Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, lawyer, and the Founder & CEO of Freedom Reads, an initiative to radically transform access to literature in prisons.
Dwayne transformed his 2019 collection of poetry, 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. On Friday, April 10, he will be performing Felon: An American Washi Tale at the Carver Cultural Community Center (link to tickets) in partnership with UTSA Arts and Gemini Ink.
Dwayne won a National Magazine Award for his New York Times Magazine essay “Getting Out,” which chronicles his journey from prison to becoming a licensed attorney. He is a MacArthur Fellow and has been awarded fellowships from Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the National Endowment for the Arts, Emerson Collective, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Dwayne holds a JD from Yale Law School.
Dwayne is the author of a memoir and five collections of poetry. His latest poetry book is Doggerel.
