So I had a great date, but stayed up too late. As a result, I took another Mulligan in 2 weeks, and did not get up to bike to the farm. Instead I sleep in until 12, take a 7 mile run, into a Books Through Bars with the New York Chapter of the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) at Firebird Books in Cobble Hill.
Books Through Bars sends books to inmates who write letters from prison. We would read a letter, scope the donated book shelves for suitable suggestions, wrap and address them to be shipped.
We worked on letters from Texas. What's funny is that all the books are checked before going to the jail. Texas has a huge banned books list, but it was just easier to observe by the general rules. No rape, no murder, no LGBQTA+, no cop killing, no engineering or masonry or demolition, no abortions.
I was annoyed at the lack of selection. The donations are slim picking, most annoyingly through the series books/graphic novels/comics. There's no point in giving book 2 or 7 & 8 or whatever to someone in jail. How are they going to get the rest of them?
I had a lot of interesting requests. Someone was interested in the occult, wiccan practices, or witchcraft. Apparently escapism is not uncommon. Someone was interested in landscaping and the landscaping business. Another was interested in the military history of the Pacific theater in WWII. Still another wanted the autobiography or Fredrick Douglas and other African American history. I had a letter requesting material to learn Spanish. A big fantasy/comic book head.
It was fascinating to hear from these voices from a population I've had little exposure. I wish we could write notes. Or had more books to choose from. I would like to return tomorrow and donate a few books sitting on my shelf.
The bad side is that is frankly not that much fun to work in a dusty bookstore basement for 2 hours. There's no interaction, and no pay off.
It's important work for sure. However to get material into a jail is important. I'm going to maybe find other ways to help prisoner populations though. They're people and they need help. I will include a bookdrive/swap at the next Open Mic.