Ex Libris: Books to Prisoners

Ex Libris (description below)
www.prisonsucks.com
Anyone can spend several hours in a garage in downtown Chapel Hill reading letters from prisoners. Volunteers of the Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective, one of only twenty-five books to prisoners groups in the United States, send books to any inmate in the Southeast.

Ex Libris is a Latin phrase meaning "from the library of..." It is intended to be followed by someone's name or name of the library to which the book belongs. But standing alone, "Ex Libris" expresses the potential for literature to be nomadic, to shift between owners. For the Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective, the physical exchange of books between those both inside and outside prison walls also means the sharing of a greater vision.

The Collective formed five years ago to send books to prisoners in Mississippi, Alabama, and North Carolina. This piece is a small sketch of what the Collective does and how it operates. It does not and cannot unfold the story of the prison industrial complex although the collective's work is an effort against the PIC. For that reason, this video focuses on what these volunteers do and how much work is put into the project. The reasons why they do it are for you to research and explore.

The people you will see featured are some of the group's core and equal members who are supported by a rotating door of volunteers.

"We are not condemned to live in crime-fear, oppression, constriction, depression, joblessness, sickness. We have the power to create, and we must free that power as it has never been freed before. And, as it always has, once freed, it will offer us a world of inconceivable wonder."
-The Action Committee, Walpole Prison, NEPA News, APRIL/MAY 1975

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Ex Libris
• Prison Books
• PIC