Author: Danielle Hester (Danielle Hester)

By: Danielle Hester Marva Braithwaite, 37, cupped the New International Version of the Bible in the palm of her petite maple-brown hands.  She thumbed through the pages to the Book of Isaiah and began to read aloud, starting at verse 49:13. “Shout for joy, O heaven,” she intoned on this day during the late summer...

By Danielle Hester When Betty Bogan opened the front door of her mother’s apartment for 17-year-old Mushky Bruck, the aroma of fried chicken flowing from the kitchen struck Bruck’s nose. As she continued down the narrow hallway that led to the kitchen, the portraits of Bogan’s southern African-American family, draped on the walls, created a...

By Danielle Hester Two months before Kimberly Grey was to be released from prison earlier this year, she had no place to go and no family to take her in. After more than 16 years of incarceration, she was unsure of her place in the world outside prison walls. Knowing Grey’s situation, her counselor recommended...