The Aspen Institute honored Free Minds with the $25,000 Aspen Ideas Award to replicate our poetry program connecting individuals with outside community members nation-wide.

Write Night pagesFree Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop has just been awarded the first-ever Aspen Ideas Award. The $25,000 prize was awarded to the organization for a program called “On the Same Page: United,” that Free Minds will now implement on a national level. “On the Same Page: United,” a volunteer-based program within our larger mission, uses poetry to forge understanding and connection between incarcerated people and their communities. In the program’s current form, DC prisoners send hundreds of poems about their lives to the organization. Volunteers then bring stacks of the poems to community or workplace gatherings in the DC area called “On The Same Page: Write Nights.” Volunteers read the poems and respond in writing, literally “on the same page.” Those poems are then sent back to the incarcerated writers, fostering communication and understanding across prison bars. “Studies show pro-social connections with people on the outside can dramatically reduce the chances a person will commit a new crime,” says Tara Libert, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop. “In fact, among the participants in the “On the Same Page” program, recidivism rates are three times lower than the national average.”

Free Minds began in 2002 when Libert and co-founder Kelli Taylor committed themselves to introducing at-risk teens at the DC Jail to the power of reading and writing. With the $25,000 award, Free Minds plans to implement “On the Same Page: United” in 4 new cities across the country in the first year. The money will fund a part-time staff person to coordinate the national project and the production of a digital tool-kit, including a video and “how-to” guide to holding successful events in other communities.

Read Co-Founder Kelli Taylor’s presentation , or watch it here:

Taylor spoke about the experience of traveling to the Aspen Ideas Festival and presenting the idea for On the Same Page: UNITED. “Presenting our project at the Aspen Ideas Festival was an amazing experience! The reception our idea got was greater than I could ever have imagined! Afterwards, people from all backgrounds approached me with enthusiasm about the project. The concept of using poetry to build bridges between people behind bars, and individuals on the outside was something everyone seemed eager to embrace. Now, having won the award, I can hardly wait to return to Aspen in 2016 to share about how many more people across the country have been touched by the power that sharing our stories through poetry has to create strong community.”

Libert says, “The opportunity to take our On the Same Page: Write Night program across the country has long been a dream of mine and now thanks to the Aspen Institute and Booz Allen Hamilton I am thrilled to see it becoming a reality. When we started the program years ago, we didn’t know how it would be received or even if any volunteers would want to come and read inmates’ poetry, but it quickly became clear what a powerful and transformative tool it was for both our Free Minds members and the community volunteers. I’m so proud of our DC area Write Nights and how our diverse group of committed community members have made it a model other communities can replicate. I’m so excited to bring our message of the power of poetry to unite and heal communities to the rest of the country.”

Many volunteers who have been participating in the program in DC shared what they have gotten out of the experience of reading and commenting on the inmates’ poetry.

“This event was so powerful. I didn’t expect to be so moved. It changed the way I think about incarceration in America. I think everyone should have this experience! The concept brings hope to both sides—the incarcerated and the community.”

“Reading the poems allowed me to feel their emotions, visualize their pain and want for a better life. These poems remind me that everyone has a story.”

“Write Night is an unbelievably powerful vehicle for making human connections across the many walls that separate the fortunate ones in our society from the less fortunate. When I sit down with a poem written by an inmate I get an uncanny feeling of direct communication with someone who society has placed out of bounds, someone for whom words and poetry have taken on huge meaning. This connection is an amazing feeling and I’m always glad to know that it is valued by the poets…Reading their poetry humanizes and individualizes the inmates. They are no longer an undifferentiated group of people; instead they are D’Angelo, Delonte, Demetrich, etc. My connection with Free Minds has also greatly increased my concern about mass incarceration, solitary confinement, and the channeling of adolescents into the adult justice system.”

“It is so exciting to be part of a diverse group of volunteers who are all joined by one common aim.   The opportunity to communicate with and learn from someone you have never met is rare and has really broadened my perspective on the world.  The experience also gave me the confidence to start writing myself.  I really value Free Minds Write Night as it is such a great opportunity for learning, reflection, and self-improvement.  I would be lost without it.”

The process is also invaluable to our Free Minds members, who benefit from the knowledge that there is a caring community out there that believes in their stories, their future, and their writing. Our Free Minds members  incarcerated in federal prison share the impact receiving Write Night feedback has on them

“I was so surprised the first time I saw the comments!  I didn’t know people out there cared.  When you come in here and you see you’ve been on the news, you figure people must be scared of you and no longer care about you.  When I read what the people at Write Night wrote on my poetry, I saw that they didn’t think I was an animal, but just a human being who made a bad choice.  It made me want to keep on writing.”

“I received your mail with my “Phenomenon” poem in it and the good people’s comments. First, I would like to say thanks to them all for expressing themselves to me. It gives me motivation that there is people out there that really listen and care about my art because they are straight from the heart. And to Laura with the question “Does heavy rain and thunder have a great meaning?” It does, basically it symbolizes the hurt and pain and my anger and struggles in the past.”

“I love the feedback, it lets me feel what the readers feel and get out of what they’re reading. When I write I try to take the readers with me if I ever even let people know what is on my mind. So much goes on in this head it’s crazy. But yeah Imma make sure I get you all a lot more for the blog and that good old Write Night.”

If you are in the DC area, you are welcome to attend a Write Night event or host a mobile Write Lunch.

Leave a Comment





This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.