Morning Edition; North Carolina Voices:Understanding Poverty; There is Where You'll FInd Me

kris rothe and is an artist and poet who lives in rally rowland is more often recognized by his adopted named langston hughes he's a fixture on the local spoken word community and although was not his intention he now makes his living from his art intelligent educated and outspoken rowland is hardly the face that many people see when they think of poverty all over to report for our series north carolina voices understanding poverty langston hughes produces visual art books of his own poetry and cds of his original music he's pretty loaded i'm eager to work qualities which would seem to lead to a good job and success but the economic realities of live television still boss that in mind no were some nice guys and then it was used as the grocery store he goes with a specific flat forth about

small packets homes like about my team sport is the only way to buy food for a week's worth of meals with ten dollars in his pocket i don't have a bank account and truthfully i do not know how many i don't know how i'm going to get the materials that and the animal normal monies come from hughes is often face hardships and uncertainties in his life back to his childhood full of abrupt an unhappy change he was born in a woman's correctional facility where's mother was serving time for writing bad checks his was sent to live with his grandmother until the age of four and when she died a male friend of the family took a man but the man was gonna work most of the time and when it was around seemed uninterested and fuses life he was pretty much he went out and tried to sustain some food and just keep the bills paid but he was deathly maggie no help move my homework are telling me how to do this in another i had to learn how to do everything pretty

much by myself his new father did manage to send a private school and by his senior year israel as the college and the chance for a better life was a real possibility a fellow in my life all the stresses from my childhood my adolescence i feel like all my doubts all the negative feelings that that i had towards myself and towards others around me in the situation i feel like that was all stored in to just dissolve his poem self through college support himself with a partial soccer scholarship and student loans but when he got out the opportunities he was expecting just want their award voted on a graduate of fifteen to cinemark as i did everything they going to do i figured surely this war it's ajar some decent money get out and finally he'll break the cycle of poverty have to go to when he graduated his father would lead instead hall says he's got a room in a rundown motel for seventy five dollars a week he'd had a string of low paying jobs to support itself from retail clerk unloading trucks in a

warehouse it's now been two years since he was laid off from his last job and she's still searching for work he says employers seem as over qualified for entry level positions and under qualified for nearly everything else still at least twice a week he visits his local library to get its job listings normally we're coming here looking for something that's related to a fascist or goat arts entertainment media the china to apply for the telegraph and is our position is but i'm terry it's a little not qualified enough for these jobs because it'll have enough of a track record of tape but because both i've been living in this location all mobley this is technically this is thou brute with little or no income one accuses biggest challenges has been fighting at home you live today in a finished basement of a friend's house near downtown raleigh where his apartment is small and dark but it's brightly decorated with his artwork an electric blue couch he calls cookie monster

next day i head of my orders table my drawing drafting table which is another handing down and this is one of the prized possessions and tables covered with fuses parenting products some of which are commissions between these drawings the silvas poetry books cds and they are speaking to he makes about five thousand dollars a year he says the recently used to say to make this work the focus of his life even though was hardly a living so after that we're west of walking around trying to get a job doing is than other families going to take my time and do something that's gonna be beautiful dish that they've created to the world to society focus on sauces song is all about you know at a local high school fuse leads a onetime poetry workshop goldstein if you want a technical definition of it there's so many definitions of

voting but the best way to explain it to you with his poetry is your best of words arranged in the vast or all the school gates like this won't pay the bills few says they're important because he understands these kids and can give them a much needed dose of honesty is that he's visiting whether there you know if it's going to go to you know you share unboxing allowed the book sketching the big seller so people have resources manhattan you really tell a child you can be anything you wanna be inspected don't have to believe that you still have to do it you have to put the work in enough to be sincere but at the same time miss yap also understand i realized it is tough and expect the kids to know that it's tough few says his life is about to get even harder in the last month he said difficult to paying his bills his landlady is to learn that he'll have to

find a new place to live in the next ninety days and isn't major car trouble which makes it almost impossible to make a living in north carolina despite his difficulties fuses steadfast his belief that everything is going to work out if i was worried about in finding money in a job such the end i would be very stressed out and things would happen but if i allow things that take its course and to keep the faith and keep the faith into something beautiful happening in my life that it's not at all over time you know that voice eddie's out there