Pisgah Legal Services will present its Annual Justice Forum on Tuesday, October 17, featuring Pulitzer Prize winner Matthew Desmond as the keynote speaker. The free event will begin at 7 p.m. at the UNC Asheville Sherrill Center Kimmel Arena. There is also a ticketed reception that begins at 5:30 p.m. and the event will be livestreamed.
Desmond is a professor of sociology, a MacArthur “Genius” and the founder of Princeton University’s Eviction Lab. He has authored several books that have revolutionized the public understanding of poverty in America, including Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City and his most recent book, Poverty, by America. During the Justice Forum, Desmond will discuss the question investigated in this most recent book: why does the richest country on earth allow its citizens to experience such remarkable levels of poverty?
“Desmond is a compelling and dynamic speaker who both illustrates why America has more poverty than any other advanced democracy and also suggests solutions on how we, both as individuals and as a country, can change that,” says Ally Donlan Wilson, chief development officer for Pisgah Legal Services. “He will share ways that we can create change by becoming ‘poverty abolitionists’ on both a micro and macro level. Pisgah Legal intends the Justice Forum to be informative but also an event that inspires people to take action.”
For more information about the event, contact Lori Nierzwick at 828.818.5474 or visit PisgahLegal.org/justiceforum.
