Research: WR 153 Boston Homelessness Now (Spring 2024): About WR 153 Boston Homelessness Now

Featured Title

The 2021 Menino Survey of Mayors represents the eighth nationally representative survey of American mayors and is based on interviews with 126 sitting mayors from 39 states. The 2021 Survey explores mayoral views on COVID-19 recovery, equity and small business, closing the racial wealth gap, and housing and homelessness. The second set of findings, released with Community Solutions, delves into homelessness, including mayoral perspectives on roles, challenges, and opportunities for addressing the crisis in their cities. The 2021 Survey continues with the support of Citi and The Rockefeller Foundation.

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About This Guide

This guide provides selected course-specific resources for Visualizing the Monstrous (WR 153: Writing, Research & Inquiry with Digital/Multimedia Expression)

Featured Films

A Reckoning in Boston

Rutenbeck, J., Chandler, C., & Dixon, K. (Producers), & Rutenbeck, J. (Director). (2022). A reckoning in Boston [Streaming video]. Reading, PA: Bullfrog Films. Retrieved February 19, 2024 from https://docuseek2-com.ezproxy.bu.edu/bf-reck

Kafi Dixon and Carl Chandler enrolled in a rigorous night course in the humanities at a community center in their Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. Kafi, 44, sharp, witty and restless, dropped out of school at 15. She had her first baby a year later and two more soon after. Carl, 65, who lives on a small pension and disability payment in one of Boston's most dangerous neighborhoods, began the class with a keen interest in learning but little faith in educational institutions. White suburban filmmaker James Rutenbeck came to Dorchester to document the students' engagement with the Clemente Course in the Humanities. The Clemente Course is taught in 34 sites across the U.S.--to those who have experienced homelessness, transitioned out of incarceration or faced barriers to a college education. The Clemente mission is to foster critical thinking through deep engagement with history, literature, philosophy and art history. Clemente students, its proponents assert, become fuller and freer citizens. But over time James is forced to come to terms with a flawed film premise and his own complicity in racist structures. As he spends time with Carl and Kafi, he's awakened to the violence, racism and gentrification that threaten their very place in the city. Troubled by his failure to bring the film together, he spends more time listening than filming and enlists Kafi and Carl as collaborators/ producers with a share in the film revenues. Five years on, despite many obstacles, Kafi and Carl arrive at surprising new places in their lives, and following their lead, James does too.

SEE ALSO:

@Home
@home is a feature-length documentary that looks at homelessness in America through the lens of e-activist Mark Horvath. Mark has experienced the highs and lows of the American dream, from a successful career in television to barely surviving, homeless and addicted, on Hollywood Boulevard. But he found his voice again when he hit the streets, armed with a digital camera and a smartphone, to talk to homeless people about their own experiences. Today, he's the online voice of his cause, and he's bringing their stories to millions on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. The @home documentary follows him on a road trip across the country, from Los Angeles to Arkansas to Pittsburgh, as he makes homelessness in America visible.
yHomeless?
Glen Dunzweiler was faced with the threat of losing his home. Suddenly, a life that seemed reserved only for the mentally ill and drug addicted felt closer than he had ever imagined. This realization led him to question, what is it like to be homeless in the United States?
With only his production equipment, a car, and some bare essentials, Glen set out across America to discover what led people to a life on the street, what daily life was like for them, and what they had to do to survive. In order to better understand the homeless and the service providers he would interview, Glen chose to live virtually down-and-out by sticking to a minimal budget and sleeping only in his car or on a friendly couch when he could find one. Glen quickly experienced the desperation, irritability, and the instability that comes from going without the things we take for granted.
Ready, Willing, and Able
A look at the Doe Fund, in place to help the homeless help themselves in Manhattan. Morley Safer reports.