Kafi Dixon is a Boston bus driver and urban farmer who seeks equity for low-income women of color who have experienced trauma and disenfranchisement. Carl Chandler, a community elder wants to tell his family's story to the wider world. They gather with twenty other adults living along the poverty line at a community center in Boston to study art, history, philosophy and literature in a rigorous yearlong tuition-free night course. Kafi reads dialogues about the city in Plato's Republic, yet faces rejection in her own hometown, a prosperous metropolis swept up by the allure of development and gentrification. Carl, a disabled senior citizen who raised two daughters as a single father, cares for his grandson and reads voraciously. James Rutenbeck, a white filmmaker from the suburbs, has come here to document their lives. Over five years he witnesses evictions, chaos and calm persistence. He wants to remain a witness and allow Carl and Kafi to tell their own stories, but over time comes to understand the film cannot be fully realized until he speaks up too. Written by James Rutenbeck

• Plot Summary

• race
• humanities
• poverty
• boston-massachusetts
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• Documentary