Give Us Your Poor is a project started by John McGah at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston.  It is an ongoing campaign to bring awareness to the issue of homelessness.  I became involved while an undergraduate at the university, primarily as a documentarian and musical consultant.

A cornerstone of the project was producing a CD pairing signed recording artists with previously homeless musicians.  Among the recording artists involved were Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Natalie Merchant, and in this promotional video, Dan Zanes and Kyra Middleton singing Leadbelly’s Boll Weevil.

The session was recorded at Dan Zanes’ home in Brooklyn, New York.