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R. Dwayne Betts
R. Dwayne Betts
Ex-convict, author and poet R. Dwayne Betts will give a lecture titled “Notes About Freckled Faced Gerald,” on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. at the Science Center's Kennedy Auditorium (G027) at Hamilton. His talk will document his physical and emotional journey from wayward teen to prisoner to university graduate. The event is free and open to the public.

At the age of 16, Betts—a good student from a lower-middle-class family—carjacked a man with a friend. He had never held a gun before, but within a matter of minutes he had committed six felonies. A bright child, he served his nine-year sentence as part of the adult population in some of the worst prisons in the state. Nevertheless, he resolved to better himself during his stint in prison, to rise above existence as a statistic.

He wrote his memoir, A Question of Freedom (2009), about everything he did while in prison to make his life more than the moments that left him standing before a judge in a Fairfax County Courtroom. A Question of Freedom is about a quest for identity—one that guarantees Dwayne's survival in a hostile environment that incorporates an understanding of how his own past led to the moment of his crime.

In 2007 he graduated with high honors from Prince George’s Community College and in 2009 he had the honor of addressing his peers and classmates at the University of Maryland as the 2009 student commencement speaker.

Betts founded the book club YoungMenRead, intended as a safe after-school outlet for teens in the Washington, D.C., area and is currently the national spokesperson for the Campaign for Youth Justice.

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