Tara Libert, Co-Founder of Free Minds, Assumes Executive Director Position; Kelli Taylor Steps Down
By Julia Mascioli , Free Minds Summer Intern
In July, 2010, Tara Libert assumed leadership of Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop as Kelli Taylor, Co-founder and Executive Director of Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop, stepped down. Taylor will continue to work with Free Minds in a volunteer capacity.
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Kelli Taylor (left) and Tara Libert |
Taylor and Libert founded the program together in 2002. During the last eight years, Free Minds grew from twenty-five members to over 3-hundred and fifty, and is one of the leading organizations working with youth charged as adults in the District of Columbia.
“I'm thrilled to be able to continue the work Kelli and I started with just the simple idea that books and creative writing can change lives. Over the years, I've seen Free Minds blossom into a strong organization with amazing members, dedicated volunteers and loyal supporters and I look forward with excitement to the growth that lies ahead. Every day I’m inspired by the courage and commitment of our youth as they face daunting challenges with hope and a belief in the power to change,” Libert says.
Taylor recently discussed her plans for the future and her love of books. Before founding Free Minds, she worked as a television news and documentary producer, and, while this is quite different from running a non-profit, she sees a common element.
“I think one of the things I enjoyed about television,” she said, “which I also enjoy about this work is I love to know about people, so a journalist is always asking questions. One of the first things I always tell kids is how much I love to ask questions; I warn them that they need to tell me if I’m asking too many.”
Taylor might never have founded Free Minds if it hadn’t been for an extraordinary young man named Glen McGinnis.
Through her work as a journalist, she met McGinnis, a young man on death row in Texas for a crime he committed as a juvenile. “He was self-educated and had become interested in books all on his own. We were able to connect through reading books together…we became true friends even though we came from completely different backgrounds,” she said.
After McGinnis’s execution in 2000, Taylor began to volunteer with inmates, and found that books often provided the common ground between people who had led vastly different lives. She began volunteering with an organization called Offender Aid and Restoration at the Arlington County Jail in Virginia.
Describing her motivation after Glen’s death, she said, “I felt like I needed to do something so that his life would not be in vain and his enthusiasm for reading and learning could live on. I had been so impressed by his drive to educate himself, so it sort of crystallized in my mind that I’d like to use books as a tool to work with young inmates.”
As a mentor with Offender Aid and Restoration, she her first student was a 21-year-old man, who shared her love for literature. “The experience really showed me the power of sharing books,” she said.
She and colleague Tara Libert began sketching out the idea for the Free Minds Book Club. At first, they were just volunteers visiting the jail once every two weeks to bring books and have a book club discussion.
Taylor recalled her initial fear that the young inmates would be unwilling to participate, but this proved unfounded. “They were just so excited to have somebody come see them, and when we were able to bring books that really sparked their interest. I expected it would be tough to connect with these kids, but that was possibly the easiest thing,” she said. The real difficulty, as with all non-profits, was to keep the program funded. But they managed, and Free Minds has continued to grow over the last eight years.
As time passed, they expanded the program from a simple book club: “We got to know these kids and developed close relationships with them. And then when they moved on, going to federal prison or else going home, we wanted to continue serving them,” she said.
Now, not only do they continue to send books and letters to Free Minds members in prisons around the country, but they also help with reentry, assisting recently released youths get back into school, get their GEDs, or find jobs. As we spoke, a young Free Minds member was in the office, fixing a broken computer.
Taylor looks forward to watching Free Minds grow and evolve. “I am so excited to see my co-founder Tara Libert take over as the Executive Director of Free Minds. She will be an extremely strong leader of the organization and with her enthusiasm and drive, I know that great things are going to happen,” she said. What are some of the great things she has in mind? “I’m actually looking forward to seeing things like members on the staff, and one day maybe a Free Minds member will lead the organization.”
Although Taylor will continue to keep in touch with the program and its members, she will miss them. “I’ll miss seeing the excitement on a young man’s face when he’s just read his first book.” She wants to spend more time with her own family, and said of her plans: “In the short-term, I will be enjoying the rest of the summer spending time with my kids. In the long-term, I’m just looking forward to finding out what I’m called to do next. Whatever it is, I know that it will involve working with young people!”
Taylor seemed a bit astonished by the path her life has taken since meeting Glenn in 2000 and founding Free Minds in 2002. “If you had asked me back then if I would start a book club with teens in jail, I would have been very surprised. But I have been reading non-stop since I was about 9 years old. So I guess I have always loved books. And this has really just been about sharing that with others who really need it,” she said.
Kelli says she loves to read everything, but especially biographies and novels. When asked for some of her favorite books, she described the five best books that she read this year:
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
“It's the best love story I've ever read.”
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
“This is a great funny story about a nerdy boy growing up on an Indian reservation.”
What is the What? by Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak
“An incredible survival story of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.”
Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore
“A true story that will make you want to be the best person you can be.”
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
“This is the story of a young man who made it out of unforgiving streets of Baltimore, not just to attend college, but to become a Rhodes Scholar. When he discovered that another young African-American man from the same city, the same age, and with the same name, met a more predictable and tragic fate, he went to meet the man in prison and find out why their paths went in such drastically different directions.”