Join us for Book Club at Bedford Books on Monday June 23 at 6:30pm to discuss That Bird Has My Wings by Jarvis Jay Masters. There will be lively discussion, questions posed and answered and time to connect with fellow YS Members.

This is a zero pressure book club – didn’t quite finish the book? Come anyway.

Hosted by Fran Hauser & Emily Winograd Leonard

Light refreshments will be available.

Member RSVP required.

This book is available for purchase at Bedford Books! You can also purchase the book online here and have it shipped to you. 

About the Book

The moving memoir of a Death Row inmate who discovers Buddhism and becomes an inspirational role model for fellow inmates, guards, and a growing public

In 1990, while serving a sentence in San Quentin for armed robbery, Jarvis Jay Masters was implicated as an accessory in the murder of a prison guard. A 23-year-old Black man, Jarvis was sentenced to death in the gas chamber. While in the maximum security section of Death Row, using the only instrument available to him—a ball-point pen filler—Masters’s astounding memoir is a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit and the talent of a fine writer.

Offering us scenes from his life that are at times poignant, revelatory, frightening, soul-stirring, painful, funny and uplifting, That Bird Has My Wings tells the story of the author’s childhood with parents addicted to heroin, an abusive foster family, a life of crime and imprisonment, and the eventual embracing of Buddhism. Masters’s story drew the attention of luminaries in the world of American Buddhism, including Pema Chodron, who wrote a story about him for O Magazine and offers a foreword to the book.

Thirty-two years after his conviction, Masters is still on Death Row. A growing movement of people believe Masters is innocent, and are actively working within the legal system to free him.

About the Author

An inmate at San Quentin since the age of nineteen, Jarvis Jay Masters is the author of Finding Freedom as well as many articles. In 1992, Masters won a PEN Award for his poem “Recipe for Prison Pruno.”

In 1990, Masters was moved to death row after being convicted of conspiracy in the murder of a prison guard. In April 2008, the California Supreme Court ordered an evidentiary hearing based on the lack of substantial evidence for Masters’s conviction. Many people believe in Masters’s innocence and are actively working within the legal system to free him.

Location:

Bedford Books
13 Court Rd
Bedford, NY 10506