Using parallels between the biblical story of Joseph and today’s urban workers, Robert Woodson Sr. pays tribute to the courageous men and women who are battling to change the lives of residents in the poorest inner-city communities.
Listening to Joseph is a tribute to a contemporary miracle — workers of the inner city who exemplify the imagination, courage, and the self-help ethic necessary to renew our communities. As the biblical story goes, Joseph was imprisoned by the Pharaoh, but when the ruler had a nightmare he and his soothsayers could not understand, it was the young man from the dungeon who was able to interpret it for him and thereby save the kingdom.Robert L. Woodson identifies with Joseph — seeing in him an example of the men and women who battle daily to change the lives in our poorest neighborhoods. While many such Josephs exist, Woodson argues, their efforts are too often ignored or disparaged by Pharaoh’s courtiers — the people who operate today’s social service networks. Always accessible and colorful, this powerful appeal for the health of America’s inner cities can resurrect the passion to fight poverty — but only through the vision and deeds of the street-level heroes whose efforts and voices we must heed.
The nation’s maverick urban organizer issues a compelling moral exhortation on behalf of modern-day “Josephs” who alone are solving the problems the poverty establishment can’t cure. Always accessible and colorful, this powerful appeal for the health of America’s inner cities can resurrect the passion to fight poverty–but only through the vision and deeds of street-level heroes.
Review
…an honest description of urban social decay, an assault on the poverty industry and an uplifting vision for African-Americans. — The Wall Street Journal, Nicholas Schulz
