In a hometown visit to New Orleans, Birdman visited Orleans Parish Prison to speak with incarcerated people. In a viral clip, one person requests more literature after the rap artist asks what they need. “You think having books is gonna…No disrespect to reading books.” Birdman responds, ignoring the passion behind the plea.
At that moment, Birdman dismissed the power of reading materials in prison. Perhaps he realized books are important as evidenced by his saying “no disrespect,” but just how important can books be?
Books are vessels for ideas. For many incarcerated people, education is an escape from life behind bars. From reading fantasy books for joy to jailhouse lawyers studying to fight for their rights, books in prisons are tools for the oppressed to live in and grasp freedom. Prison activists like Martin Sostre knew this well.
With the help of reading, Martin Sostre successfully fought against prison censorship, religious restrictions, and other prison abuses in court. Before his struggle, imprisoned people couldn’t freely access the religious and political reading materials they desired. Sostre paved the way for more access to learning, and we must never forget this.
Reading is one of the most important things we can do in a time when Black history is being attacked, and book bans are increasing nationwide. Knowledge is power and incarceration functions as another way to keep us from knowledge and powerless to realize a more liberated future.