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BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — Poet, lawyer, and Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts will receive the Clemente Course Public Humanities Prize on September 25, 2026.
The Clemente Course is a national nonprofit dedicated to providing a free, transformative educational experience for adults facing economic hardship and adverse circumstances, from Boston, MA to Oakland, CA.
The award celebration will include a reading by the author, followed by a discussion. It will take place at 5pm on Sept. 25 at Trident Booksellers and Cafe, 338 Newbury Street, Boston, MA and is open to the public.
The Clemente Course in the Humanities is proud to name Betts as the second recipient of its Public Humanities Prize, made possible through the generous support of the Mellon Foundation. The prize honors a changemaker and thought leader whose work exemplifies the ideals of the Clemente Course and its belief in the transformative power of the humanities in public life.
Clemente Course Executive Director Dr. Aaron Rosen commented:
“We received nominations from faculty, staff, and students across our network of thirty courses and we were profoundly moved by the interest in Dwayne’s work from all corners of the country. Students and alumni from our partner program Common Good Atlanta, which serves incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students, were particularly impressed by his foundational work with Freedom Reads.
Personally, I was blown away by the power of Dwayne’s poetry, especially Felon, which felt to me like it had been hammered out on an anvil. I couldn’t sleep after reading those poems, and I had the same searing experience I remember years ago when I read the opening words of Primo Levi’s If This Is a Man. Through both his non-profit work and his writing, Dwayne is pushing the public humanities in urgently needed directions, places we must go if we are serious about uplifting individuals and communities in need.”
When asked about receiving the prize, Betts remarked:
“The Clemente Course creates opportunities that many have long sought and struggled to piece together on their own. I remember years when I worked desperately while in prison to build for myself what they have been building for so many others. I think about what Clemente provides to those returning from prison; I remember when I came home and didn’t know what the word semester was but had the intellectual ability to excel in a classroom. Clemente is creating a space for people like me. I’m honored.”
The Clemente Course in the Humanities provides a transformative educational experience for adults facing economic hardship and adverse circumstances. Its free college humanities courses empower students to further their education and careers, become effective advocates for themselves and their families, and engage actively in the cultural and civic lives of their communities. Clemente educates people in spaces embedded in their communities, from health centers to public libraries. The Clemente Course is free and provides crucial wrap-around support including childcare, books, and transportation costs. It is active in more than thirty locations across the United States, from Boston, MA to Oakland, CA. Clemente has been honored by a National Humanities Medal and received prestigious grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation for its pivotal work in the public humanities. At a time when many institutions are cutting humanities programs, Clemente wagers on their enduring value and power to uplift individuals and communities.
Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, lawyer, and the Founder & CEO of Freedom Reads, an initiative to radically transform access to literature in prisons.
The author of a memoir and five collections of poetry, Betts’ latest poetry book is Doggerel. Betts transformed his 2019 collection of poetry, the American Book Award-winning Felon, into a solo theater show that explores the post-incarceration experience and lingering consequences of a criminal record through poetry, stories, and engaging with the timeless and transcendental art of papermaking.
In 2019, Betts won the National Magazine Award in the Essays and Criticism category for his New York Times Magazine essay, Getting Out, that chronicles his journey from prison to becoming a licensed attorney. In 2021 he became a MacArthur Fellow, and in the past has been awarded fellowships from Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, the National Endowment of the Arts, Emerson Collective, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Betts holds a J.D. from Yale Law School.
In 2020, after staying in New Haven post-graduation, Betts founded Freedom Reads with a $5.25 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. Freedom Reads, headquartered in Hamden, CT and employing several formerly incarcerated individuals, is the only organization in the country with a mission to open libraries in prison cell blocks, and thereby supports the efforts of incarcerated individuals to imagine new possibilities for their lives. To date, Freedom Reads has opened more than 600 Freedom Libraries in 60 adult and youth prisons across 15 states. These libraries provide a focus where conversation and community can begin inside and outside of prison walls. They are objects of beauty, handcrafted by teams that include people who themselves have served time in prison and populated with a 500-book, carefully curated collection that includes poetry, literature, non-fiction, and more. As Betts often declares, “Freedom begins with a book.”
