Liberation Lit

We're a group of readers in Kansas City working with incarcerated readers to build a world without cages.

Sending books of all kinds to incarcerated individuals in Missouri and Kansas.

12/12/2024

Announcing the vendor lineup for our Holiday Book Mart, only two days away! Shop local this holiday season by coming to Liberation Lit’s Holiday Book Mart on Saturday, December 14, from 12-6 PM!

In addition to our line-up of local illustrators, poets, and stacks of books for sale, we’ll have local artists, including MacKenzie Illustration (), Quirky Goods by Coti Meier (), and Linnea Nierman () tabling throughout our holiday book mart, selling cards, prints, zines, ornaments and more.

BONUS VENDOR: Need a spooky holiday portrait? Stop by to get your photos taken by The Memory Limited () pop-up photo booth.

12/11/2024

Have you saved the date for our Holiday Book Mart this weekend? We have an incredible line-up of poets and illustrators eager to share their work with you, as well as a pop-up by the bookmobile, a used book sale from our personal backstock, and books for sale to send to our incarcerated leaders through Turnsol Books ().

Poets 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝘂 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗻-𝗥𝗮, 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗜𝗜, and 𝗝𝗮𝗰𝗼𝗯 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗽, and Kansas City’s Poet Laureate 𝗠𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗮 𝗙𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗹 () will be reading their works at 4:30 PM! Hot drinks and snacks will be for sale all day, so come for a cozy evening of poetry, prose, and a little treat!

Local children’s book illustrator 𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗟𝘂𝗰𝗶𝘂𝘀 () will be taking preorders for three of her books, I Am Haitian Enough by Josephine Lentner, A Letter to My Favorite Student by Dayonne Richardson, and Saving Kenny by Corinne Gaile.

We’ll also have a station where you can write holiday messages to folks incarcerated in Kansas and Missouri. Proceeds from this event will go towards funding our books through bars program into the new year! Do your holiday book shopping while donating books to people inside local prisons.

12/07/2024

If you’re in KC and have books you’re looking to unload, we’ll take them off your hands! On Sunday, we will be collecting donations for our Holiday Book Mart, and all donated books will turn into $$ to buy new books for incarcerated readers. We will hold a drop off in midtown KC on Sunday from 1-4. DM us for the location address!

12/03/2024

📚 🎁 ❄️ If you’re anything like us, you’re planning to buy a LOT of books to gift to loved ones this holiday season. Well, what if we told you that you could do your holiday book shopping AND send books to incarcerated readers at the same time!?

Join us on December 14th at for Lib Lit’s Holiday Book Mart fundraiser! Lib Lit will be stationed at our own book corner, where 100% of sales go to Lib Lit’s book program, Turnsol will be donating 20% of sale profits to Lib Lit all day, AND we will have additional vendors, refreshments, and spoken word poetry to be announced in the coming days!

Make a plan to come see us any time on December 14, and keep in mind you can always donate via the donation links in our bio!

09/14/2024

📚 SUPPORT LIBERATION LIT FOR BANNED BOOKS WEEK 📚

People in prison face oppressive book bans and censorship every day of the year. For Banned Books Week 2024, we are partnering with both and to get books to folks inside prisons! A donor has committed to a matching grant of up to $1000 for any purchases MADE BETWEEN 9/14 and 10/1 from our wishlist at The Raven and Blk + Brwn! This means that ANY purchase you make from these lists sends one book inside now and will pay for another one down the road.

Wishlists are made up of titles from our September and October catalogs. See the link in bio to purchase! (Link for Blk + Brwn coming soon!)

We know that censorship is built into the system of incarceration, and people in prison experience censorship in a variety of ways on a daily basis. The state of Kansas has historically maintained an extensive list of thousands of banned titles, and Missouri did away with books from family and loved ones altogether. The work we do is a small part of challenging this repression of ideas.

You can help us get reading material inside prisons in MO and KS by purchasing from our wishlists. Supporting is as easy as a couple clicks. Simply go to the list, select a book, and follow the steps to purchase.

If purchasing from the Raven or Blk + Brwn: select “in store pickup” at checkout and leave a note “For Liberation Lit”.

09/04/2024

Hello 👋! We are now in month four of our new book distribution process! Over the last couple of months, we’ve gotten around 100 book requests from folks inside Kansas and Missouri prisons, and we need your continued support to fill these requests.

Our September book packing party is coming up on Sunday, and we are in URGENT NEED of funds for shipping and packaging costs. (The books are covered this month, but shipping is one of the most expensive parts of this program)

Please follow any of the donation links in our bio to help us ship our September orders. It costs about $5 dollars to send 1 book, so even if you can only donate $5, it will go a long way to help someone inside get their book this month!

If you’re not able to contribute financially but would like to donate your time, please consider joining our packing party for this month! DM for more details.

Solidarity and Love,
Lib Lit

07/06/2024

Hello! If you’re interested in learning more about what Liberation Lit is up to as we transition to a new model for book distribution, come to our monthly meeting on Sunday, July 7th! This will be a virtual meeting at 3:00pm central time! DM for Zoom link.

09/22/2023

REPOST FROM

📣 Corrected info 📣
We’ve been informed that the Missouri Department of Corrections is working on “revising” this policy to not allow residents to order books & only allow digital books through Securus Technologies.

Our precious graphic incorrectly listed Anne Precythe’s email address. The email address is [email protected]. The Action Network one-click template has been updated! Please continue to call & email.
bit.ly/nomobookbans

09/15/2023

❗️CALL TO ACTION ❗️

No MO Book Bans! - toolkit and email template at link in bio!

Call and email Director of Corrections Anne Precythe and tell her to cancel the harmful new Missouri prison book policy.

Call (573) 526-6607
Email [email protected]

The Missouri Dept of Corrections has announced a new book policy that bans books and infringes on educational opportunities. The new policy is scheduled to take effect on 9/25.

CALL AND EMAIL THROUGH 9/24

Toolkit: http://bit.ly/nomobookbans

🗣️Sample script:

“Hello my name is _____ and I’m calling in support of incarcerated readers in Missouri. Everyone deserves to have access to books of their choosing and books sent to them by their loved ones. The new policy amounts to an unacceptable ban on books in Missouri prisons. The justification for the policy that books are a source of contraband is not based on any verifiable data. We are demanding that the Department of Corrections reverse this restrictive policy before it takes effect on September 25th.”

THE BACKGROUND

- On August 25th, the Missouri DOC announced that friends and family can no longer purchase books or subscriptions to be sent to incarcerated loved ones.

- Instead, people incarcerated in MO prisons will only be able to receive books that they pay for and order through prison vendors.

- The department cites drugs and contraband as the reason for the policy change, but the previous policy already required friends and family to have books sent through an “approved vendor.”

- This new policy therefore amounts to a de facto book ban for all those incarcerated in MO.

09/01/2023

You may have already heard about the Missouri DOC’s new. book policy, which bans all books purchased by friends and family from entering Missouri prisons.

A statewide coalition has come together to denounce the book bans and call for transparency from the Missouri DOC. More to come, but you can start by calling Missouri DOC director Anne Precythe to express your disdain for this policy!

Office of the Director, Missouri DOC: 573-526-6607

Per the previously policy, friends and family had to purchase books to be sent directly from an “approved vendor,” so the only person who touched the book before it got to the facility was the person packing it at the bookstore. Friends and family have never been allowed to send their own books from home. So the department of corrections is implying that contraband is getting in from the vendors themselves, which seems like complete nonsense.

⬇️from the press release⬇️
“Books are a lifeline for many incarcerated people. Books ordered and purchased by family and friends provide the only opportunity to send a gift to a loved one for holidays, birthdays, and other special occasions. As one Missouri prison resident shared: “They are trying to lay the blame on the residents’ families so they can take something else away from us; it’s the employees bringing stuff in. It’s bothersome that I can’t get any sort of gift from my wife at all anymore. The things she sent me are not available through the sources they give us.” Books also provide prison residents with connection to the outside world and educational opportunities, on top of being an enjoyable activity to help pass time.”

05/18/2023

Interested in writing with an incarcerated pen pal? Already signed up but having a hard time navigating the web of correspondence options? We’re holding a Penpaling 101 every month for folks who want to get involved or learn more!

Join us TONIGHT, Thursday, May 18th from 7-8pm over Zoom by going to http://bit.ly/liberationlitmonthly

If you’re wanting to sign up to be a pen pal for the first time, fill out our interest form (link in bio!)

04/28/2023

🔥 📚 INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE DAY is this weekend and we’ve got a chance to support indie bookstores AND send books to folks inside.

To celebrate Independent Bookstore Day on April 29th, a donor has committed to a matching grant of up to $1000 for any purchases MADE BETWEEN 4/28-5/8 from our wishlist at and ! This means that ANY purchase you make from these lists sends one book inside now and will pay for another one down the road.

Wishlists are made up of specific special requests we’ve received from folks inside, as well as titles from our catalog. Wishlist links can be found at https://liberationlit.org/wishlists.

Supporting is as easy as a couple clicks! Simply go to the list, select a book, and follow the steps to purchase.

If purchasing from the Raven or Blk + Brwn: select “in store pickup” at checkout and leave a note “For Liberation Lit”.

Address

Kansas City, MO

Website

https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=7HNT5MFLHAJSE

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Liberation Lit posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Liberation Lit:

Shortcuts

Featured

Asian Culture And Education Society USA

Want your organization to be the top-listed Non Profit Organization in Kansas City?