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Reginald Dwayne Betts animates the ideals of justice, integrity and equity in his work as both an attorney and a poet.

s, which aims to establish freedom libraries in prisons across the country. He said it exposes people to the various ways that poetry, fiction, memoir and other literature operate.

“Prison is a brutal place, but I don't want to act like prison is just a brutal place. A man I didn't know heard me ask for a book and slid me 

 because he thought it might matter to me. It profoundly changed my life,” Betts said.

Their conversation was the first of four included in MPR and the Star Tribune’s 

 series in 2021 centered around race in America. 

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

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This Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas will be a conversation between host Kerri Miller and Leila Mottley, who penned “Nightcrawling,” one of the hottest books this summer. As we anticipate that, enjoy this Talking Volumes from 2021 with poet, activist and author Reginald Dwayne Betts. Like Mottley, he brings the deep questions about being a Black person in America to scrutiny in the most beautiful and haunting ways.

From the archives: Author and activist Reginald Dwayne Betts on the power of books

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