The poetry of Lauren Schmidt does what poetry should do: make the invisible visible, indelibly, unforgettably. If ever a collection of poems embodied Whitman"s dictum to speak for "the rights of them the others are down upon," this is it...The poems inspired by the experience of working with this community--in The Dining Room and beyond--humanize the dehumanized, compelling us to see what we do not see and hear what we do not hear, to gaze upon the "ugly" until it becomes beautiful, to re-imagine, re-invent and repair the world. -From the Foreword by Martin Espada