MSNBC’s website launched a new feature series that will run through the summer called The Geography of Poverty. Trymaine Lee and photographer Matt Black will be chronicling the experience of traveling across the country to communities that all fall below the poverty line. The first installment was released today and additional stories will be released throughout the next few months.
“We’re always looking for compelling, emotional stories that have been overlooked or ignored. And there isn’t a bigger story that is as hard to tell as the story of deep-seated inequality and poverty in the United States,” ep and executive editor of MSNBC.com Richard Wolffe told TVNewser. “This is a story crying out for a new way to tell it, so we created a whole new multimedia feature package. We’re looking forward to seeing it develop as Matt and Trymaine travel the country this summer.”
The series aims to give a face to the reality of poverty that exists across this country. Black will be logging his journey each day on Instagram, while Lee will connect with him at several points in the upcoming weeks to write articles for the website. The site also contains statistics about poverty and gives historical perspective on how the U.S. got to where it is today.