The U.S. Census Bureau recently announced its 2022 poverty statistics. According to The New York Times, poverty in America had seen its highest annual increase on record. By the bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, one in eight Americans doesn’t have enough money to pay rent, to buy groceries, to survive, let alone live.
One in eight Americans. Nearly forty million people.
With so many Americans affected by poverty, in theory, we should see it all around us. When you think of poverty, what do you see?
I wrote an editorial piece for the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program arguing for resisting binarized narratives on poverty, empowering impoverished communities to engage in cultures of resistance, and seeking out narratives celebrating impoverished joy. Read here.