May 6, 2024 - Reginald Dwayne Betts and Porsha Olayiwola
About The Episode
When Reginald Dwayne Betts was 16 years old, he was an honors student. He was also arrested for carjacking. Prosecuted as an adult, he spent eight years in a Virginia prison, existing among grown up men. What got him through those years behind bars? Books.
Betts left prison a poet; he then became an Ivy League-educated lawyer and now he’s on a mission to bring libraries into prisons with a first-of-its kind organization called “Freedom Reads.” He joins "The Culture Show" to talk about how he aims to radically transform access to literature for people behind bars.
From there we continue the poetry conversation with Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola who deconstructs her poem, “MARGARET GARNER CROSSES THE OHIO RIVER ONLY TO GET CAUGHT AND SOLD DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI OR THE MOTHER STANDS TRIAL FOR MURDERING HER CHILDREN,” which was inspired by Toni Morrison’s novel, “Beloved.”
