that literature and creative writing are powerful tools for boosting community resilience, uplifting each other, and mitigating the effects of carceral isolation on our Prison Book Club…

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Reentry Book Club: Our Members Shine This Summer

By Free Minds Book Club | July 23, 2025 | 0
Free Minds members holding up their vision boards from the apprenticeship

Summer is a time of growth, warmth, and Free Minds members rising to new challenges and discovering fresh opportunities. Members have graduated from training programs, landed jobs, and deepened their…

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Author Kelis Rowe Leads Poetry Session with Women’s Book Club

By Free Minds Book Club | May 5, 2025 | 0
A group photo with author Kelis Rowe and staff from Free Minds and the DC Department of Corrections at the Women's Book Club.

On Monday, April 28th, Free Minds was honored to welcome author Kelis Rowe to visit our Women’s Book Club (WBC) at the DC Jail. Rowe, hailing all the way from…

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Spring Highlights from the Prison Book Club

By Free Minds Book Club | May 1, 2025 | 0
A man standing at a microphone reciting a poem before a crowd.

Here at Free Minds, we believe in the healing power of creativity, literacy, and community. In our Prison Book Club this past quarter, we have put this belief into action…

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About the Poetry Blog

The poets featured on this page are currently incarcerated, and many of them are in federal prisons far from home. Your feedback is a valuable source of motivation and connection to the outside community. Post your comments, feedback, and encouragement in the space below the poem, and it will be passed on directly to the author. Comments may not appear immediately on the site, as our team processes them to mail to the poets.

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Upcoming Events

On the Same Page: Write Night

January 27, 2021, 7:00 – 8:30 PM

Read and respond to poetry by incarcerated writers! Registration is required; click here to RSVP.

Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop

Free Minds uses books, creative writing, and peer support to awaken incarcerated and formerly incarcerated youths and adults to their own potential. Through creative expression, job readiness training, and violence prevention outreach, these poets achieve their education and career goals, and become powerful voices for change in the community.

Winner of the 2015 Aspen Ideas Award from the Aspen Institute, the Justice Potter Stewart Award from the Council for Court Excellence, and the Library of Congress Best Practices in Literacy Award.

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mail@freemindsbookclub.org

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