March 31st: Tuesdays for Tucson to Benefit Read Between the Bars!

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Join Read Between the Bars on Tuesday, March 31st from 5pm to 10pm at La Cocina Restaula-cocina-tucsonrant and Bar for their weekly benefit!  Come and enjoy any food or drink that evening, and 10% of the sales will go to support Read Between the Bars’ mission of sending books to people incarcerated in Arizona.

While there, you’ll get to enjoy live music by Mik and Scott and Billy Sedlmayr. Mik and Scott, who are regular performers at La Cocina, use looping bass, sax, drums, and other instruments to create a unique, experimental funk sound. Billy Sedlmayr h

14370_10153522921613222_147247902024654458_nas been a contributor to Tucson’s music scene since his teenage years, when he was involved in local punk bands like The Pedestrians. Over the years, while sharing the stage and studio with the likes of Howe Gelb and Dave Seeger, his sound took a turn toward Americana.

Let us know you’re coming by RSVPing on the Facebook event.  Feel free to bring your gently used paperback books to donate at that time. Hope to see you there!

For questions, please email us at readbetweenthebars@gmail.com.

 

Free Screening of Award-Winning Documentary about Race, Class, and Criminal Justice

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BOAS DVDOn Saturday, April 27, Read Between the Bars and the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona will present a free screening of the award-winning documentary Broken on All Sides.  Directed by activist, lawyer, and artist Matt Pillischer, Broken on All Sides is an independent documentary about the intersection of race and class in our criminal justice system.

The screening will be held at 1:00 p.m., April 27, at the Gender and Women’s Studies Building, Room 100, 925 North Tyndall Avenue, Tucson, Arizona.  Admission is free.

A full synopsis is available on the documentary’s website, and a flyer for the event is available here.

Free Film Screening on September 18 and Community Forum on Solitary Confinement on September 19

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What kind of house would you dream of creating after spending decades in a six-foot-by-nine-foot cell?

In 2001, Herman Wallace, a prisoner at the Angola Prison in Louisiana, received a life-changing letter that asked that question. Herman’s House is the acclaimed documentary about his decades in solitary confinement–and his friendship with a New York artist who asked him to imagine different walls.

Herman Wallace is one of tens of thousands of people held in solitary confinement in the United States, even after the UN’s Committee Against Torture has recommended the abolition of the practice. Herman’s House provides a closer look at its devastating effects and an artist’s mission to call attention to its injustice.

On Tuesday, September 18, you can catch a free screening of Herman’s House from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Center for Creative Photography, 1030 North Olive Road, Tucson, Arizona. This film screening was generously made possible by the filmmakers of Herman’s House and is sponsored by ACLU Arizona, AFSC Arizona, the
Hanson Film Institute, and Read Between the Bars.

Dazed and Confused Magazine (UK) calls it a “shrewd indictment of solitary confinement…a protest movie without being sententious.” You can view the trailer at www.hermanshousethefilm.com and follow it on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hermanshousethefilm and on Twitter at @hermansfilm.

Following the film screening, there will be a brief panel and discussion.

For directions and information regarding parking at the Center for Creative Photography, please visit www.creativephotography.org/visit.

The following evening, ACLU Arizona and AFSC Arizona will host a community forum called Arizona Is MAXED OUT. The forum will look at the high costs of solitary confinement and its ineffectiveness at making our communities safer. Each year thousands of people are held in solitary confinement in Arizona, and the state plans to add hundreds more maximum-security prison beds. The forum takes place at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church (Geneva Room), 3809 East 3rd Street, Tucson, Arizona, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 19.

Thanks for Making Our Fifth Anniversary Fundraiser Celebration a Success!

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The volunteers at Read Between the Bars want to thank all of the people who made last month’s Fifth Anniversary Fundraiser Celebration a success.  We raised $520 to help us continue to send books to people in Arizona’s prisons.  Thank you to La Cocina for sharing a portion of the evening’s profits with Read Between the Bars and giving us a venue to celebrate our anniversary.  Thank you, too, to our many raffle sponsors, the musicians who donated their time to provide entertainment for the celebration, and the many people who showed up to enjoy a meal, drink, or dessert, learn more about Read Between the Bars, and buy raffle tickets.

Sponsors

La Cocina Restaurant, Cantina, and Coffee Bar
Antigone Books
Gloo Factory Ink
Laila Halaby
Knit Pride
The Loft Cinema
Tohono Chul Park
Revolutionary Grounds Books and Coffee
Wild Birds Unlimited (Oro Valley)
Jody Holmes
Elsbeth Pollack
Massage by Carrie
Anonymous RBtB Volunteer

Musicians

Nowhere Man and a Whiskey Girl
Folk ‘Em Up
Tin Lizzy and the Empty Flasks
Mitzi Cowell
Lisa O’Neill

Our Fifth Anniversary Fundraiser Celebration was a success, but the continuing donations of our supporters are what sustain us.  Read Between the Bars receives 50 to 60 request letters monthly, and we need your generous support to fulfill those requests.  Please visit our website to learn how you can donate and change the life of a person in prison.

Fifth Anniversary Fundraiser Celebration

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In the spring of 2007, a group of Tucsonans assembled to explore how to collect books and raise funds so that they could provide reading material to the many people in Arizona’s prisons. They were the first members of the collective that became known as Read Between the Bars.

Their efforts were a success. Five years later, Read Between the Bars (RBtB) has sent thousands of books to people in Arizona’s prisons and receives 50 to 60 new book requests per month. To celebrate five years of service, RBtB invites supporters and community members to its Fifth Anniversary Fundraiser Celebration at La Cocina Restaurant, Cantina, and Coffee Bar, 201 North Court Avenue, on Tuesday, June 12. Hours for the event are 5:00 to 10:00 p.m.

La Cocina has generously agreed to donate 10% of the evening’s net profits to Read Between the Bars, so supporters and community members will be able to support RBtB with their food and drink purchases while they enjoy music by the Menno Band, Folk ‘Em Up, Nowhere Man and a Whiskey Girl, and Mitzi Cowell.

La Cocina offers unique and healthy fare, including vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. Their menu features creative takes on familiar American fare, as well as dishes from around the globe, from spinach pie to chilaquiles to coconut curry.

Read Between the Bars will also host a raffle for prizes, including an autographed copy of local author Laila Halaby‘s novel Once in a Promised Land, an autographed poster from NPR‘s popular quiz show “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me,” and more prizes to be announced. Tickets will be available for a suggested donation.

Money raised at the Fifth Anniversary Fundraiser Celebration will go directly to the costs of mailing books to people in Arizona’s prisons. Read Between the Bars is an all-volunteer, nonprofit collective dedicated to improving the lives of people in prison by improving access to education, new ideas, or just the escape of a good story.

Help Celebrate Five Years of Service!

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Read Between the Bars is turning five in 2012! The RBtB collective was founded in 2007 in response to the growing rate of incarceration in Arizona and a grossly inadequate commitment to providing educational resources to prisoners. RBtB’s vision was to get free books directly into the hands of prisoners as a way to provide comfort in a harsh prison environment and awaken new areas of interest that can help prisoners, both now and after release from prison.

Five years later, RBtB has sent thousands of books to people behind bars and continues its commitment to act as an ally to the many people who are caught in a burgeoning prison system that ignores many of their needs. To mark its anniversary, RBtB has launched a campaign to reach 500 likes on its Facebook page by the end of the year–500 likes for five years of service. With a strong show of support, RBtB will look more appealing to potential donors and show that Arizonans want better solutions to social problems than an increasingly profit-driven and increasingly punitive prison system.

In addition to the Facebook campaign, RBtB wants to celebrate with birthday parties. A great way to support Arizona’s books-to-prisoners program is to have a birthday party for RBtB’s five-year anniversary. RBtB volunteers have prepared a Fundraising House Party Guide (PDF) that supporters can download and read to get ideas on how to bring friends, co-workers, and neighbors together to raise funds to send books to prisoners. RBtB’s postage costs are a continual challenge, sometimes delaying the shipment of requested books by up to six months. But fundraising house parties have had an excellent track record of success for countless nonprofits, and their timing for RBtB couldn’t be better during this milestone year. Let the parties begin!

Bake Sale at the 4th Avenue Street Fair!

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Hello, readers!  Our volunteers will soon be busy baking brownies, cupcakes, cookies, and more for our bake sale at the 4th Avenue Street Fair this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  We’ll be selling our baked goods at Casa Libre en la Solana (228 N. 4th Ave., a little bit north of The Book Stop and a little bit south of A Foam & Fabric Place) to help us raise funds to keep sending books to prisoners.  Stop by for a delicious way to help us send out our backlog of book requests!