How do art and literature empower us to redefine justice? What are the long-term consequences for a teenager serving time in an adult correctional facility?
Join us for an exclusive screening and moderated conversation of March Forth, an intimate look at the life of Reginald Dwayne Betts. Incarcerated in an adult prison at just 16 years old, Betts transformed his experience into purpose, becoming an acclaimed poet, lawyer, activist, and MacArthur Genius Award winner. Through his nonprofit, Freedom Reads, he now builds libraries within prisons across the country. Prior to the screening, Betts and Heather Gerken, president of the Ford Foundation, will join for a conversation about his life’s work and justice in American society.
Directed by Emmy winner Robe Imbriano and co-director Valerie Hong, the documentary, a blend of live performance, animation, poetry, and memoir excerpts, offers a stunning story at the intersection of artistic expression and the realities of criminal justice reform. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Imbriano and Hong.
March Forth is supported by the Ford Foundation's JustFilms.
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, Dwayne's latest poetry book is Doggerel, released March 4, 2025. Dwayne 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, Dwayne 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. Dwayne holds a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Heather Gerken is the 11th president of the Ford Foundation. A nationally recognized expert on democracy, federalism, and elections, Gerken has spent her career working on bipartisan efforts to protect the rule of law.
Her work has focused on reforming the election system and fostering bipartisan collaboration to protect democratic institutions.
She has litigated voting rights cases, testified before Congress, and served in leadership roles on the American Bar Association’s Task Force for American Democracy and the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Political Reform. Her proposal for a “Democracy Index” inspired the Pew Charitable Trusts’ creation of the nation’s first Election Performance Index.
Before joining the Ford Foundation, Gerken served as dean of Yale Law School—the first woman to hold the position in the school’s history—where she expanded access for veterans, low-income students, and first-generation students, and championed initiatives to strengthen academic freedom and free expression.
Robe Imbriano is an award-winning director and showrunner. His animated musical documentary about the injustice of cash bail, “Criminal,” animated by Thomas Curtis with music and lyrics by Stew Stewart and Heidi Rodewald, is distributed by The New Yorker. He was the showrunner of the Hulu series, Killing County, with Colin Kaepernick. Imbriano co-created and Executive Produced the Netflix documentary series Amend, starring Will Smith and featuring Mahershala Ali, Samuel L. Jackson, Sherrilyn Ifill, Bryan Stevenson to tell the story of the 14th Amendment and America’s struggle with equality. He was a showrunner of the launch of Soul of a Nation, the very first major broadcast network series about Black life in America, nominated for 11 Emmy Awards in its first season. Imbriano has written and produced for everyone from Bill Moyers to Oprah Winfrey, and is currently Director of the Columbia Journalism School’s Documentary Specialization.
Valerie Hong is an Emmy® nominated non-fiction producer, director, and journalist based in New York City. A veteran of ABC News, her longform reporting has covered police brutality, presidential elections, book bans, mass incarceration, the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on oppressed peoples, gun violence, and all the ways these issues intersect in the lives of everyday Americans. She has profiled John Legend, Cynthia Erivo, Halle Berry, Elizabeth Alexander, and more. Notable credits include Colin Kaepernick’s Killing County, ABC News’ groundbreaking series Soul of a Nation, and Vice World News’ Gangs Inc. Her documentary work has appeared on ABC, Hulu, HBO, and Netflix to name a few. She’s a proud member of the WGAE and Brown Girls Doc Mafia.
In 2020, after staying in New Haven post-graduation, Dwayne 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 Dwayne often declares, “Freedom begins with a book.”
- Registration is required for this event and RSVPs are non-transferable. Walk-ins are not permitted at this time.
- All members of the public must present a photo ID matching the registration name.
- Bags are subject to security screening; large bags will not be permitted.
- Please email events@fordfoundation.org with any questions.
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