End Poverty in CA Launches National Documentary Screening Tour

December 05th, 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact: 
Shaleeka Powell
Director of Communications
Shaleeka@endpovertyinca.org, (916) 907-4456

End Poverty in California Launches Nationwide Screening of “Poverty and Power” at Colleges, Universities 

“Poverty and Power,” directed by an Emmy award-winning filmmaker, is the story of what happens when you bring people with lived experience – their voices, ideas, and aspirations – to the halls of power.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Leading poverty abolition organization End Poverty in California (EPIC), led by founder Mayor Michael Tubbs and President Devon Gray, is embarking on a college and university tour where it will screen the documentary “Poverty and Power.” The film will also be screened at K-12 schools and other institutions across California and throughout the nation. 

Directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jacob Kornbluth, the film offers an intimate portrait of what poverty looks like across the state, as told by impacted leaders who are challenging historical and current policy decisions that create and sustain poverty. With nearly a third of Californians living in or near the poverty line, and new data showing the California poverty rate rising from 11.7% in 2021 to 13.2% in the first quarter of 2023 – the need to illuminate poverty and solutions has never been greater. 

“We cannot change the way we legislate around poverty without changing the story we tell about poverty,” said Devon Gray, President of EPIC. “These continued screenings of ‘Poverty and Power’ are part of EPIC’s work to replace a false narrative about poverty that blames people for being poor, with an authentic one that reflects people’s real experiences and recognizes that bad policy choices create and sustain poverty.”

Mayor Tubbs is nationally recognized for creating innovative solutions like guaranteed income to address poverty. “Poverty and Power” follows his next bold effort, a fight to end poverty in the state of California. In 2022, Tubbs and EPIC had an idea about how to combat poverty that was as simple as it was revolutionary: listen. 

In the documentary, Tubbs takes viewers on a journey as he travels across the state on EPIC’s listening tour. From Antioch to Los Angeles, Fresno to Ontario, and other stops along the way, we meet people battling issues like environmental racism, incarceration and reentry, the high costs of housing and bad landlords, a lack of access to capital, and much more. Their stories challenge the way we talk and think about poverty, and reveal opportunities for meaningful policy change. Ultimately, “Poverty and Power” is an empowering story of what might happen and how transformative it would be if people in poverty were not just listened to, but actually heard and represented in the halls of power.

In the past month, EPIC screened the movie as part of a community conversation it had with Shasta College in Redding, California, at Compton College with students and the college President, Dr. Keith Curry, and at University of California, Merced. Now, in partnership with Picture Motion, EPIC is officially launching a tour with the following stops:

1. December 1, 4, and 5: University of Hawaii (Maui, HI)
   – Hosting 3 screenings with Hawaii Institute for Human Rights and the Office of Innovation & Sustainability
2. December 3: Unitarian Universalists of Merced (Merced, CA)
3. December 7: Capital Innovation Academy (Sacramento, CA)
4. December 9: New Mexico State University – College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (Las Cruces, New Mexico)
5. December 18-21: Barstow Junior High School (Barstow, CA)
6. January 17: Stanford University (Stanford, CA)
   – Hosting screening with Haas Center for Public Service, Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, Institute for Policy Research (SIEPR), and UAR 82: Pathways of Public Service Course
7. January 17: Oregon Institute of Technology (Klamath Falls, Oregon)
8. February 6:College of the Holy Cross – Department of Sociology & Anthropology (Worcester, MA)
9. March 4: Montgomery College – Institute for Race, Justice, & Civic Engagement (Takoma Park, MD)
10. March 4: Texas Woman’s University – School of Social Work, Psychology, and Philosophy (Denton, TX)
11. March 20 and June 19: Metropolitan Community College – Re-entry Program (Omaha, NE) 
12. April 8: Bakersfield College – Rising Scholars Program (Bakersfield, CA)

In 2024, EPIC is currently planning screenings at California State University, Fresno; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Santa Barbara and University of California, Los Angeles. Colleges and universities are also exploring screenings in Illinois, Wisconsin, Colorado, Nebraska, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas, Washington State, and Kentucky. EPIC will attend many of the screenings in California, while also providing a discussion guide as an option for those doing screenings on their own. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to continue working with EPIC towards poverty abolition.

The upcoming screenings of “Poverty and Power” demonstrate EPIC’s unwavering commitment to policy advocacy, power-building, and narrative change – all of which are informed by the voices and ideas of people with lived experience. 

To stream “Poverty and Power” please visit: Poverty and Power Film

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About End Poverty in California (EPIC): 

Led by former Mayor of Stockton, California, Michael Tubbs, End Poverty in California (EPIC) is a nonprofit organization that brings together local leaders, advocates, policymakers, funders, cultural influencers, and communities to work towards ending poverty and creating equal opportunity. Through narrative change, bold policy innovation, and power-building, EPIC is working to create new systems that promote economic mobility for all, and that center dignity. To learn more, please visit endpovertyinca.org and follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.