In an interview with E-book Membership Chicago, Vic Mensa described the small print of his Books Earlier than Bars program, which goals to produce prisoners with books that may remodel their lives. Mensa additionally talked about his Books Earlier than Bars program to Excessive Instances in 2022.
At present, tens of thousands of prisoners are at the moment locked up on federal and state cannabis-related prices, which is likely one of the the reason why some hashish manufacturers and the leaders behind them purpose to alter that.
Mensa is likely one of the rappers making an attempt to try this. He defined that Books Earlier than Bars can hint its story again almost a decade in the past. Mensa gave a duplicate of Huey P. Newton’s autobiography Revolutionary Suicide, 1973, to an incarcerated buddy.
The e book tells the story of how Newton, co-founder of the Black Panthers, “mastered his reminiscences and, basically, transported himself mentally past the partitions of a jail” throughout his personal time behind bars within the ’60s.
“I’ve seen how the fitting e book on the proper time is usually a seed which, if watered and natured, can develop an inner freedom even inside the partitions of a modern-day plantation,” Mensa mentioned. “I began [Books Before Bars] with the hashish firm as a result of I needed to supply a freedom.”
In keeping with knowledge from the Illinois Division of Corrections, in 2019, the division banned hundreds of books together with many about race and racism, before being forced to change its policy after public outcry.
In keeping with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Illinois has the third-highest racial disparity in hashish possession arrests, with Black people 7.5 times more likely to be arrested than white people regardless of consuming hashish at related charges.
A few of the different books embody The Autobiography of Gucci Mane by the Atlanta, Georgia-based rapper to Sister Outsider—a group of essays and poems by Audre Lorde. Mensa advised E-book Membership Chicago that he buys the books in bulk from the Black-woman-owned bookstore Semicolon which is within the Wicker Park space of Chicago.
Semicolon is scheduled to be closed till August because it converts right into a nonprofit mannequin, nevertheless Mensa purchased books in bulk earlier than the shop closed.
Books Earlier than Bars program is an initiative funded by means of Mensa’s hashish line 93 Boyz. Mensa mentioned he launched 93 Boyz to “deal with jail reform and fairness within the hashish house.” Books Earlier than Bars is a giant step in direction of that objective. “Hashish has been used to grab freedom from so many households,” Mensa mentioned. “I felt it was crucial to supply freedom in no matter methods I might. It wouldn’t be responsibly aligned with my values to not have that socially minded angle inside the bigger framework of the hashish enterprise.”
A 12 months in the past, Mensa defined to Excessive Instances how he’d be launching a venture with Books Earlier than Bars, which was within the early phases on the time.
“Our first venture that we’re launching […] with the discharge of our full pressure portfolio is a venture known as Books Earlier than Bars,” Mensa advised Excessive Instances within the October 2022 challenge. “We’re placing over one-thousand books into Illinois jails and prisons. That is an concept I had from my very own expertise sending literature to folks in jail and seeing how their total life expertise could be—and has been—shifted by studying the fitting books. Should you can’t attain freedom but within the bodily, you will get it within the psychological when you’re nonetheless within the cage.”
93 Boyz is Chicago’s first Black-owned hashish model. Mensa co-founded the model with rapper Towkio a couple of 12 months in the past. The model sells eighths of flower, pre-rolls, and vape pens, and you could find strains like Jet Gas, Gelonade, Gary Payton OG, Rainbow Belts, or The Lotto.