Poverty, by America: Matt Desmond & Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

61 Nassau Street,Princeton NJ 08542

23 March, 2023

Description

Poverty in the U.S persists because the rest of us benefit from it. In his new book, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted, Matthew Desmond, reimagines the debate on poverty. He is joined in conversation by Desmond’s fellow scholar about housing and poverty in America, the acclaimed author and activist Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. The journalist Andrea Elliott, who won her second Pulitzer for Invisible Child, will introduce the speakers. The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? In his new book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom. Notes: Doors open at 5:15PM; unclaimed seats will be filled from the waitlist at 5:55PM. Group/class reservations can be made by contacting the library via email ([email protected]) or calling 609-924-9528 x1220 About the Panelists: Matthew Desmond is professor of sociology at Princeton University. His books include Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. He is the principal investigator of The Eviction Lab at Princeton. Keeanga Yamahtta Taylor’s Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. She is contributing writer at The New Yorker and professor of African American Studies at Northwestern University. Andrea Elliott is investigative reporter for The New York Times and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, once for feature writing, and once for her book Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City. This event is co-presented by Labyrinth Books and The Princeton Public Library and co-sponsored by Princeton University’s Humanities Council, Scholl for Public and International Affairs, Sociology Department, American Studies Department, Anthropology Department, Economics Department, and the Kahneman Treisman Center for Behavioral Science & Public Policy at Princeton, and by Housing Initiatives of Princeton and Homefront NJ. Part of the proceeds from the sale of Desmond’s book will benefit HIP and Homefront, two important organizations that help the unhoused and housing insecure in Mercer County, NJ. The event is supported by a generous grant from the MacArthur Foundation with additional funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.