Ocean State Libraries

"In the half a square mile of decay and demolition that was England's Saxon capital, eternity is loitering between the firetrap housing projects. Embedded in the grubby amber of the district's narrative among its saints, kings, prostitutes, and derelicts a different kind of human time is happening, a soiled simultaneity that does not differentiate between the petrolcolored puddles and the fractured dreams of those who navigate them. Fiends last mentioned...

Trick Baby tells the story of "White Folks," a blue-eyed, light-haired, con-artist whose pale skin allows him to pass in the streets as a white man. Folks is tormented early in life, rejected by other children and branded a "Trick Baby," the child conceived between a hooker and her trick. Refusing to abandon his hood dreams and a chance at revenge, Folks is taken under the wing of an older mentor, Blue. His journey to the top of the con game is not...

The classic, brilliant, bestselling account of the rise of the world's slums, where, according to the United Nations, one billion people now live. From the sprawling barricadas of Lima to the garbage hills of Manila, urbanization has been disconnected from industrialization, even economic growth. Davis portrays a vast humanity warehoused in shantytowns and exiled from the formal world economy. He argues that the rise of this informal urban proletariat...

Les bas-fonds (93 min.): A Baron, forced by circumstances, gives up his life of luxury and to takes up residence in the slums of Paris. The Baron observes the frustrated romance between Wasska Pepel and Natacha, the thwarted dreams of an actor, and the oppressive cruelties of landlord Kostileff. Donzoko (125 min.): Sutekichi, a vulgar, comical thief takes up residence in a slum flophouse inhabited by many eccentric, destitute people. Osugi, the cruel...

There are approx 2.5 million slum dwellers in about 200 settlements in Nairobi representing 60% of the Nairobi population, and occupying just 6% of the land. Kibera houses almost 1 million of these people. Kibera is the biggest slum in Africa and one of the biggest in the world. Most all of the orphans in Kibera have lost their parents to AIDS.