We need a revolution of values…
I grew up poor and didn’t know it. We didn’t have the language for it. WE THE POOR is a new project dedicated to a movement to end poverty led by the poor that I’ve been part of for nearly 20 years - a movement I didn’t realize was for me and my family all along. Uplifting the personal and political, I’m engaging old and new artistic collaborators, and exploring forms that are both wildly new to me yet, at the same time, are like coming home to the creative expression that is our birthright, every one of us. This is will be a multidisciplinary theater performance seeking to honor ancestral legacy, familial ties, community, and to celebrate the collective power of the poor.
Our society blames the poor, not poverty. Often we as poor people internalize this blame. Cultural work can offer a balm, a beacon, a reminder of what is true. WE THE POOR is ambitious, lofty, even. But I’m taking a breath and starting with a single story. Check out the sample below.