Zaire Paige had a breakout role in Antoine Fuqua's movie, Brooklyn's Finest. He was seen as a rising star. But, it all went away when he murdered a gang rival and was sentenced to 107 years in prison. [more inside]
posted by reenum on Dec 21, 2011 - 22 comments

Poetry in Hell contains a complete collection of poems recovered from the Warsaw Ghetto's Ringelblum Archives. The project, which took ten years to complete, gives English translations of poems that are shown in their original Yiddish. [more inside]
posted by zarq on Jul 23, 2010 - 9 comments

The Ghetto Big Mac [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Sep 18, 2008 - 68 comments

Meet gold-toothed Vegas rapper Thug "Money Man" Presley, cousin to The King. Real name Kristopher Presley, Thug has been serving time in jail and just pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter for running over someone with an SUV in 2004. [more inside]
posted by miss lynnster on Sep 2, 2008 - 53 comments

I've only ever seen 70 & 80's era New York in movies and I've never really thought about their source of inspiration. Until I saw this.(a few graphic photos on that last link)
posted by concreteforest on May 26, 2008 - 55 comments

From the Magnolia to the Calliope to the Melph (part 2, 3, and 4), New Orleans projects are notoriously violent, but through the haze of murder and decay there is a project culture of dancing and revelry. Now the projects are being torn down in a mix of protest and unrest.
posted by plexi on Dec 20, 2007 - 23 comments

Ghetto Capitalists At once an outsider and a welcome participant in the ghetto economy, he found that he was suddenly part of “a vast, often invisible web” of economic exchange. That web supports the residents of Maquis Park and adds a strange sort of order to their existence, tempering chaos and adding predictability to the lives of Chicago’s poor. For the most part, the people he meets seem eager to trade. It’s just that much of what they’re trading isn’t going to meet with the approval of a law-and-order Republican or a bleeding-heart Great Society Democrat.
posted by jason's_planet on Sep 14, 2007 - 29 comments

A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust - an overview of the people and events of the Holocaust through photographs, documents, art, music, and literature. It is designed to prepare K-12 teachers to approach this sensitive topic. The content is presented from three perspectives: Timeline, People, and The Arts. Produced by the University of South Florida.
posted by netbros on Aug 29, 2007 - 7 comments

hotghettomess.com -- I found this by following links from an earlier post. I am posting it because it is full of content and wry commentary. Since it may need to be said, I am not posting this out of any prejudice.
posted by longsleeves on Feb 22, 2006 - 48 comments

From Baltimore to the Bush. Until 2003, the Baraka School in Kenya was home to 20-40 underachieving teenagers from inner-city Baltimore. As Time Magazine reported in 2000, the experiment was not without complications, ranging from curriculum deficiencies to disciplinary issues. PBS also did a short piece on Baraka the same year.

By 2002, though, things were shaping up. The Baltimore City Public School System found that students at Baraka improved markedly in their academics. One alumnus is an up-and-coming hip-hop star.

Baraka was closed indefinitely in 2003 due to terrorism-related security threats. But a new documentary, The Boys of Baraka, recaptures the essence of the place, its successes and its failures alike.
posted by greatgefilte on Oct 5, 2005 - 8 comments