The Freedom of Literacy
Released: Monday, June 01, 2026
Growing up in the housing projects, Ameer Baraka found himself falling behind in school early on because of an undiagnosed struggle with reading. He shares his deeply personal journey from school avoidance and incarceration to becoming an Emmy-nominated actor and author. Baraka explains why early screening and the right reading interventions are key for success in life.
Well, my journey basically started. I grew up in the Calliope housing projects. It was three of us. I was the baby boy. And early on, I began to cut school in, like, the third grade on Fridays because we had spelling tests and I wasn't getting it.
And I was beaten severely because I could not read or write. And my brothers and sisters, they did extremely well. They were fluent readers. They went on to do very well. Second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth grades, and went on to college and I fell behind. I got involved in drugs early on at 13, 14, using drugs.
I was completely hopeless and I ended up in prison. And ending up in prison, I realized that it was my inability to read that got me there. So, I tried to learn to read on my own by writing thousands of words down. And it took me four years to get my GED. And after I got my GED, there was a sense of pride and I felt good about myself.
And then my life began to shift because I realized that once you learn to read, you’re completely free. And so here I am now, an Emmy-nominated actor, advocate, going around the country, and have written two books. And I’m just trying to change lives and trying to get teachers and educators to realize that we must screen kids early on to prevent what happened to me.