The Odyssey Project is a free, eight-month program of college-level humanities courses for people living in poverty. Students in the class of 2006 took courses from September through May at the Ariel School on the South Side and at the Howard Area Community Center in Rodgers Park on the North Side. Educator and writer Earl Shorris is the speaker at this year’s graduation and the author of numerous books and articles dealing with a wide variety of issues related to education, poverty, capitalism, indigenous peoples, and Latin America, including New American Blues: A Journey Through Poverty to Democracy and Riches for the Poor: The Clemente Course in the Humanities.

Recorded Saturday, May 20, 2006 at Alliance Française de Chicago.