Birdsong: 'Story we tell about poverty isn't true' [Citizen-Times.com]

Buncombe hosts Mia Birdsong, national speaker on inequality, race, gender and community

ASHEVILLE - Mia Birdsong travels the U.S. to challenge assumptions people have about poverty and family. She will speak at the Diana Wortham Theatre at 6 p.m. April 25. The public is invited.

Buncombe County Health and Human Services and the Buncombe County Family Justice Center are hosting the event titled, "The Ripple Effect with Mia Birdsong."

Birdsong is best known for her TED Talk: "The story we tell about poverty isn't true," which has been watched more than 1.5 million times.

She is co-director of Family Story, a Washington-based nonprofit organization working to update the nation's outdated picture of family in the United States. She speaks at universities and conferences around the country on economic inequality, race, gender, community and self-determination.

Birdsong's remarks will be followed by a community panel featuring writer, arts educator and cultural organizer Tamiko Ambrose Murray; sexual assault and domestic violence survivor Elisa Jacobs-Thompson; professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Asheville Darin Waters; community and housing advocate Shuvonda Harper; and children's and maternal health activist Nikita Smart.

Birdsong's remarks come at a time Buncombe County is figuring out how to tap into the community’s talent to build strong, safe and thriving communities, said Lisa Eby, communication and community engagement division director for Buncombe County Health and Human Services.

"By capitalizing on the inherent resiliency that exists in every individual and a neighborhood’s local knowledge we can implement homegrown solutions that better address the needs of a community," she said. "The Tipping Grants we have been able to give due to our Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities grant and the recent approval of the Isaac Coleman Investment Grants speak to these efforts."

Health and Human Services in February received around $500,000 to grow its Economic Community Investment Model that funds neighborhood projects and programs.

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Read the rest of this article by Beth Walton, here: http://www.citizen-times.com/s...isnt-true/100689200/