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Events in the New York Metropolitan Area
Date: Mon. Sept. 19, 2022
Place: Brooklyn Law School, 250 Joralemon St., Brooklyn, NY
Moderator: Kate Mogulescu, Associate Professor of Clinical Law, Brooklyn Law School
Book description: "This singular history of a prison, and the queer women and trans people held there, is a window into the policing of queerness and radical politics in the 20th century. The Women’s House of Detention, a landmark that ushered in the modern era of women’s imprisonment, is now largely forgotten. But when it stood in New York City’s Greenwich Village, from 1929 to 1974, it was a nexus for the tens of thousands of women, transgender men, and gender-nonconforming people who inhabited its crowded cells. Some were famous – Angela Davis, Andrea Dworkin, Afeni Shakur – but the vast majority were incarcerated for the crimes of being poor and improperly feminine. Today, approximately 40 percent of the people in women’s prisons identify as queer; in earlier decades, that percentage was almost certainly higher."
The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison by Call Number: HV9481.N62 W6679 2022 (Main)Publication Date: 2022BLS Library owns two print copies of this book. Brooklyn Public Library and New York Public Library also provide copies in multiple formats.
Beyond the Bars Conference 2023: Seeding Justice, Center for Justice, Columbia University
Date: Mar. 24-26, 2023
Annual conference. Photos and recordings of plenary sessions from the 2023 conference are available at this site.
Book Donations
Would you like to donate a book (or books) to a public library collection at a New York City carceral facility or a residence for people reentering our community after incarceration?
Brooklyn's Greenlight Bookstore website hosts the Prison Library Support Network Wish List.
Q: Who chooses these books?
A: New York City library workers who offer library services to New York City's carceral facilities and residences.
Greenlight Bookstore explains that if you choose a book(s) and pay online, the shipping cost is included and the book(s) will be delivered to a public library collection in a New York City carceral facility or residence.
For more information about book donations, donation guidelines and highly requested types of books, visit this New York Public Library web page.
For information about Brooklyn Public Library's programs and services (including volunteer opportunities) for incarcerated individuals, visit this Brooklyn Public Library web page.
Brooklyn Law School Library Responds To Requests for Materials from Incarcerated Individuals
Brooklyn Law School LIbrary will fill requests from incarcerated individuals for specific materials (please include correct citations). Please list the most desired materials first. Due to budget and staffing constraints, requests are limited to one per month (per person), with a limit of 100 pages per request. Because of licensing restrictions, sometimes our library cannot fill certain requests. Our library staff mails photocopies and printouts of sources to an incarcerated individual's return address. Please mail correspondence to:
Brooklyn Law School Library
250 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201