. >> columbus, mississippi, the birthplace of the great miracle playwrite.heme is those who escape from reality. the engagement with memory requires poverty. the blues out of mississippi is an engagement with memory and poverty, and is resillient against it. this is a love tour that fights back. tavis: my friend, cornell west, who took the poverty tour. thanks to the media mobilizing project, who put together these pieces. one reason we work with them is their mission to hire and train people from these backgrounds. tonight and again, all this week. i am joined by vicki b. escarra, from "feeding america." an honor to have you here. >> thank you, good to be here. tavis: september was the month when these census numbers came out. it puts the number at $50 million in poverty. this is hunger awareness month. >> the link between poverty and hunger is like other things linked to poverty. 50 million people in our country live in hunger. 16 million children. the link is there. we were stunned by the numbers and were a bit pleased because it looks like the food and s

i was a young playwrite and decided i had more to say about an artist. ♪ i started to fall in love witho just sing. i could create this concept album that could possibly one day be a broadway musical, and i would be in control of it versus being someone's type cast character for a role that has been played for thousands of years. so i started to write stories that i felt were inspirational, not just to me but to again all the people that i'm thinking about in my community. ♪ >> "metropolis" which suites one, we've only gotten to two and three. it deals with an android. you can mirror that to i guess the other, whoever you think is the other in our society today, whether gay, whether african-american, the minority and the majority. ♪ this deals with someone again, cindy may weather who is very special and she's bringing people together, the haves and the have nots, very similar to what i've always wanted to be looked at as, a uniter, somebody who brings people together, not catering just to a red or blue state, but creating this purple state where we can all live and breathe and love and