Search Help

How does this work?
There are many ways to search the collections of the Freedom Archives. Below is a brief guide that will help you conduct effective searches. Note, anytime you search for anything in the Freedom Archives, the first results that appear will be our digitized items. Information for items that have yet to be scanned or yet to be digitized can still be viewed, but only by clicking on the show link that will display the hidden (non-digitized) items. If you are interested in accessing these non-digitized materials, please email info@freedomarchives.org.
Exploring the Collections without the Search Bar
Under the heading Browse By Collection, you’ll notice most of the Freedom Archives’ major collections. These collections have an image as well as a short description of what you’ll find in that collection. Click on that image to instantly explore that specific collection.
Basic Searching
You can always type what you’re looking for into the search bar. Certain searches may generate hundreds of results, so sometimes it will help to use quotation marks to help narrow down your results. For instance, searching for the phrase Black Liberation will generate all of our holdings that contain the words Black and Liberation, while searching for “Black Liberation” (in quotation marks) will only generate our records that have those two words next to each other.
Advanced Searching
The Freedom Archives search site also understands Boolean search logic. Click on this link for a brief tutorial on how to use Boolean search logic. Our search function also understands “fuzzy searches.” Fuzzy searches utilize the (*) and will find matches even when users misspell words or enter in only partial words for the search. For example, searching for liber* will produce results for liberation/liberate/liberates/etc.
Keyword Searches
You’ll notice that under the heading KEYWORDS, there are a number of words, phrases or names that describe content. Sometimes these are also called “tags.” Clicking on these words is essentially the same as conducting a basic search.

Freedom Archives Productions

These materials were used in various Freedom Archives productions released between 2000 and 2013.

Documents

Nellie Wong Reads The Owl Nellie Wong Reads The Owl
Format: mp3Producers: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Materials Recorded and Gathered for "Wild Poppies"
Nellie Wong reads Marilyn Buck's poem on Emma Goldman. works with Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party. She has visited and written to Marilyn for many years. Together, Nellie and Mitsuye Yamada created Mitsuye and Nellie for public television.
Uchechi Kalu Reads Blindfolded Men Uchechi Kalu Reads Blindfolded Men
Format: mp3Producers: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Materials Recorded and Gathered for "Wild Poppies"
Uchechi Kalu Reads Marilyn Buck's poem on racism and the prison system. Uchechi Kalu is a Nigerian-born poet who has conducted writing workshops at schools, prisons and community organizations. Her book of poetry, "Flowers Blooming against a Bruised Grey Sky", is published by Whit Press.
Staajabu Reads Black August Staajabu Reads Black August
Format: mp3Producers: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Materials Recorded and Gathered for "Wild Poppies"
Staajabu reads Marilyn Buck's poem in memory of the those who lost their lives through imprisonment or death for Black liberation.
Elana Levy reads I Saw Your Picture Today Elana Levy reads I Saw Your Picture Today
Format: mp3Producers: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Materials Recorded and Gathered for "Wild Poppies"
Elana Levy reads Marilyn Buck's poem for Lori Berenson, a political prisoner.
Devorah Major Reads Prison Chant Devorah Major Reads Prison Chant
Format: mp3Producers: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Materials Recorded and Gathered for "Wild Poppies"
Devorah Major reads Marilyn Buck's piece on the devastation of incarceration on the family. Devorah Major, San Francisco's third poet laureate, is also a novelist, essayist, teacher and arts activist.
Vini Bhansali Reads A 15 year-old Palestinian Woman in Prison Vini Bhansali Reads A 15 year-old Palestinian Woman in Prison
Format: mp3Producers: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Materials Recorded and Gathered for "Wild Poppies"
Vini Bhansali Reads Marilyn Buck's poem on Palestinian political prisoners. As part of Poetry for the People, Vini co-facilitated a writing workshop at the Federal Correctional Institution at Dublin, California (FCI Dublin), where she met Marilyn.
Marilyn Buck Reads Reading Poetry Marilyn Buck Reads Reading Poetry
Format: mp3Producers: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Materials Recorded and Gathered for "Wild Poppies"
Poem read by the author.
Jean Stewart Reads Bird Watchers Jean Stewart Reads Bird Watchers
Format: mp3Collection: Materials Recorded and Gathered for "Wild Poppies"
Jean Stewart reads Marilyn Buck's poem. Jean Stewart is a Bay Area poet, novelist, short story writer, and social justice/disability rights activist. Founder of the Disabled Prisoners' Justice Fund, she has been working with disabled prisoners for over a decade.
Presente! Performs Blues for Shaka Presente! Performs Blues for Shaka
Format: mp3Producers: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Materials Recorded and Gathered for "Wild Poppies"
Presente! performs Marilyn Buck's poem on the Jim Crow era, accompanied by music.
David Meltzer Reads Revelation David Meltzer Reads Revelation
Format: mp3Producers: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Materials Recorded and Gathered for "Wild Poppies"
David Meltzer reads Marilyn Buck's poem for Wild Poppies. David teaches at New College of California in San Francisco.