Book Discussion: Felon by Reginald Dwayne Betts

"Searing.… This is a powerful work of lyric art. It is also a tour de force indictment of the carceral industrial state."
― Carolyn Forché, New York Times Book Review

"Felon is a stunningly crafted indictment of prison’s dehumanization of Black men and their loved ones. Through his unvarnished descriptions of the path to prison and its aftermath from myriad vantage points―son, husband, father, cellmate, Yale-educated public defender―Betts does nothing to protect himself, or us, from what he has done and suffered and witnessed. His compassion and breathtaking literary gifts make it impossible for us to look away or remain complicit in mass criminalization’s status quo."
― sujatha baliga, director of the Restorative Justice Project

We invite you to register for a book club-like discussion of Reginald Dwayne Betts’ book of poetry Felon. Participants will receive a free copy of the book. The discussion will be led by Alen Hamza who is a poet and assistant professor in the English department at WMU.

The discussion of Felon will take place at 5pm-6:30pm, November 2 at the University Center for the Humanities (2500 Knauss Hall).

Reginald Dwayne Betts will be visiting WMU on November 9, 7pm, 2452 Knauss Hall, to give a talk about his “Freedom Reads” project. Freedom Reads aims to place millions of books into prisons, one 500-book Freedom Library at a time, opened in every prison dormitory and housing unit in the United States. The Freedom Library and his other literary initiatives support the efforts of people in prison to imagine new possibilities for their lives.