Photographer and filmmaker Alan Spearman of The Commercial Appeal, has two short films on his website about life in Memphis. The first is “As I Am,” which features Chris Dean and his community’s stories of survival amidst poverty in Memphis, and the second, “April,” of a girl named Faith and a woman named Hattie Mae who are connected through the comfort of trees from the realities of life in Memphis.

Read his story here and the poem here.