The Poor People's March arrived in Knoxville today, marching eight miles down Martin Luther King Blvd. After arriving at the Austin Homes housing project, the march split up into documentation teams to record economic human rights violations. Residents held a speak out at which they voiced their anger over the demolition of low-income housing to make way for a highway expansion, with no plans to relocate residents.

Later that morning, the Poor Peoples March walked to City Hall to demand a meeting with the mayor. The mayor would not meet with marchers, but they addressed their concerns to the deputy mayor.

After lunch at the Unitarian Church, the march moved downtown to collect the stories of the homeless people waiting in long lines to collect food and get into shelters. Among many others, marchers recorded the story of Tonya Williams (pictured at left).

We are from Dallas. I have just gotten laid off from Walmart. He just got laid off from a welding company. We were in between jobs and ran across this in the paper. They made it sound real good, promising him $17 an hour. We have to pay to get there and then they will reimburse us, pay for our hotel room and everything until he got our first check. Well they ended up closing down before we got there and they didn't let us know. So it took all our money to get there which left us homeless.

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That night, Solutions to Issues of Concern to Knoxvillians, a local sponser of the march, hosted an open-mic organized by Jack Herranen and Festive Revolution, Inc. Performers included Jimmy Logston, a formerly homeless Vietnam veteran and guitarist/vocalist, Jack Herranen (also with guitar and vocals), and a good many others. Marchers Cheri Honkala, Chuck Cleary, Carolyn Caesar and Knoxville resident Paulina Hernandez all read poems.

In addition, Tim Dowlin a.k.a. Teedizzy delivered both an improvised and written lyrical performance rooted in his experience as a poor person in America. The anger and power present in his words resonated deeply with the audience.

How dare you come against this?
My whole team is relentless
You aint' never seen the trenches
we can't even sleep on the benches
'cause you put metal bars there
now we got mental scars there
ya hear me? I'm the artist.
Ya fear me, 'cause I'm the hardest
thing for you to stop ...

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