Claudine is a strong-willed single mother, raising six kids in Harlem, whose budding relationship with a gregarious garbage collector is stressed by the difficulty of getting by in an oppressive system. This romantic comedy with a social conscience deftly balances warm humor with a serious look at the myriad issues, from cycles of poverty to the indignities of the welfare system, that shape its characters' realities. The result is a bittersweet, bighearted...

Sara King has nothing, save for her secrets and the baby in her belly, as she boards the bus to Memphis, hoping to outrun her past in Chicago. She is welcomed with open arms by Mama Sugar, a kindly matriarch and owner of the popular boardinghouse The Scarlet Poplar. Like many cities in early 1960s America, Memphis is still segregated, but change is in the air. News spreads of the Freedom Riders. Across the country, people like Martin Luther King Jr....