Human: What was Alvin Ailey's childhood like? Assistant: 
Ailey's childhood was filled with poverty and abuse. He was abandoned by his father when he was three months old, and his mother was forced to work in cotton fields and as domestics in white homes—the only employment available to them. As an escape, Ailey found refuge in the church, sneaking out at night to watch adults dance, and in writing a journal, a practice that he maintained his entire life. Even this could not shield him from a shiftless childhood spent moving from town to town as his mother sought