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Volume 14: Issue 21 August 23 - September 5, 2017
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Street Sense is the street media center of our nation’s capital. We aim to serve as a vehicle for elevating voices and public debate on issues relating to poverty while also creating economic opportunities for people who are facing homelessness in our community.
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES www.StreetSense.org Artist/Vendor Ken Mar tin has curated a playlist “in tribute to a phenomenal musician that I have enjoyed since the early 80s.” Jazz artist Chuck Loeb died on July 31, 2017, at a very young 61. Read and listen to more at StreetSense.org
COVER ART Food Rescue USA drops good food, “rescued”” from being discarded by businesses, to beneficieries like the latin american youth center. PHOTO COURTESY OF FOOD RESUCE US / DC
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OUR STORY Street Sense began in August 2003 after Laura Thompson Osuri and Ted Henson approached the National Coalition for the Homeless on separate occasions with the idea to start a street paper in Washington, D.C. Through the work of dedicated volunteers, Street Sense published its first issue in November 2003. In 2005, Street Sense achieved 501 ( c ) 3 status as a nonprofit organization, formed a board of directors and hired a full-time executive director. Today, Street Sense is published every two weeks through the efforts of four salaried employees, more than 100 active vendors, and dozens of volunteers. Nearly 30,000 copies are in circulation each month.
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jeremy Bratt, Max Gaujean, Margaret Jenny, Jennifer Park, Reed Sandridge, Dan Schwartz, Jeremy Scott, John Senn, Kate Sheppard, Annika Toenniessen, Martin Totaro EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Brian Carome EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Eric Falquero COMMUNICATIONS & SALES MANAGER Jeff Gray VENDOR PROGRAM MANAGER Mysa Elsarag EVENTS & ADMINISTRATION MANAGER Dani Gilmour CASE MANAGER Colleen Cosgriff INTERNS Maren Adler WRITERS GROUP ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE Donna Daniels, Willie Schatz OPINION EDITORS (VOLUNTEER) Rachel Brody, Arthur Delaney, Britt Peterson EDITORIAL VOLUNTEERS Justin Benedict, Lenika Cruz, Roberta Haber, Jesse Helfrich, Laura Osuri, Andrew Siddons, Jackie Thompson, Marian Wiseman VENDORS Shuhratjon Ahamadjonov, Gerald Anderson, Charles Armstrong, Lawrence Autry, Daniel Ball, Aida Basnight, Phillip Black, Reginald Black, Melanie Black, Phillip Black Jr., Maryann Blackmon, Viktor Blokhine, Debora Brantley, Andre Brinson, Donald Brown, Joan Bryant, Elizabeth Bryant, Brianna Butler, Melody Byrd, Conrad Cheek, Aaron Colbert, Anthony Crawford, Walter Crawley, Kwayera Dakari, James Davis, Clifton Davis, Charles Davis, David Denny, Reginald Denny, James DeVaughn, Ricardo Dickerson, Dennis Diggs, Alvin Dixon-El, Ronald Dudley, Charles Eatmon, Deana Elder, Julie Ellis, Jemel Fleming, Chon Gotti, Marcus Green, Barron Hall, Tyrone Hall, Richard Hart Lorrie Hayes, Patricia Henry, Jerry Hickerson, Ray Hicks, Sol Hicks, Rachel Higdon, Ibn Hipps, Leonard Hyater, Joseph Jackson, Carlton Johnson, Donald Johnson, Harold Johnson, Allen Jones, Mark Jones, Morgan Jones, Linda Jones, Darlesha Joyner, Juliene Kengnie, Kathlene Kilpatrick, Hope Lassiter, John Littlejohn, James Lott, Scott Lovell, Michael Lyons, Jimmy M. Ken Martin, Joseph Martin, Kina Mathis, Michael Lee Matthew, Authertimer Matthews, Charlie Mayfield, Jermale McKnight, Jeffery McNeil, Ricardo Meriedy, Cynthia Mewborn, Kenneth Middleton, Cecil More, L. Morrow, Evelyn Nnam, Moyo Onibuje, Earl Parker, Jacquelyn Portee, Lucifer Potter, Ash-Shaheed Rabil, Henrieese Roberts, Anthony Robinson, Doris Robinson, Raquel Rodriquez, Lawrence Rogers, Joseph Sam, Chris Shaw, Patty Smith, Smith Smith, Gwynette Smith, Ronald Smoot, Franklin Sterling, Warren Stevens James Stewart, Beverly Sutton, Sybil Taylor, Archie Thomas, Shernell Thomas, Craig Thompson, Eric ThompsonBey, Sarah Turley-Colin, Carl Turner, Jacqueline Turner, Leon Valentine, Grayla Vereen, Ron Verquer, Martin Walker, Michael Warner, Robert Warren, Angelyn Whitehurst, William Whitsett, Wendell Williams, Sasha Williams, Judson Williams III, Ivory Wilson, Denise Wilson, Charles Woods
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D.C. Responds to Racial Violence in Charlottesville
By Adam Sennott Thrive Detroit / INSP
O
ne person died and dozens were injured after violence erupted at a White nationalist rally in Charlottesville Virginia Saturday, August 12. The “Unite the Right” rally was organized by Jason Kessler, a white nationalist who described the event on his Facebook page as “biggest pro-Confederate right-wing rally of the year!” The rally began in Emancipation Park at around 7 a.m. and began spiraling out of control after two people were injured in an altercation near the park, the city said on its official Twitter account. By about 11:30 a.m. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency in Charlottesville, according to a statement released by his office. A short time later a car drove through a crowd of people in the downtown area,
On August 13, thousands of demostrators marched through Judiciary Square and gathered at the base of the Albert Pike statue, a gift of the Freemasons. PHOTOS BY ORION DONOVAN-SMITH killing 32-year-old Heath Heyer and injuring 19 others, Charlottesville police said on their Facebook page. James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, was arrested for the crash, the city said in a statement on its Twitter page. Charges include one count of second degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and failure to stop in an accident that resulted in death. Two Virginia State Troopers were also killed when their helicopter crashed in Albemarle County, Virginia State Police said on their Facebook page. According to ABC News, Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates were killed while assisting in the response to the violent rally. As chaos ensued, Kessler told people on his Twitter page to “be peaceful.”
The next day in Washington, thousands gathered at the White House at 7 p.m. to hold a vigil for those that died. The crowd then marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to protest White supremacy. They passed Trump International Hotel and gathered in Judiciary Square, where the District’s only outdoor statue of a Confederate Civil War general, Albert Pike, resides. Several protests, calls for removal of the statue and instances of vandalism of the statue occurred throughout the following week. On Friday, August 18, D.C. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton called for removal of the statue, which is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. “Generally, Norton opposes simply tearing down Confederate statues but believes they should be moved to more
STREET SENSE August 23 - September 5, 2017
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appropriate settings, like museums, to avoid erasing an important part of history from which Americans must continue to learn. However, she does not believe that Pike’s statue should be placed on federal land or on D.C. land,” according to a news release issued by her office. A public memorial service was held by Heather Heyer’s family on Aug. 16 in Charlottesville, followed by a candelight vigil on the University of Virginia campus located there. Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, asked those in attendance to speak out for fairness. “Find what’s wrong and say to yourselves, ‘What can I do to make a difference?’” In the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, racial justice rallies were held in over 30 U.S. cities on Aug. 19. ■ This article was first published by our sister street paper in Detroit. It has been updated and reprinted thanks to the International Network of Street Papers, http://insp.ngo.
Planning for Winter 2017-18 An Aug. 14 public meeting at the Shaw Library allowed scrutiny of the city’s Winter Plan to protect and serve the homeless community during the 2017-18 hypothermia season. Extra resources outlined in the plan will be available from Nov. 1 to March 31. Of the six deaths due to hypothermia in FY2016, two people were confirmed to have been homeless. The District is required by law to provide shelter to anyone in need when the temperature, including wind chill, dips below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Since 2015, city government has voluntarily implemented a policy to activate these resources whenever the temperature drops below 40 degrees Fahrenheit if there is a 50 percent or greater chance of precipitation. “I think it has saved lives,” a Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless attorney said of the precipitation policy. City government uses the number of people that accessed resources at the height of the previous winter to inform the new plan. Following capacity shortfalls, the Department of Human Services has already added additional emergency beds for women at the agency’s Adam’s Place service center. Due to legal shelter requirements for families, such as four walls and a door that locks, motel rooms have been commonly used as overflow shelter. For the past two fiscal years, DHS has been using motel rooms to provide family shelter year-round. After securing additional rooms for the winter, DHS intends to have approximately 650 rooms total to ensure enough space for families during hypothermia season. The plan also includes enough shelter and rec center overflow beds to accommodate 1,510 homeless adult men, 526 homeless adult women, 10 unaccompanied children and 43 youth ages 18-24. The Aug.14 session was noted in the draft plan as being focused on consumer feedback. However, only a handful of people experiencing homelessness attended. An attendee, advocate and Street Sense Vendor Reginald Black, proposed additional ways to improve services to the homeless community year round. He suggested adding a shelter transport route specifically for the LGBTQ community, from the downtown pickup/ dropoff location to Casa Ruby and back. Black also said that service providers should have more language resources beyond English and Spanish. A hotline is already available to help bridge language barriers. However, an employee of So Others Might Eat agreed with Black that it can be difficult to communicate to a non-English-speaking client that they must use your phone to speak with a translator. Another ICH Emergency Response and Shelter Operations committee meeting is scheduled for Aug. 30 at 1 p.m. at 64 New York Ave. NE. The plan will remain open to input through the end of that meeting. To provide input ahead of the meeting, anyone interested may contact committee co-chair Jill Carmichael, jill.carmichael@theaterchurch. com. The plan will be considered final as of Sept. 1 and internally voted on later that month. ■ —Eric Falquero, Editor
Service To Justice Conference Provides a Seat at the Table By Reginald Black, Artist/Vendor, “Da Street Reportin’ Artist” Organizers from across the city came together in May for the third annual Service to Justice conference. These events are designed to confront some of the difficult questions facing service providers, advocates, and organizers working for justice in Washington, D.C., according to the event’s website. “Even as ‘do-gooders,’ [we] can and often do perpetuate structural racism and systemic poverty,” the description continued. This year the People for Fairness Coalition held a plenary to share some of their current work and build partnerships with other organizations and community groups in attendance. PFFC Director Robert Warren gave an overview of PFFC’s universal right to housing campaign. “We were a rag team when we started to advocate. There were around nine of us and we were all homeless at the time,” Warren said. He attributed the campaign’s inception to the observation that many longtime residents of the District of Columbia were being overlooked. He said many organizations have since come to agree that housing is a universal right and PFFC is trying to organize everyone around unified policy requests. “Of all the units that are produced, one third of rental units in the city [should] be designated as universal units,” Warren said. He also cited reports from a 2013 city task force that examined the shelter at 2nd and D Streets NW and its future. “Fifty percent of that shelter are on fixed incomes,” Warren said. “What we are saying is that fifty percent of people who have been on the waiting list should automatically qualify for housing assistance.” Warren used the housing waiting list discussion to transition to talking about PFFC’s annual vigil and march to
Participants at Service to Justice 2017 utilize a church office to meet in a circle and discuss how to change the culture of an organization. PHOTO BY REGINALD BLACK remember people that have died while homeless in D.C. He said many of the people recognized at the vigil had found housing just months before they died. Seventeen people in D.C. died before they could use their housing voucher in 2016. Warren used his new neighbor as an example. “This is a guy who has had two heart attacks and is clearly disabled — and was on the housing wait-list for 13 years,” he said. “Be your own advocate. You have to be the one that speaks for yourself.” Next, Janet Sharp presented PFFC’s public restroom initiative. “If housing is a human right, then public restrooms are also a human right,” she said. Safe public restrooms are available in many countries in Europe and Asia, according to Sharp. She contrasted this with the potential fines and jail time for public urination and defecation. PFFC has been researching the feasibility of public restrooms downtown for several years. Recently, Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau took interest in their work and introduced legislation to create a city taskforce to further explore the option. “It’s a sign of social responsibility,” Sharp said. “We need all the allies we can get right
now. We have a petition online and have testified at city council. Don’t be afraid — if I can do it anybody can.“ Sharp said that PFFC has gained support for solving this public health issue from three business improvement districts, three advisory neighborhood commissions, two churches, seven nonprofits and six councilmembers. She welcomed any other allies to reach out or attend the next weekly PFFC meeting. The presentation was concluded with an overview from founding member Albert Townsend on pushing the Michael A Stoops Anti-Discrimination Act forward. “Michael Stoops was the catalyst behind asking us about anti-discrimination legislation.” he said. “It covers areas to include public space and housing. It’s really bridging the gap between legislation and the people.” Towsend noted that groups PFFC usually doesn’t connect with have signed on to support this bill. He said that it is good to have so many voices involved, including the business community, but that the people experiencing this discrimination need to really press the issue. “We have to build a movement for this legislation to be passed,” Towsend said. ■
S2J Conference: Ex-Offenders Are Making a Difference By Reginald Black, Artist/Vendor, “Da Street Reportin’ Artist” A breakout session at this years’ Service to Justice conference was dedicated to addressing criminal records. Nearly 50,000 Americans enter shelter directly from correctional facilities each year, according to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. The word “criminal” can be linked to many assumptions. According to returning citizens at the conference, many people that commit crimes have simply fallen short in their success and are seeking the means of survival. But surviving, putting a roof over your head and earning a stable income, is even more difficult with a criminal record. “The correctional system is a society within a society,” said Ronald Fenton, who runs an empowerment group for returning citizens
and was once incarcerated himself. “You could never be an American citizen again.” Marlow Hargrove Sr, co-founder of Freedom Advocates Celebrating Ex-Offenders, runs an Offenders Anonymous program to support returning citizens. “It’s about coming together to help each other,” he said. “People go through this on a daily basis.” Hargrove condemned prison labor and the privatization of the correctional system. “They get paid to incarcerate us,” he said. “We keep them in business, they profit off our pain.” Andre Sherman, a returning citizen, described earning 95 cents each day for his work in federal prison after being in the military for 20 years. “It’s a moneymaking business,” he said.
Sherman is looking for a second chance and determined to finish his two and a half years’ parole. He said society has always had a double standard when it comes to who gets a job. “Don’t turn you back on each other,” Sherman said. “The world out here is very different from the world in there.“ He said the way to really help offenders is to stand up and take our neighborhoods back, to reach people before they feel desperate and alone. Hargrove shared this sentiment. “We should, first of all, create employment programs to get young people to not become offenders and create strategies where we can build families as places of liberation,” he said. “If we don’t change the society then we shouldn’t expect anyone else to.” ■
STREET SENSE August 23 - September 5, 2017
A Morning at Charlie’s Place Means Much More Than a Meal
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By Maren Adler Editorial Intern
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or 27 years, the doors at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Dupont Circle have opened bright and early for the homeless community. Every Tuesday-Saturday morning at 6:30, the Charlie’s Place program serves breakfast to between 60 and 70 people. Guests are welcomed in for a pre-breakfast consisting of coffee, tea, juice, and pastries. Then, at 7:30, the meal service starts in earnest with announcements, volunteer introductions, and a prayer read in English and Spanish. A typical meal might consist of spaghetti with meat, green vegetables, warm bread, and cake. Guests also have the option to take a bagged lunch and bottled water. While Charlie’s Place is often referred to as a “breakfast program,” Chef Christina Jenkins, who started out as a client, sets out each day to create a filling, balanced, healthy meal that will get people through the day. Women, who make up about 10 percent of Charlie’s Place clientele, are invited to get in line for food first. The program originated to primarily serve men in the Latinx and Spanish-speaking communities of the Adams Morgan neighborhood in 1990. As word spread, the operation expanded to include women, who are “cherished” by Barbara Wille, director of development at Charlie’s Place. While they wait for breakfast and sip coffee, clients can also ask a volunteer for any clothing items they might need. Volunteers make their way back to the clothing closet, which is also stocked with blankets, menstrual hygiene products, and other necessities. The demand for t-shirts, shorts, and athletic socks swells
in the summer months. The low-barrier model of Charlie’s Place prevents them from receiving any government funding, according to Wille. So they rely entirely on donations. In addition to food and clothing, a volunteer barber known as Dom provides free haircuts. He has been visiting Charlie’s Place as a client for two years and started donating his skills 11 months ago. Dom has been cutting hair since he was in high school, originally just fooling around with his friends. A haircut can be incredibly important for someone experiencing homelessness, according to Dom. Something to bring back their old look and give them confidence. “When you look good, you feel good” Dom said, which is one reason he loves his work. Though he is still experiencing homelessness, Dom feels a responsibility to help others in the community as best he can. Also on staff is a nurse practitioner who can prescribe drugs, administer health screenings and provide referrals to physicians for more serious health issues. She frequently gives lecturers on topics like HIV prevention and synthetic marijuana. Once a week, an art therapy program is held after breakfast by Anais Lugo. Lugo said this type of program really helps groups of people with different challenges and further strengthens community bonds. While all therapy can be valuable to anyone, the art therapy program is especially important because it serves people who are predisposed to untreated mental health problems. Lugo and the Charlie’s Place staff see it as an opportunity for guests to prioritize their
Two guests outside the entrance to Charlie’s Place in Northwest D.C. PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLIE’S PLACE
emotional health and relieve stress, while also having a chance to be heard in a group. The program combines cognitive skills with physical sensation to access parts of the brain that traditional talk therapy cannot. The expression can help relieve a lot of emotional burdens and lead to personal discovery, according to Lugo. An exhibition of the art will soon be held to raise awareness of what art therapy is and to raise money to continue to fund the program. The people who come through the doors of St. Margaret’s truly believe in their program and the work they do. Interim program director Reggie Cox has been with Charlie’s Place for 5 years, first as a client. He started out like many other participants, coming once a week
for a balanced, hot meal and some quiet time in the morning. As he started to visit more regularly, he noticed a lull in volunteers and offered to help. After both becoming a daily volunteer for Charlie’s Place and helping with maintenance for St. Margaret’s, Cox was offered a job. Cox, Jenkins and Dom are a testament to the dedication and compassion of Charlie’s Place. “Immediately when I came in the door ,it was a different atmosphere,” Cox said. “There were guys that acted up in other programs, I didn’t even recognize them here.” Charlie’s Place gives guests a chance to escape their daily stress and relax among friendly faces and food. ■
Go to church? I’m a journalist interviewing people on their experiences going to church while homeless. Whether your experiences have been good, bad, difficult or beautiful, I'd love to hear your story.
Volunteers on the breakfast line at Charlie’s Place at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church on Connecticut Avenue. COURTESY OF CHARLIE’S PLACE
Please call or text Eve at 202-641-5404 or email eve_tushnet@yahoo.com if interested.
PEOPLE IN THE PARK:
Love, Roots, Routine and The Hot Dog Stand By Colleen Cosgriff and Maren Adler Street Sense Staff
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hen redevelopment begins in the fall of 2018, “Franklin Park will become the neighborhood’s living room on a daily basis,” according to the D.C. Downtown Business Improvement District’s “Transformation Brochure.” For the people who gather or sleep in there daily, including a man named Robert, the park between 14th, 13th, I and K Streets NW could already be considered that. On a typical evening, Robert, who declined to provide his last name, can be seen walking through the park, surveying its nearly 5 acres and scanning the occupants of its many benches. He usually spends the afternoon in the park, leaving to pay a visit to “the hot dog stand man” for his free hotdog around 5 p.m. Robert said the man gives the last hot dogs of his shift to homeless people. “But don’t go telling everyone he does that,” Robert warned, “or it’ll be a bum fest over there.” To comply with Robert’s request, Street Sense is not providing any specific information about the vendor. Robert first arrived at Franklin Park decades ago in the late seventies as a curious teenager, bored of his neighborhood in Capitol Heights and eager to meet new people. The blocks that now hold the Washington Post and big corporate banks were once home to nightclubs and adult bookstores. “It used to be all lit up over there,” Robert said as he pointed in the direction of Buredo, a restaurant where sushi rolls the size of a burrito run for $15. “I used to think I was in Las Vegas.” As Washington and Robert changed, the park remained a constant in his life. He does not have many living friends from his younger years. “Most of them passed away from AIDs. Two of them had a heart attack,” Robert said. After he lost his job with the federal government in the ‘80s, he turned to crack cocaine. “A girlfriend of mine turned me onto it,” Robert said. “I was always looking at her doing it, so I said ‘let me try it’ so then she gave it to me and my heart was beating real fast. Maybe because my body had never had it before.” In 1989, Robert became homeless for the first time when his mother told him he could not smoke crack and continue to live in her house. He moved to the CCNV shelter, which he would revisit several more times during his life. Robert stopped using cocaine in 1990 when he was jailed for a crime he describes only as “violent,” but specified
A Downtown BID employee chains the tables and chairs in Franklin Park together during the early evening, rendering them useless. PHOTO BY COLLEEN COSGRIFF that it was not a drug charge. He would later serve two more jail sentences on violent charges and spend a total of twenty years of his life behind bars. His last sentence ended in 2015. “My oldest nephew said one thing. He said he thinks that twenty years saved my life,” Robert said, “Because he said if I never did no time at all, anything could have happened to me. I could have caught AIDs. I could have worked myself to death. Could have drunk myself to death. I was drinking real heavy back then. Somebody could have robbed me. Killed me. I thought about that and now I believe that.” Robert smiled, showing off his teeth, all intact and bright white. He said he watched many of his friends lose their teeth to crack or declining health.
Day During weekday lunch hours, food trucks park along Franklin Park’s border, drawing local business people to the park to eat lunch. On evenings and weekends, outreach and church groups visit the park to give bagged lunches and toiletries to homeless people. Franklin Park’s fountain is empty, sometimes filled with trash. The grass is patchy and uneven. The sidewalks cracked and studded with potholes. “The park is in disrepair and lacks amenities that a growing commercial and residential area demands,” the Downtown BID states on its website, “Currently the park does not meet today’s diverse urban needs; however, the park has the potential to be transformed into a premier urban park based on lessons learned from national models, including Madison and Union Square parks in New York City.” In a statement to Street Sense, Rachel Hartman, a Downtown BID spokesperson, said BID employees visited over twenty parks throughout the country as part of
the redevelopment planning process. Robert can’t think of many changes he’d make to the park. He enjoys his afternoons sitting in the shade of the park’s numerous trees and was disappointed to hear many of them would be removed when redevelopment begins. The BID plans to remove 27 of the park’s trees, including 7 historic trees that were planted prior to 1936. The trees will be replaced with 40 young trees. “I do wish the water was on,” Robert said, pointing to the fountain. “When I left in 2010 [for prison], that’s the last time I saw it on.” The Downtown BID intends to turn the fountain back on. Additionally, plans call for a children’s playground, movie nights in the park and the construction of a cafe and bathroom on site. As Robert read through the Downtown BID’s vision for the park, he was glad to see the fountain would be restored. But then he paused. “A playground? Here? For what kids?” Another pause. “A cafe? I don’t even know what a cafe is. It sounds expensive.” Robert continued to scan the plan, asking who the people in the BID’s illustrations were. He didn’t see people like him reflected there. “They might get rid of the homeless people,” he mused.
the ambassador said, “We don’t want it becoming a problem.” Robert had caught his 6 p.m. bus back to the shelter, but the park was still full of people who are there each day, many of whom are homeless and sleep in the park. The Downtown BID ambassador left two chairs unlocked for Street Sense reporters, but locked every other chair and table. “Our ambassadors manage cleaning the tables and chairs, deciding whether to put them out for the day in inclement weather, rearranging them etc,” Hartman said. “And they are tied up at night to prevent them from going missing or being damaged when there are no ambassadors on duty checking the park.” Hartman maintained that the Downtown BID does not tie up the chairs to prevent people from sleeping under them. The Downtown BID plans to add 24-hour security in Franklin Park when it is redeveloped, which would amount to 31 percent of the estimated $1.7 million annual budget. “They got that now,” Robert said when he read about the new security, “Don’t you see all the police around here now?” During July through August, Street Sense reporters observed a MPD officer patrolling the park’s sidewalks on a motorcycle, three law enforcement officers in plain clothing moving through the park, as well as one arrest. Police cars frequently park across the street from Franklin Park.
Horizon Robert’s sister offered to let him live in her home outside D.C, but he said she imposes “too many rules.” Despite the uncertainty in
Night A Downtown BID ambassador weaved a thick black cord through each table. He turned the chairs out so they don’t face the table, which make it difficult to sit and eat. People moved away from the tables, taking their places on benches around the park. “We tie these up because we don’t want homeless people moving them and sleeping under them when it rains,”
A large, old oak tree in Franklin Park.
STREET SENSE August 23 - September 5, 2017
Man his life, Robert finds peace in the park by remembering his days there from years ago, particularly his romantic relationships. Some were brief and fleeting and another lasted eight years. One of his girlfriends began getting sick several months into their relationship, only to reveal to him that she had contracted AIDS. She died soon after. Robert met another girlfriend in Franklin Park when she offered sex in exchange for money. He declined her offer but eventually convinced her to date him. When he could no longer fund her expensive crack cocaine addiction, she returned to prostitution and Robert ended the relationship. And then there was Dana. They met in the park where their names are still written in Sharpie on a tree close to K Street: “Dana + Robert Forever.” “I wrote that on the tree while she was sleeping on that bench,” Robert said, gesturing to the bench directly in front of the tree. Forever would be cut short. When Dana found out she was pregnant, she returned to Las Vegas to live with her mother. “We were homeless,” he said, “I couldn’t take care of her.” Robert writes her letters, enclosing his phone number in each one, but she never calls and only sometimes writes back. He hasn’t met his daughter. Still, he returns to the park, sometimes to the tree, a point of consistency in his world. ■ This profile is part of an occasional series featuring the people that will be displaced from Franklin Park when its intended redevelopment begins Fall 2018.
PHOTO BY BEN BURGESS / KSTREETPHOTOGRAPHYDC.COM
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NEWS Tech-Savvy Nonprofit Keeps Food Out of Landfills by Giving Corporate Leftovers to Hungry People By Maren Adler Editorial Intern
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ood Rescue US has “saved” over 15 million meals nationwide and they’ve done it with little more than a smartphone app and willing volunteers. Volunteer “food runners” sign up through the Food Rescue app to fill pickup and delivery needs for the registered donor companies, who also sign up with the app. At a time when more than 50 million Americans are food-insecure, 40 percent of the American food supply is wasted. Food Rescue’s innovative, on-demand model helps to reduce both of these numbers and provide the unique service of fresh perishables to food insecure individuals and families. Food Rescue differs from other food insecurity resources because of how quickly the food finds its recipients. Volunteers take food directly from donors to food agencies, feeding people the same day. This system gives Food Rescue the unique opportunity to provide shelters and kitchens with fresh produce that otherwise wouldn’t survive storage and shelf time. The nonprofit was founded 5 years ago by an entrepreneur in Connecticut and has since expand-ed to include four other states and the District. Its original name, Community Plates, was changed amid the rapid success and expansion. As it becomes more widely known that 40 percent of U.S. food is wasted, more people start to realize they want to make a difference, according to Kate Urbank, who directs D.C.’s chapter. The organization’s sleek, user-friendly app makes it easy for people to get involved. Once donors sign up, their only obligation is to have food donations ready for pick-up at the time they commit to. Once they’ve made an account, available food runners make pickups when the food is still fresh. Kate Urbank founded the D.C. chapter just over a year ago. She started as a food runner in Connecticut and the work inspired her to open a new rescue site in the nation’s capital when she moved here. D.C. is a unique chapter both because of the volume of need for food and its proximity to policymaking. The bottom line prevents food industry agencies from partnering directly with feeding agencies, according to Urbank. Restaurants and grocers often don’t have the time or staff to coordinate
Christina Jenkins runs the kitchen at Charlie’s Place and always greets the volunteer “food rescuers” with excitement. PHOTO COUTESY OF FOOD RESCUE U.S. - D.C food donation and food distributors are juice with their donations, a critical too understaffed to dedicate people to resource during the summer months. food runs. Urbank reported a new surge of In addition, food vendors run up against volunteers after recent press exposure, but liability issues. Despite the Bill Emerson she is always looking for new food runners. Good Samaritan Food Donation Act that Most people in the District have 9-to-5 jobs protects any person or organization that prevent them from delivering food who donates food in good faith, many when many receiving agencies are open potential donors are still skittish. This is and operating. Urbank especially needs Urbank’s biggest challenge when forming more volunteers who drive. Small rescues new partnerships. can be transported on bicycles, but most The benefit to agencies like Charlie’s Place donations are too large. near Dupont Circle has been invaluable. Food Though the D.C. chapter of Food Rescue Rescue enables Charlie’s Place chef Christina US is thriving, Urbank said the most Jenkins to use fresh food to supplement important step to ending food waste in planned meals. When the food is dropped America is to raise awareness about off, volunteers go to work right away sorting how to combat it at both a personal and it into quantities to be stored, refrigerated corporate level. ■ or prepped right away. Sometimes Jenkins can use donations to create a meal her clients might not otherwise have access to, like salmon croquettes. Other times, she utilizes donations to tailor dishes to fit the needs of her clients, preparing menu items such as thick bread puddings for those who don’t have access to dental care. Food Rescue frequently offers 500 meals donated by Revolution Foods delivered to So Others water, milk, and Might Eat by a food runner. PHOTO COURESTY OF FOOD RESCUE US - D.C.
Apply for Discounts on Your Utility Bills Discounts are Subject to Income Eligibility Requirements
- Apply for Discounted Rates on Telephone
Lifeline Program (Economy II)
Annual discount on one land line service per household.
Natural Gas
Residential Essential Service (RES) Program
Potential savings up to $276 during the winter heating season.
Electric
Residential Aid Discount (RAD) Program
Potential savings are between $300-$475 annually.
Water
Customer Assistance Program (CAP)
Potential discount could be over $450 annually.
For more info call 311 or visit doee.dc.gov/udp
To apply for the telephone Lifeline Service (Economy II), call 800-253-0846. These programs are for DC residents only.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT FROM D.C. YOUTH These women performed their poetry at Studio Theater on August 5 . B o t h a re a l u m n i of DC SCORES, an afterschool program that combines soccer, poetry and service. Myiah Smith is a native Washingtonian and a sophomore at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service studying Culture and Politics. She graduated from The SEED College-Prep Boarding School as Valedictorian in 2016. Throughout her education, Myiah has enjoyed languages, culture and performance art. As a DC SCORES alumna, she recognizes the importance and practicality of the arts and enjoys theater, singing, songwriting and poetry. As a freshman, Myiah starred in “Wind Me Up: Maria!”, a Go-Go Musical at Georgetown University. Myiah continues to pursue her passion for performance and hopes to utilize it in her future career of international service. This is the third poem in Myiah’s series “Identity & Environment.” The first, “Dark Money,” is about the American political climate and the tendency to complain without taking action to create change. The second, “I Am the Painter,” is about selfadvocacy and self-love. This last poem is about intersectionality and how Myiah’s identity and urban backdrop impact her sense of self-worth and perspective. All three seek to push readers to question themselves and the systems they see.
STREET SENSE August 23 - September 5, 2017
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On the Corner of 16th and Envy By Myiah Smith
16th Street envy. Wish it was me. Ward 7 is where I live, Wish it was Ward 3. That grass sure is green. My side of the city consist of train tracks and strange things. Don't look, can't you see my hatred is consuming. My side of the city is doomy and gloomy. Got told that in two weeks the city's insuring my community displacement and community foreclosing. It’s said from our displacement they'll build the foundation that'll house the new people moving into the city. My city, DC, my city, against me. A struggle so hard, the difference between surviving and living. On 16th they’re living, pot lucks and gala shows, I should know, I was invited to be shown. A reminder of a place that was never home. A reminder of a place that I wish I could go. Media reminds me I’m nothing to society. Another thug on the street capable of only running. ‘Cause we've always been running from someone and something. I've always been running to find what I’m searching. Tell me a place exists where I could call home. A place where no one roams alone. A place where hands are stretched to help. Where they teach children to help others is really helping yourself.
A place where hatred is something taboo and the greatest success is to find an inner you. So, that's the place I’m running to. When I can’t find it, I’ll make it come true. Cause in my mind the sun shines even when its dark. In life, at certain times that dark feels like all I know. But somehow, storm clouds always seem to go. In the midst of storms, my boat seems to flow. It's divine intervention, one I've always know. I got to get to where I’m going, no time to fall below. Don't stare in the dark chasm cause I might fall to unknown. No time for despair, I can only grow. I can make it, It's all I've ever known. 16th may be nice, But 16th ain’t home. I'm making my home a place in my heart, Building walls of resilience where I was torn apart. Setting stones of foundation, Concrete mind for concrete creation. I'm gonna make it. No more definitions, boundaries and titles. No more "you belong here" And "those are your idols." Cause I've got ideas and courage and life. Where ever I go, I'll be taking my time. No need to rush and no need to long, I'm already where I need to be, Loving myself, all along.
Them is Us By A’dora Willis
Superhuman, superhero Can you help me? Can I be you? Superhuman, superhero Can you save me? Don’t let me go
so it’s they own fault if they don’t make it Signed, sealed, delivered — I call it education
Why doesn’t my playground have a lake? And why I gotta hoop with rusted rims? Wear busted tims? Live in a place where when the street light dims, the flashlight tings and tries to pin the sin on— That’s him, the one with the dread locks and dark skin Why does my home swim in broken limbs?
John’s father is a lawyer, with an office in the corner And my mother Flips do’s and sweeps the shop well after the sun set stops And you mean to tell me, that because of a few extra dollars, Or a difference in professional reputation He, is better than Me? John can look up to the sky and reach for it, with no limitations But the only thing I can reach for are rusted rim shavings
Shots sing to me “happy birthday” No special occasion, I hear em everyday Your candles, to my rounds You make a wish, I’m ducking down So maybe, I can go to school in the morning But the sun rises and the morning comes, my clock buzzes until it falls off my nightstand but for some reason, I can’t make it up to stand without asking...
Let me tell you something I am just as entitled to a dream as John, Billy, and all the rest of them Them kids on the other side of town, Are no better than Jaquan or Billy Brown Earnings don’t define desirability Don’t no money, no house, no job, no color call the shots of opportunity And my neighborhood ain’t no excuse for high quality inequity or swings with severed seats
Why don’t we have books? And why I gotta compete with a flying roach? Can’t afford to fix bathroom stall doors, Or supply enough soap Ain’t got no ink, done ran outta paper How do you expect us to make it, When home and school jade us? You don’t
The window should be open for everybody, And you just aren’t going to take that right away from me I can dream too, I have dreams too And imma reach for em And there ain’t nothing you can do to stop me
We’re forced to go to school within the boundaries, keep everything tidy Keep MoCo high and PG low, let the white kids grow Let the black kids go and do whatever they want We gave em the basics,
Superhuman, superhero I don’t need you, now I do know Superhuman, superhero You were always me Now I will show the world A new way — a new way.
A ' d o r a Wi l l i s i s a n alumna of DC SCORES on her way to college. This fall, A'dora is beginning her higher education at Bowie State University where she will study nursing. As a DC SCORES poet-athlete at Arts and Te c h n o l o g y A c a d e m y, A'dora was a standout poet and learned how she and her teammates could powerfully express their feelings about frustrations in life through the art form of poetry. Now, even as a full-time student who works on the side, A'dora finds time to continue writing poetry about the world she lives in. She hopes to stay engaged with DC SCORES for many years to come. Learn more about A'dora: http://bit.ly/ AdoraPoetry
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The Street Sense Writers’ Group is led by writing professionals and meets every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. The group’s goal is to develop ideas and collaborate on the next great issue of Street Sense.
Food Stamps
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ood stamps are a good way to feed the needy and the impoverished. The buying options include unhealthy junk food, such as cookies, chips, sodas, and healthier items such as chicken, fish, beef, etc. One downside to food stamps is that users cannot buy hot, prepared foods. But that is only a slight inconvenience as long as you have access to an oven or a microwave. Having food stamps enables children to eat if their parents are low-income. They also enable senior citizens to qualify for food stuffs and vouchers at outside farmers’ markets where they can get tomatoes, cabbage and other vegetables. These benefits show why food stamps are a good way of feeding those who may be unable to feed themselves.
—Rita Sauls, Artist/Vendor
I
just started receiving food stamps again in March of this year. Before that, I had used them for four years. But when I started work last summer, my income began to exceed the amount to continue to qualify for them. For nine months I paid for food with cash or debit card. Food is not cheap! I was spending over $200 a month on groceries. Within the nine months that I was not receiving food stamps, the system changed. It used to be that if you were approved for expedited food stamps, you would receive them the next day. In this new system, it took three days to receive them on my card after I applied. When I didn't receive my food stamps for the month of April, I called the hotline and was told that I didn't receive them because I didn't do a second interview over the phone. In the old system there was no second interview. I hadn’t realized there was more to do. I completed the second interview and received them the next day. I really do value the food stamps that I receive every month and I am very thankful for them. I was thinking, “what if we didn't have a food stamp program?” Then there would be a lot of hungry people in our country. I have been a part of the program for many years and I can truly say that food stamps have helped me eat when I would have been hungry.
—Eric Thompson-Bey, Artist/Vendor
Hunger, Health and Hope By Marcellus Phillips, Artist/Vendor
Last week, while looking for a spot to sell my papers, I had to stop for a minute and get off my feet. My mind was racing, my head was hurting and my stomach was growling. I sat down and asked myself why I was in my current situation and wondered how long I will have to struggle like this. I’m 37 and weigh about 150, so you can tell I haven’t been eating a lot, which affects a lot. But if you have just enough for your phone bill and nothing to get anything
to eat, what should you do? I have been put in this situation numerous times and have chosen my phone because nowadays, especially when looking for work, you're nothing without a smartphone or the Internet — which I hate. But it is what it is. Your physical abilities and mentality are both affected by your nutrition and appetite. They suffer when you don’t get enough. As I sat and thought, an Afro-American man approached me and asked if he was allowed to smoke in the area. At this point, I knew he was just visiting D.C., because no one here cares where they smoke. I let him know it was cool and actually asked for a cigarette, which of course started a conversation about why I was out there.
I explained to him my situation and what was going on. I’m very easy to talk to so people seem to get comfortable around me quick. He told me he was visiting from California and that he is a reverend. We talked for a while and he convinced me to pray with him to help me and my situation. Then, out of nowhere, he asked me if I would like something to eat. People that know me well and know my situation don’t even ask or offer me anything to eat. I was shocked and surprised. I took him up on his offer immediately. He treated me to Potbelly’s and that made my day. It gave me hope.
Be Good to Yourself By Marcus Green, Artist/Vendor
Food and water helps us to live. But please use everything in moderation. “You should eat to live, not live to eat,” said Elijah Muhamad when he led the Nation of Islam. And I truly believe that. I work out and have a balanced diet. High blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol are things you get when you are not finding a balance with food and working out. Organic is really, really overrated, but generally it is quality eating. We all cheat; but not every day. Just know that the spoon and fork is not your friend. Actually, the spoon and fork can be your enemy! So, all you beautiful people in newspaper land, be good to yourself. Nobody is going to love you like your God.
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Sharing Healthy Food By Mildred M. Hall, Artist/Vendor
We can improve access to healthy food by gardening and providing seeds to help plant and grow gardens. This is a suggestion for those who want others to give. If everyone shares with one another and continue to work with our legislators, we can solve food issues at the community level. Access to healthy food has been a government priority since President Abraham Lincoln founded the USDA 1862.
Ice Cream & Mom
By Elizabeth Bryant, Artist/Vendor I remember being 12 years old and having a horrible headache, “Let's get some ice cream,” my mother said. “It will take the headache away.” So, we went and got ice cream. I got butter pecan. I don't remember whether it cured my headache — but it tasted fabulous. Butter pecan is still my favorite ice cream. I will always treasure that experience with my mom. I still really miss her, even though she's been dead for 30 years.
Recipe Box
STREET SENSE August 23 - September 5, 2017
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Sunflower Seeds Yummy Banana Bread By Henriese Roberts, Artist/Vendor for All Occasions By Patricia Jefferson Volunteer Writer, Former Vendor When you have cravings for potato chips, why not grab a handful of sunflower seeds instead? The deliciousness of these “seeds” is astounding to me and in my spare time I enjoy cracking them open with friends while watching TV. They are tasty and fun to eat. Sunflower seeds are actually the fruit of those huge yellow flowers and they are packed with an enormous number of vitamins and health fats that will boost your energy and balance your hormone levels. They are particularly popular in Mediterranean and Asian countries. Yo u c a n ' t b e a t a s n a c k t h a t i s overwhelmingly nutritious with magnesium, vitamin E, iron, calcium and several of the B vitamins. The magnesium alone helps with anxiety, constipation, chronic fatigue, muscle cramps and even bone loss; the Vitamin E helps with the aging process of your skin; and this amazing snack is diabetes-friendly too. I can't think of any other snack to eat and entertain with friends. Stores sell these seeds in a variety of “flavors” and you can enjoy them in cooking with burgers, meatballs, vegetables or rice dishes. And you can enhance ice-cream or salads with these delightful treats or include them in baked goods such as breads and muffins. Here’s one of my favorite easy snack mixes: Grainless granola (source of Healthy fats and fiber) 1 cup raw pecans, chopped 1 cup dried apples, chopped 1 cup raisins 1 cup raw almonds, chopped Pinch of ground clove Pinch of cinnamon Pinch of nutmeg Combine in a bowl and serve
My most loved recipe is coconut banana bread. It is lightly frosted and not too deadly. It is quite complex to make but well worth the effort. My granddaughter Caleyx calls me Nana Bananas for this feat! • 2 cups all-purpose flour • 3/4 tsp baking soda • 1/2 tsp salt • 1 cup granulated sugar • 1/4 cup butter, softened • 2 large eggs • 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas) • 1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt • 3 tbsp dark rum • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract • 1/2 cup flaked sweetened coconut • Cooking spray • 1 tbsp flaked sweetened coconut For the method, Google “Cooking Light coconut banana bread!”
My Vegetable Soup By Mildred Hall, Artist/Vendor
1. Dice one cup of these vegetables: (or mince, or finely chop) Carrots Celery or Celery Seeds Bell Peppers (pick your color) Potatoes or Rice 2. Add the seasonings: (I use these; you can choose others) 1 tsp mustard 1 tsp mayonnaise 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp peppers 3. Carnivores can add their favorite meat; herbivores can add their favorite beans or spices and omnivores can pick their pleasure. 4. COOK IT! Make the broth by boiling the water with vegetables. Once boiling, cook at medium for 30-45 minutes. (You can also bake the mixture in the oven at 350 degrees. Stop doing that when the soup fits your taste) 5. EAT IT!
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My Dinner Guest ILLUSTRATION BY PATTY SMITH
By Jacquelyn Portee Artist/Vendor
After I finished a meal I had cooked on a hot plate in the park, while I was getting ready to leave, I saw this cute little white-tail rabbit coming out of the bushes. He sat down and posed very patiently for me.
My Favorite Foods Hot dogs on a bun Hamburger on a bun Potato salad French Fries Baked Beans Pork Chops Chicken Fish Ham Eggs Potatoes Peppers Salt Beef Lamb
The Food Place By Patty Smith, Artist/Vendor
—Lawrence Brown, Artist/Vendor
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Her name is Lola, Lola, Lola, Lola. We went to the restaurant To buy food. The food is different. Some of it is sweet, Some of it is tart. Some of it is delicious. Oh me, oh my. Give me that food. Give me that food. Pay the cashier And we're out of here. We'll be back another day. See you soon, We said to our food place. See you soon, We said to our food place. See you soon.
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ILLUSTRATION BY DWIGHT HARRIS
ILLUSTRATION BY PATTY SMITH
OPINION The March of the Frightened By Brett Pransky
What began as a march of irrelevant, underemployed white men with statueissues escalated into a national tragedy on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, last Saturday. It caused the death of American patriot Heather Heyer and, if justice exists, it will also bring about the death of the alt-right movement and the hate it spreads. But for all the fiery messages plastered on every form of media everywhere, there is very little effort given to understanding what the root causes beneath the hate might be. This is understandable; the tragedy is still very near, and emotions are raw, but even now, we must ask ourselves why. What reasons might they have had for doing what they did? Why the baseball helmets and cosplay shields, the camo and the conformity? Why were they there at all? I don’t know much, but I know that a statue had nothing at all to do with it. I haven’t seen any interviews with the protesters themselves, but I don’t really need to. Put a mic in front of one, and you’ll get a quote from Mein Kampf or a paragraph from The Turner Diaries. But we won’t get the truth, and the truth is … … they’re terrified. Now, most of my liberal friends want to dismiss this fear and label these marches as merely an expression of hate fueled by a presently Nazi-friendly White House. It is certainly that, but it is also more, I think, and dismissing it as simple dumbass hate is at best an incomplete way to describe what’s going on. That said, I expect as much from a media that has no actual presence in what is commonly called “flyover America.” But here in Columbus, Ohio, and in sister cities like Charlottesville, Virginia, the world is a very different place, and understanding it is going to be necessary if we want to put this particularly ugly genie back in its bottle. I know the “economic anxiety” argument has been discredited again and again, but let’s look at it. I mean, really look. Let’s look at it not as the cause, but as one cause, perhaps even
the first source of weakness that makes one susceptible to the lure of hate groups. It may not create the racists, but an argument can certainly be made that it provides fertile ground in which the David Dukes and Richard Spencers of the world can sow their poisonous crops. We don’t have the time or space to examine each and every detail, but here are some general trends that are widely accepted as true: ● M o s t o f t h e m a r c h e r s b e l o n g to a generation of people who will be the first in American history to do worse than the generation that came before them. ● Wages for anything middle class and under are falling, plummeting when you look at a parallel rise in cost of living, debt, and a general decline in middle class family wealth. ● Good jobs are leaving American soil and being replaced with bad ones, but few focus on the fact that jobs are leaving rural areas at a much faster rate. ● T h e r e i s n o i n d i c a t o r o f any kind that this trend will reverse itself in our lifetimes. This is not an excuse for what’s going on. Not nearly. But when we start hearing chants like “blood and soil,” which is an old Nazi reference to traditional rural life, we should pay attention to more than just the shock value of it. I know this is difficult when racist assholes are swinging clubs and driving muscle cars into crowds of innocents, but we need to keep our heads in the game anyway. As difficult as this is to say, this is not a time for anger. It’s a time to understand fear. Those we despise for their hate-filled acts are, as I see it, acting primarily out of fear, which is why we see their acts not only as deplorable, but as patently stupid. In fact, I don’t think there’s any actual thought going on at all.
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Here’s what I mean: If I ask you to jump, you might, or you might not. But if I wait in a dark corner for you to pass by, then shout “BOO!” at you, then you’re just going to jump. You’re not going to think about it. This, my friends, is how fear works. It takes away your ability to choose. Give me a frightened person, and I’ll give you back a jihadist or a Jehovah’s Witness — anything you want. This is what we need to understand about the sad, Dockers-wearing little hatemongers. Someone has managed to program their fear and give it a direction. And that clever bit of showmanship, that sleight-of-hand, is what we should all be aware of, and really pissed off about. To b o r r o w a n argument from southern scholar Tim Wise, this is a dynamic that goes all the way back to the slave patrols and before. Race is being used to hide class. Look at the problems — which are real — and ask who is responsible, and the answer we will come up with, if we’re sane, that is, is that the rich, the super-rich, and the immorally rich are easily the biggest cause of the present condition of middle America. There are others, of course, but I’d challenge anyone to find a larger cause than the simple human greed that exists behind the walls of gated communities. But this simple truth gets lost in the drama, and understandably so. It’s hard to think about reasons when the Hitler wing of the Young Republicans is screaming about white power and pointing a six-cylinder Dodge at us. Income inequality and the declining opportunities for working class America may explain why much of this fear exists, but it has nothing to do with how that fear manifests. To get rightfully scared people to react this way, we need a plan. We need a message, and ever since the early days in the colonies of what would later become America, the aristocracy has been running the same playbook. “We’re on the same team,” they say. “Pay no attention to my big house and fancy things. We’re the same, you and I. We’re white, and we must protect that.” This is how they built a slave patrol. This is how the rich got poor white people to fight under a Confederate flag for the right to own slaves they could never afford, and it’s how the rich get today’s poor white people to believe that people of color are the reason white people can’t have the lives they want. It’s a farce, but it’s one with a perfect historical batting average.
Every time it swings, it connects. As their names come out, and they will, be sure to pay attention to the jobs they lose. The first one I noticed lost a job as a server at a hot dog joint. I doubt he was paying the bills on that gig. It would be pretty easy to convince that guy that he really deserves to be a CEO, if only he wasn’t being held back by someone else, someone different. There will be more to follow, and a few will have the clean cut look of misunderstood privilege, but I believe it’s a safe bet that the majority will be absolutely unimpressive in their accomplishments, mostly either broke, or nearly so, and frightened, so terribly frightened. The number of people in middle America who fit this description grows each year as money and opportunity flows only to the top, leaving regular Americans of all colors behind. If we only recognized that we are more similar than different, that economically speaking, we are nearly identical – just shaded a bit differently here and there – imagine what a world we could create. But to this point, we have failed, deciding instead to give so many of ourselves over to the violent extremists who care nothing about an America that was built by all of its citizens, and built as a beacon of hope for the entire world. Real Americans are not so easily swayed by fear, nor have they ever been. These cultists have committed many crimes, and made many mistakes, but the first one they made was forgetting what an American truly is. We fight Nazis. Period. End of story. It’s going to be an interesting day when the folks marching in terror make a real connection to the actual causes of their fear. One day, these same marchers, or their descendants, will join hands with their economic twins of all colors and fight together for real and sustainable change. Walls will come down on that day, both actual and metaphorical. It’s difficult to see this now, when things are at their worst. That time is coming, though. It’s just a bit difficult to see through that much darkness with only a Tiki torch to light the way. ■
I don’t know much, but I know that a statue had nothing at all to do with it.
Brett Pransky contributes writing to the Columbus, Ohio street paper, StreetSpeech. He is a professor, a writer and a dad, not necessarily in that order. You can email him at pransky@ohio.edu.
Rap Me Brother
The Word N*****
By Robert Warren, Artist/Vendor
It was a code, To talk about oppression. And how else could we stand, Without a Beat of one? Now lost to the sound, Of "got" "got" "got" — Dead. How will I kill that brother, Who used my daughter, sisters and mother, About the money you never spent or gave up? A Rap line to the Revolution, The Revolution will be televised, For all eyes to see the deaths in our cities, And my brother's blood run Red, Black, American. If they only could see, that rainbow of Brown people, one day coming to gather in Peace. For where did the words go that were, “Rap in peace?”
The “N-word should never be used by anyone — ever. That includes Black people like me. It is more than just a word. To some people, just seeing the N-word reminds them of someone getting hung from a tree. This word can never be used positively because it has such a negative history. You never know what it could bring up for someone. I’m guilty of using the N-word for most of my life, on a regular basis, until one day my daughter was singing one of my songs and she asked me, “Daddy, what is N*****?” I didn’t know what to say or what to do except to stop saying the word right then and there. Like my daughter, I was taught the N-word. But for the future generations, we need to teach words like God, Love, Life, Family, Honor. Never N*****. While we need to bury that word, we also need to have these conversations about doing so. What are we contributing to our future. I want it to be peace.
PERCEPTION OR REALITY: We’re Really Stuck By Robert Williams, USMC Artist/Vendor
All the challenges of the Rapper and the Poets who sing their songs. Can we forget the thoughts the words produce? Can you still feel the beat I Rap to you this day? White supremacists, Neo-Nazis and the new KKK unmasked and carrying torches in Charlottesville Va. As they spread words of hate and bigotry Do justice matter? I Rap to stand for it.
The Constitution of the United States has not been re-written. The Bill of Rights has not been re-written. D.C. city government declared this to be the first “Human Rights City” in the United States as of December, 2008. Shouldn’t that lead us to a universal right to housing? No man, woman, boy or girl should have to live or die on the streets of the city where they live. So please, enlighten me as to why we yet must advocate and fight, in 2017, in Washington, D.C., our nation's capital — or anywhere else for that matter — for the basic necessity of a place to live. I’m talking about a decent place to live: not a street, not a shelter, but a dwelling. How far have we NOT come? How far must we GO to take care of each other? Preception or reality?
Women are Often Underestimated By Tanya Bibbs, Artist/Vendor
I’d just like to give a shout out to the many strong Black women I’ve seen working as shelter staff members over the years. That’s far from any easy job. I’ve seen them confronted with everything from helping a person with a mental illness to maintaining building security to making sure that all other residents at the shelter play by the rules so that everyone has a safe and fair stay. Congratulations to these shelter staff members. Though women are often smaller in stature than men and gentler in their approach to certain situations, they are often underestimated in their abilities
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ART
By Ronald Dudley, a.k.a. “Pookanu,” Artist/Vendor
The Rap game will never be the same, That Poetry you sang, For a young Black man, Back in the day.
The lies they tell on the people, Sometimes make me so mad I could cry, But I won't Rap words that lie, Or glorify my brother's death, I Rap for that Beat of one who knows The code of what you Rap.
STREET SENSE August 23 - September 5, 2017
to use excessive force. During my days at the 2nd & D Street shelter I met three women like this. I really respected how they did things. In her sixties, the late Ms. Kirby often displayed an iron fist and a firm attitude toward staff and clients alike, who were often out of control in her absence. They put on their best behavior when Ms. Kirby was present. That woman never took any mess from anyone. Rest in peace, Ms. Kirby. Ms. Jones worked in a police department during her early years. She had a militant attitude with a sharp tongue that could stop people cold whenever they crossed the line. I saw her and another staff member drag two out-of-control women from a shelter because they refused to obey shelter rules. Ms. Jones never feared any of the clients, despite her age. Then there was Ms. Howard. She never
used force, but her firm resolve and logical approach would make you re-think your behavior. Everyone loves Ms. Howard. I’ve seen some tough cookies over at the Patricia Handy Place for Women too. For instance, I’ve witnessed Ms. Ingram grab an out-of-control client and throw her out of the shelter. Don't let the smoothed beauty of her personality fool you. Ms. Ingram doesn't play games. I respect her, too. Finally, I recently witnessed a security guard at the Pat Handy shelter forcefully remove a client for trespassing. The client was strong and fiercely resisted the guard's attempt to get her out the door of the shelter. But the guard eventually managed to evict the woman without assistance from police. Women are strong when it counts — stronger than men in a lot of situations. And they need to be.
New Era at the DMV By Aida Basnight, Artist/Vendor I lost my ID and asked our case manager at Street Sense, Colleen, what I should do about it. Since I needed a new DMV ID, I needed a few documents such as a birth certificate, proof of address, and, of course, a form to waive the fee. She told me to go to 64 New York Avenue, NE. Then, with these documents and the form to waive the fees, I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The DMV clerk said everything was in order except for a photograph to complete the necessary paper work. The clerk then told me it would take about 10 days to receive the ID or driver's license through the mail. In the meantime, I should keep my documents in a safe place in case they might be needed again. The world has changed so drastically for “millennials.” We no longer get our IDs or driver's licenses on the same day we apply. Those days are long gone. It’s all in the name of security. I just hope my documents stay secure while I wait for my new ID in the mail. I’m glad Street Sense has someone like Colleen to help out with navigating situations like this.
Housing is Safety, Housing is Peace By Joe Jackson Artist/Vendor I want my own place. When I get it, I will be at ease with life. Right now, I'm staying somewhere I'm not wanted. That place is not safe. The people there stole my property. I need a case manager who can help me find my own place. My behavioral health provider is not helping me meet these needs. I'd be real happy to finally wake up in my own place. There would be no noise. There would be peace and quiet.
sudoku!
last edition’s solutions
COUTESY OF KRAYDAD.COM
Eating for Two
Love Thyself, Always
This is my my daughter, Onyx — Eboni’s little sister. She is due next month and I am trying to move before she comes. I feel great at times and sad at others. She’s not ready to come out yet and I’m not rushing her! In the meantime, I’m eating healthy for both of us.
It's vitally important to take care of yourself. Sure, helping others is beneficial in many aspects, but it is crucial to consider meeting your own needs first. Like an airplane emergency situation, it is important for you to place the drop-down oxygen mask on yourself before you attempt to assist others. A crisis development may occur, so be ready. You can also spend personal time with the Lord to be strengthened and ready when needs arise. You are worthy of care. Do not be afraid to experience your emotions; they are the path to your soul. Emotions erupt to remind us we are alive — that we are human and that we are growing. Trust yourself enough to feel what you feel and take care of yourself emotionally,W too.
By Sasha Williams, Artist/Vendor
By Chon Gotti, Artist/Vendor
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR VENDORS! Happy Birthday Jaquelyn Portee! (8/9) Happy Birthday Marcellus Phillips! (8/6) Happy Birthday James Davis! (8/1) Happy Birthday Anthony Crawford! (7/29)
STREET SENSE August 23 - September 5, 2017
15
COMMUNITY SERVICES Housing/Shelter
Food
Clothing
Showers
Case Management
Health Care
Transportation
Laundry
Education
Employment Assistance
Legal Assistance
Vivienda/alojamiento
Comida
Coordinación de Servicios
Seguro
Educación
Assitencia con Empleo
Academy of Hope Public Charter School: 269-6623 | 601 Edgewood St, NE aohdc.org Bread for the City: 265-2400 (NW) | 561-8587 (SE) 1525 7th St, NW | 1640 Good Hope Rd, SE breadforthecity.org Calvary Women’s Services: 678-2341 1217 Good Hope Road, SE calvaryservices.org
Ropa
Lavandería
D.C. Coalition for the Homeless: 347-8870 1234 Massachusetts Ave, NW dccfh.org
Línea de juventud
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE: (202) 749-8000 Línea directa de Violencia doméstica
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH HOTLINE: 1-888-793-4357
Assistencia Legal
Covenant House Washington: 610-9600 2001 Mississippi Avenue, SE covenanthousedc.org
Línea directa de alojamiento YOUTH HOTLINE: (202) 547-7777
Duchas
Transportación
Community of Hope: 232-7356 communityofhopedc.org
SHELTER HOTLINE: (202) 399-7093
Línea de Salud del Comportamiento Jubilee Jobs: 667-8970 2712 Ontario Rd NW | 2419 Minnesota Ave SE jubileejobs.org
Samaritan Ministry: 1516 Hamilton Street NW | 722-2280 1345 U Street SE | 889-7702 samaritanministry.org
Loaves & Fishes: 232-0900 1525 Newton St. NW loavesandfishesdc.org
Sasha Bruce Youthwork: 675-9340 741 8th St, SE sashabruce.org
Martha’s Table: 328-6608 2114 14th St, NW marthastable.org
So Others Might Eat (SOME) 71 O St, NW | 797-8806 some.org
Catholic Charities: 772-4300 catholiccharitiesdc.org/gethelp
Central Union Mission: 745-7118 65 Massachusetts Avenue, NW missiondc.org
Charlie’s Place: 232-3066 1830 Connecticut Ave, NW charliesplacedc.org Christ House: 328-1100 1717 Columbia Rd, NW christhouse.org Church of the Pilgrims: 387-6612 2201 P St, NW churchofthepilgrims.org/outreach food (1 - 1:30 on Sundays only) Community Family Life Services: 347-0511 | 305 E St, NW cflsdc.org
Vagrancy Comics #11: Ooooh that smell By Justin Benedict Former Vendor
Father McKenna Center: 842-1112 19 Eye St, NW fathermckennacenter.org
Miriam’s Kitchen: 452-8926 2401 Virginia Ave, NW miriamskitchen.org
St. Luke’s Mission Center: 333-4949 3655 Calvert St. NW stlukesmissioncenter.org
Food and Friends: 269-2277 219 Riggs Rd, NE foodandfriends.org
My Sister’s Place: 529-5991 (24-hour hotline) mysistersplacedc.org
Thrive DC: 737-9311 1525 Newton St, NW thrivedc.org
Foundry Methodist Church: 332-4010 1500 16th St, NW foundryumc.org/ministry-opportunities
N Street Village: 939-2060 1333 N Street, NW nstreetvillage.org
Unity Health Care: 745-4300 3020 14th St, NW unityhealthcare.org
Friendship Place: 364-1419 4713 Wisconsin Ave, NW friendshipplace.org
New York Ave Shelter: 832-2359 1355-57 New York Ave, NE
Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless 1200 U St NW | 328-5500 legalclinic.org
Georgetown Ministry Center: 338-8301 1041 Wisconsin Ave, NW georgetownministrycenter.org Jobs Have Priority: 544-9128 425 Snd St, NW jobshavepriority.org
Patricia Handy Place for Women: 810 5th Street, NW, NW | 733-5378 Samaritan Inns: 667-8831 2523 14th St, NW samaritaninns.org
The Welcome Table: 347-2635 1317 G St, NW epiphanydc.org/thewelcometable Whitman-Walker Health 1701 14th St, NW | 745-7000 2301 MLK Jr. Ave, SE | 797-3567 whitman-walker.org
2017 ANNUAL AUDIENCE SURVEY! As a reader and customer, you are a crucial part of the Street Sense family. It is you who empowers our vendors economically, you who reads, watches and listens to their creative work and you who improves our local culture by being better-informed about homelessness and poverty. Needless to say, we value your feedback. Please complete this survey online at StreetSense.org/survey or postmark your response by August 31, 2017, to 1317 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20005 12) What is your gender?
2) How long have you been supporting Street Sense? ___ ___ ___ ___
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4) Where do you usually buy a Street Sense newspaper? (Use a landmark, neighborhood, or cross-streets) _______________________________ _______________________________ 5) Why do you purchase the newspaper? Select all that apply. ___ To support the vendor financially ___ To support Street Sense as an organization ___ To read content by a specific vendor ___ For art and opinions from the homeless community ___ For news on homelessness and poverty ___ Other: _____________________ _____________________ 6) How do you interact with Street Sense online? Select all that apply. ___ ___ ___ ___
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8) Have you ever donated to Street Sense outside of purchasing a newspaper? ___ Yes ___ No ___ I didn’t know Street Sense needs donations 9) Street Sense holds events such as film screenings, theatre productions and community forums about 12 times per year. How many do you attend? ___ ___ ___ ___
All Most Some I’ve never attended a Street Sense event ___ I didn’t know Street Sense holds events 10) In your opinion, which of the following best describes Street Sense? Select all that apply. ___ A newspaper ___ A multimedia center ___ An economic empowerment program ___ An advocacy organization ___ A news outlet ___ An art center ___ A platform that elevates voices of homeless people __ Other: _____________________
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16) Are there specific vendor characteristics or behaviors that make you more likely or less likely to stop and buy a paper? _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________
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_______________________________ 17) How often do you observe profane language, inappropriate comments or other harassing behavior from a Street Sense vendor? ___ Frequently ___ Rarely ___ I’ve never observed this behavior 18) How can we improve our organization? _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________
15) What is the highest level of education you’ve completed? ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
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August 23 - September 5, 2017 • Volume 14 • Issue 21
Street Sense 1317 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
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