poverty

The poets hail from diverse locations, cultures, and ethnicities but their work shares common elements of vivid detail, determination of spirit (either quiet or passionate) and compelling artistry. There is a stark realism to the poems that bears witness to the courage of the writers to face the truth of their ordeals and cut through the shame and stigma associated with the endurance of poverty.

A play about a black family's struggle to buy a house in a white neighborhood, after the father dies. An insurance check can allow the Youngers to escape their frustrating life in a crowded Chicago apartment, but escape means different things to each family member. It deals with their attempt to maintain dignity, self-respect, and a sense of humanity.

A young Negro boy learns the pain of humiliation and anger when his father is given an unjust jail sentence for stealing a ham from a white man. Learning to read and to discover that things do not die but become part of other things brings the youngster new hope.

The classic play about a working-class African-American family struggling to maintain dignity in a harsh world. Features a full-cast performance.

Highlights eight families in Milwaukee who are living in the poorest neighborhoods just barely getting by. Examines the eviction of families from their homes, and provides ideas for changing this increasingly common course in America.

In 1835, when his father is put in a Philadelphia debtor's prison, twelve-year-old chess prodigy Rufus Goodspeed is relieved to be recruited to secretly operate a chess-playing automaton named The Turk, but soon questions the fate of his predecessors and his own safety.

With her mama recently dead and her pa out of the picture since her birth, big sister Amelia is suddenly in charge of her younger brother and sister - and the family gas station. Harley Blevins, local king and emperor of Standard Oil, is in hot pursuit to clinch his fuel monopoly. To keep him at bay and her family out of foster care, Melia must come up with a father - and fast. And so when a hobo rolls out of a passing truck, Melia grabs opportunity by its beard.

From age three, McCutcheon Daniels, now sixteen, has been trained in Mixed Martial Arts and must keep winning to feed his five-year-old sister and father, but chance presents an opportunity to get out of the Detroit slums using his brain instead of his fighting skills.

After learning that her family adopted her, Valli runs away from home to live on the streets of Kolkata, India, where she begs, steals, and resists help from a doctor who reveals that Valli has leprosy.

When her family faces difficult economic times, Ivy tries to hide the truth from her friends, but as her lies unravel, she turns to her music and some new friends who show her that not everyone is who she thought they were, including herself.