Kafi Dixon dreams of starting a land cooperative for women of color who have experienced trauma and disenfranchisement in the city of Boston. By day, she drives a city bus. At night she is enrolled in the Clemente Course in the Humanities, a tuition-free college-level program for those who have experienced homelessness, transitioned out of incarceration, or faced barriers to a college education. Her classmate Carl Chandler, a community elder and full-time guardian to his young grandson, is the class’s intellectual leader.
White suburban filmmaker James Rutenbeck documents the students’ engagement with the humanities course. As he looks for transformations in their lives, he’s awakened to the violence, racism and gentrification that threaten their very place in the city. Troubled by his failure to bring the film together, he enlists Kafi and Carl as collaborators. Five years later, the students arrive at a new place—and with their support, James does too.
