StreetWise Vendors Prove That Our Mission Has Been in Motion for 32 Years and Counting!
Get to know our Vendors, current and past , in this Special Edition
Sean Williams was introduced to StreetWise by his late fiancée, who had tried to sell the magazine after she left her abusive husband and became homeless. Being a vendor didn’t work for her, because she had spinal injuries and couldn’t stand for long periods of time.
However, she encouraged Williams to be a StreetWise vendor, because he did not have physical issues. He became a vendor in May 2010, but went back and forth between selling the magazine and panhandling until September 2012.
At the time, he was also working as a library shelver in Evanston and Glenview. His fiancée drove him out to the DeKalb area where she lived so he could panhandle, but he was harassed by law enforcement and panhandlers, and he wasn’t making much money doing it.
Pride is a big factor for Williams too. He didn’t like it when other StreetWise vendors who knew him as a vendor saw him panhandling. After his fiancée died, he associated selling the magazine with her and realized it made him happier, just as he is happier when he avoids alcohol.
“I’m certainly happier being a regular StreetWise vendor and having
people want to help me because they can see I’m selling StreetWise. And as long as I can put consistent effort into selling StreetWise, it has been more profitable. I’m very lucky because people are usually very nice to me, especially my regular customers [in downtown Evanston], because as you know, in most retail jobs, the customers can be unkind. I never had a job where I could interact with people to the same extent; even when I apply for desk jobs at the library, they tell me I am not a good fit for customer service.”
The vendor job requires less precision than shelving or working in a museum. It also allows him to interact with people without stress. Previous jobs have been in a sheltered workshop and also the archives and manuscripts department of the Chicago History Museum.
Williams readily claims his intellectual disabilities and autism. He notes proudly that growing up in Evanston, his education was mainstreamed. Then, at 15, his family moved to Wilmette, where he finished New Trier High School. He later completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees, with accommodations, at Northeastern Illinois University.
www.streetwise.org 5
by Suzanne
Compiled
Hanney
Sean Williams
where I remained for a number of weeks. Highly dedicated and caring doctors and nurses saved my life. But, unfortunately, the two bullets had done much brain damage. My right arm remains paralyzed to this day and my left leg often drags behind me when I walk. I did know some English 20 years ago. However, after the gun shots, I now can only speak my native Spanish very slowly and at times with some difficulty. And I make sure I take my daily medication to avoid seizures.
When I saw my companion pigeon with his broken wing a few months ago, my eyes filled with tears. He had been very faithful to me over the years. And now he was gone.
My name is Arturo Barajaz, and I have been a StreetWise vendor for the last 20 years. The corner of LaSalle and Monroe is my usual spot for selling my newspapers from the very early hours of every morning. I am so grateful for my customers who are very kind and generous with me.
A few months ago, my heart was filled with much pain and sorrow as I found my companion during these early hours of the day dead just a few feet away. Pinto lay on the sidewalk with a broken wing. My companion, who was a multi-colored pigeon, had been with me at that corner for many years during our Chicago hot summer days and the freezing winter ones.
I became homeless over 20 years ago as I walked in the West Side of our City during the early morning hours going to my full-time work as a machine operator. Two gang members attacked me, and after stealing $20 from me, shot two bullets into my head for no reason known to me.
I was taken to the nearby hospital
After leaving the hospital 20 years ago, I was taken to a respite program on the West Side of our city for people who are homeless and still recovering after leaving area hospitals. It was a wonderful place to recover and relearn to walk again without a walker. The staff and other residents treated with me much respect and dignity. And the health care staff also continued to support me in the healing that was ongoing.
However, after a number of months at the respite center, I left on my own. There was no housing available for the majority of the program’s residents who were ready to move on. So, for the next 12 years, I survived sleeping in the streets, and at times in the shelters of our city. I also sold StreetWise. I was grateful that I had some money for food and moving around the city.
And then one day nine years ago, as I sold my StreetWise Magazine at Monroe and LaSalle and accompanied by my friend Pinto, a social worker approached me. A few weeks later I was able to move into my own apartment, which is part of the Samaritan Program, run by the Center for Housing and Health and H.O.W., Inc. My heart filled with gratitude as I was able to make my own
bed after 11 years of homelessness, even with only one arm. I live near the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen and the money from StreetWise helps with transportation, food and daily needs.
I have been there ever since, but always faithful to my customers at Monroe and LaSalle every morning. And in the mornings there, I am now accompanied by my new pigeon friend, Pinto II, whom I believe is the daughter of my dead companion.
-Written with the support of my friend, the social worker, Arturo Bendixen.
In 1992, StreetWise was founded by a group called “People for Ending Hunger Foundation” led by Judd Lofchie.
On Aug. 24, 1992, the first issue of StreetWise is published, starting as a monthly black & white newspaper.
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Arturo Barajaz
when she sees me, ‘Ms. Drummond, I love your energy.’
“A whole team of people: my daughter, she will say, ‘Mommy, I love you.’ Thankful for Writers’ Group, to be able to put my words out to the people, they are able to look at me in a different way. ‘Oh, girl! It’s you! You’ve been through some stuff and still out there.’ I am grateful to Suzanne [Hanney, Editor]. You don’t tell me what to say, but fix what I have to say. Thankful for my energy. I get up and go. I’d rather be on the go than lying around. During COVID, I didn’t catch a cold. I am thankful for my genes. Thankful for the staff, because we are StreetWise.”
Kianna Drummond Bessie Salter
Kianna said in a year end 2022 edition (StreetWise, Vol. 30 No. 49) that she was grateful to be alive, grateful for her daughter, “but mostly for StreetWise, for Julie [Youngquist, executive director] showing me the ropes. When I thought I could have no work, she showed me don’t never take out all your money, take out some. Going out, I take $10 out and will be happy to come home and see money on the dresser. I used to just take everything out and come back with nothing.”
"I can pay my bills up, take care of my baby, keep myself looking like a lady, be able to purchase some StreetWise magazines, have some for the weekend. It’s like a check, every book adds up. I will be able to buy my baby things, like a pizza when she comes around. Able to treat her differently when she comes around. So thankful, I can’t even say it all.
“Thankful to God for the whole StreetWise organization; to Mr. Ron; to my building manager, Lakeisha, for allowing me to move into the apartment I have now. She will say
Kianna sells at Mariano’s, 1615 S. Clark St. and was one of three vendors who contributed reporting to “Where I Stay: Tent City Chicago,” the serialized podcast on homelessness StreetWise produced with Rivet 360.
On April 16, 1997, StreetWise began to print full color covers. In May of 2000, StreetWise moved from publishing bi-weekly to weekly.
“Another vendor was trying to outdo me and take over the spot [in Wilmette] I have had for years,” Bessie Salter said in the August 23-30, 2021 29th anniversary edition of StreetWise.
“Competition sometimes can be better for you because it gives you more of a drive, more of an incentive. Sometimes you don’t feel like going out, but because the competition is there, you’ll push your way and get more energy. I started buying more magazines and was able to get to my spot more often. They elevated me and I took back my location.”
-Reprinted from StreetWise Aug. 2330, 2021 (Vol. 29 No. 33)
On May 3, 2022, vendors Lee and Paula wed at the StreetWise offices (Kathleen Hinkel photo).
Ed Cephus
Ed Cephus is a familiar face of StreetWise to many Chicagoans because he sells mornings in front of the Art Institute. He was the subject of a Father’s Day feature in 2014 because while he and his significant other, Monique, have no children of their own, they are parenting children who have been left to their care. Ten years later, we did an update with him for this Gala edition.
How did you get to StreetWise?
“I came to StreetWise in 1992 after I met a guy who was always walking around with money and I was like, 'What do you do for a living?' and he said, ‘I sell StreetWise.’ His name was Ronald, but they called him Mr. Wise because he had an editorial/ advice column in the paper at the time. He had also taken a class at Second City, so he would put a comedic twist to his advice.
“He was also a homeowner and he lived out in Hazelcrest. So that’s how I got a sense of treating this like a business. This man was able to afford a home from StreetWise. He also taught me the difference between
selling to individuals and selling to a big crowd. That’s why I think I have a lot more success than others, because when people are going across the street, a lot of vendors will pick a couple people out of the crowd and try to talk to them, but I talk to the whole crowd. Because I average a sale every traffic light. So sometimes there might be 25 people crossing, so if I get 1 in every 25, that’s every traffic light.”
How did you come to be a “dad?”
“Monique who was a cashier [at StreetWise] is my significant other. On August 1 of 2008 we moved into our apartment. August 3 of 2008, she had my baby. August 4, my baby died. Her aunt paid for the funeral and eight days after the funeral, that aunt died and left us her three children: Brandy, Christine and Michael.
Brandy’s the youngest. When we got her, she was in 7th or 8th grade. Then her sister Christine was in high school. Michael was a freshman at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.
Also, we had a cashier [at StreetWise] by the name of Kathy back when we were on 13th Street and she died. Her baby, Shirley, went to her aunt and her aunt died. So that’s how we ended up getting her. I’ve been legally been taking care of her since 2008.”
Brandy graduated from Prospective Charter School with a 4.6 GPA on a 4-point scale and is now a manager at a Burlington Coat Factory store; she has two children, a girl age 5 and a boy, age 6. Michael received a degree in criminal justice, worked as a counselor for children in state custody and is now a probation officer in Texas. Christine also went to Grand Valley State and now works as an early education teacher. Shirley is married and her husband recently received a medical discharge from the Army.
On July 19, 1996, StreetWise
Vendor Melinda Rogers sold the 5 millionth copy of StreetWise. (Inside the newspaper was a round-trip airline ticket compliments of United Airlines.)
“Everybody has kind of mended and we all are just one family. We joined church, everybody was out kind of doing their own thing, so Sundays and Wednesdays when we went to Bible study gave us a chance to come together as a family and spend that quality family time.”
Cephus worked with the Safe Passage program in a local Chicago Public School where he is now vice chair of the Local School Council. He also volunteered at the garden outside the school in Roseland and did maintenance at the 26-unit apartment building in which the family lived.
I bet your family’s really proud of you, too.
“Oh yes, my parents are blessed to still be alive and they live directly kittycorner from the school where I am on the LSC. I manage their 8-unit building and every morning at 6:15 we walk 2½ miles together. They’re 95 and 93 years old. Well, they’re actually my aunt and uncle, because I lost my parents when I was six weeks old and they took care of me, so I guess that’s where I get it from. They took me in from six weeks. Their names are Elois and Delores Bills.”
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What are your goals?
“I was in property management with Majestic Realty until two years ago. I now do security at a Jewel store."
[When we talked in early April, Ed was getting ready to leave on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief for a 25-hour trip to Albuquerque, NM to see his two brothers and sister, along with Brandy’s 5- and 6-year olds.]
What are the biggest lessons you’re trying to teach your kids?
“A sense of community. The sense that it not only takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to maintain the community. My parents have always been the type… my aunt and uncle have always been the type that not only do they plant flowers in front of their home, they help with all the neighbors' homes. They planted a community garden. And when they see people in need, or they see someone outside with a flat tire, they come out and ask if they’d like to come in and use the phone. So it’s just that sense of community that we are our brother’s keeper.”
On December 14, 2007, "StreetWise: The Movie" premiered at the Park West Theater. Vendors begin selling DVD copies of it the day after.
William Plowman
William Plowman has lived in Chicago for roughly the last 29 years, although he was born just across the Mississippi River in Iowa.
Although he is legally blind, Plowman likes to watch sports on television, to play pinball and card games and to listen to music CDs, as he
On November 5, 2008, StreetWise transitions from newsprint to 4-color magazine format, sold for $2.
told vendor Jacqueline Sanders during a StreetWise Writers Group exercise last year.
Plowman started selling StreetWise in March 1996 – 28 years ago. His life before then was difficult. He had lived on the streets and slept on the trains. StreetWise gave him a place to be during the daytime until he did find housing.
He was in a StreetWise band and had a couple of speaking parts in the StreetWise “Not Your Mama’s Bus Tour” to parts of Chicago that vendors know best. He was a participant in the Writers’ Group and is now a nearly constant contributor to the weekly SportsWise vendor chat column.
He sells at Belmont and Ashland Whole Foods, at Starbucks on Lincoln and Paulina and at Lyric Opera House.
“I’m thankful I still have my family, I’m thankful for my friends. I’m thankful that I’ve been able to have so many achievements as I’ve had up here in Chicago. ’Cause I really beat the odds on that.”
On July 1, 2011, StreetWise relaunches its meals program in partnership with The Salvation Army, Panera Bread and the Greater Chicago Food Depository
- the StreetWise Cafe is reborn! In 2012 we partnered with First Slice Pie Cafe, and 2020, during the pandemic, the cafe was supported by World Central Kitchen.
“Percy Smith 20 years not a slave to addiction” is the saying on a T-shirt that Smith, a StreetWise vendor at 1440 W. Webster Ave., had printed to reflect Aug. 4, 1999 – the last time he used a substance. He reflected on his 20-year anniversary of being substance-free in the Oct. 28-Nov. 3, 2019 edition of StreetWise.
Smith was 18 years old and playing baseball on a full scholarship at Iowa State University when he was hit by a car on Nov. 2, 1980. The incident put a hole in his spinal cord, a condition known as siringomielia, and ended his dreams of a pro baseball career. Hospitalized for a couple of months, he regained movement but used drugs until he was 37 years old for the pain. He didn’t have money for doctors and heroin worked faster than pills.
In 1999, he learned that Mercy Hospital offered combined detox and rehab. He made an appointment for three days later and stopped using in the interim.
But the respite made him really sick to his stomach and bowels, teary-eyed
and lethargic, so on the way to the hospital in a taxi, he picked up some drugs. Since he also hadn’t eaten, he stopped at a Burger King at 23rd and Michigan. He saw he was late and thought about delaying until the next day. Instead he passed out.
He woke up in Michael Reese Hospital, where the ambulance had taken him. “This was God-given all the way. I believe my last thought, ‘I could go the next day,’ was God doing something for me I couldn’t do myself, which was quit.”
After five days in detox, he went back home and found his pain was also diminished. He immediately went to a 12-step meeting, where he was amazed to see people celebrating substance-free time of five, 10, 15, 20 years.
Smith came to StreetWise in 2005 at the suggestion of his brother-inlaw, who was also a vendor. For five years, he was the vendor representative on the board of directors.
He saw other vendors whom he felt were just “slaves to their addiction, working all day, getting high all night until their money was gone.
“I thought it would be more appreciated, and the company would grow so much more, if we treated the StreetWise organization as a nonprofit business rather than a pity pot.”
Since Smith had enough substancefree time, he was encouraged by the StreetWise vendor services manager and executive director to start a weekly “Lifesavers” group. Using the Narcotics Anonymous modality, they tried to stay substance-free one day at a time. They read. They shared. They celebrated anything substantial in a participant’s life.
Smith obtained his associate degree in addiction studies at Harold Washington College and while he was a vendor, finished his bachelor’s
degree in human behavioral sciences with a substance abuse focus from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
In 2008, he married Bridget Cannon. He has one child living from a previous marriage and his wife has three. “They don’t call me ‘father’ but they appreciate and respect me.”
In 2013, he was working 10-hour days selling StreetWise when he passed out at a meeting and went to the emergency room. Two pressure sores from sitting on the hard seat of his wheelchair had absessed. The doctors had to dig out so much tissue that the infection nearly reached bone. After months of antibiotic therapy, he was released, and rebounded in the hospital two weeks later.
This time, he obeyed his doctors. No sitting in one position for more than an hour. He obtained a wheelchair that reclined so he could offload his weight. He had to give up the Lifesavers group, although he wanted to find someone to take it over.
“Mostly, I am happy to be alive and moving around,” he said.
From 2016 until his death on Jan. 29, 2024 at age 61, Smith maintained infection-free living and sold StreetWise on Webster Avenue.
Dec. 15, 2015 was the first GiveAShi*t pop-up. Since then, The Daily Planet Ltd. has teamed up with StreetWise and local artists for GiveAShi*t. Artists donate their designs, and all items are hand-screened and sold at pop-up shops around the City and at www.giveashirt.net. 100% of the profits benefit StreetWise. As of today, GiveAShi*t has donated over $600,000!
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Percy Smith
Where did you grow up?
I grew up on the Northwest Side, the North Center neighborhood.
Where do you sell StreetWise?
I am at the Walgreens at 4040 N. Cicero in the 6 Corners neighborhood. I also sell at Randolph and Michigan, at 151 N. Michigan. I used to be the executive assistant at StreetWise. Now I have a full-time job at a union-owned medical clinic with full benefits for me and my family. I had taken a year off from StreetWise, and I just came back last October. That is when I started selling on the North Side.
What brought you to StreetWise?
When I was 16, I was in high school and working part-time. At 18, I was let go from my job, but I had made a promise when my daughter was born that I would maintain employment. I knew I had to do something, so I came in, and I have been here ever since! 11 years now! I love the fact that you feel good helping people while you are here, you can contribute to people that were in your situation when you first walked in. I still volunteer here on Mondays and I
feel good after it. I go to my job and I don’t always feel appreciated. Here I feel good. It’s the environment of StreetWise, it is just so positive, and it carries with you when you go.
Do you have any strategies for when you sell the magazine?
I like to be honest about who I am. I want people to understand that what they are doing is helping me. I have goals of buying a car and getting a real estate license. Me being out there with my customers is really going to help me move on, because I already have an associate degree in real estate. I want to do it, it is a passion of mine. In the meantime I need to get to that point. My aunt asked me why I tell my customers that I have a job; she insisted that no one would help me if they knew that. I said if they don’t want to support me, I would like them to support someone else. The relationship between customers and vendors happens because the customers believe in what the vendors are doing. Customers see that we are trying to make our lives better, and that is what I am doing. There is a vendor out there for everybody. I want people to understand that there is no typical vendor; we all have different reasons why we are here. I think the more you talk to the vendor, you will find how much you have in common.
Are there any other future goals besides getting the car and your real estate license?
I have 2 associate's degrees, and almost a third: 4 classes left to finish my associate's in accounting. I would like to go back to finish that. I would also like to start investing, with the hope that I could retire early. My daughter is 14, and lives in Wisconsin. That is why I want to get the
In March 2018, StreetWise began accepting Venmo as a cashless payment option. On June 27, 2022, StreetWise vendors got a raise when the cover price changed to $3.
car and my license! I tried having her live here, but she didn’t like my rules. Her dad lets her do whatever. I want to spend more time with her, but I don’t have much free time now. Sometimes we need to stop and take a break, but at the same time, I need to solve my problems and pay my bills. I don’t want to just survive, I want to thrive!
Excerpted from StreetWise July 6-12, 2015 (Vol. 23 No. 27)
Linda told us in April she got her real estate license, still likes dealing with closings, but now has a full-time job in medical transcription. Her daughter is 22, working full-time, and living on her own in Chicago, with the goal of being a restaurant manager. She says she was inspired by how hard Linda hustled to make ends meet.
The pandemic didn't hold us down! 2020 was a big year of challenges and triumphs! Including:
March 5: StreetWise officially merges with the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago.
March 27: Moved to our current offices at 2009 S. State St.
April 6: Ceased print edition, with a massive fundraising campaign to support our vendors while they were unable to work. Our offices stayed open throughout to supply cash, PPE, and food (provided by World Central Kitchen) to vendors in need.
May 18: 75 Vendors were put back to work for the U.S. Census.
July 6: Back to print!
October 1: Our 29th annual gala was held virtually.
Linda Carretero
on the South Side eight years ago when she was visiting her kids. She carried Pepper home in her pocket. Every day, she takes the CTA Red Line or the No. 36 Broadway bus to the 7-Eleven across the street by 7 a.m., so she can eat breakfast before Whole Foods opens at 8. It’s easier for her to stay awake that way than if she ate at home, she says. The same bus will take her to the [former] StreetWise office, which is roughly halfway in between at 4554 N. Broadway.
On her breaks, Booker charges her phone at the Center on Halsted, where she has made friends with roughly 20 homeless kids who are doing the same thing until a nearby drop-in center opens.
“Nestled in between the Center on Halsted and its adjoining Whole Foods for the past four years, Debbie Booker has practically become a Boystown landmark herself.
She greets a male customer who visited her when she was hospitalized for minor surgery, then congratulates a woman on her new baby, and receives a gift of a pineapple from another male customer.
“Every day I see her she has a smile on her face and she always says ‘Hi,’” said yet another male customer who lives nearby. “Even if I’m in a bad mood she always puts a smile on my face. I talk to her more than anyone in this building.”
“She’s the best,” adds another man, a Whole Foods employee, as he breezes by.
“Everyone knows me, I feel safe here. I’ve got lots of friends,” Booker says. “It’s like family.”
Booker lives at the north edge of Uptown with her cat, Pepper, whom she found as a kitten under a bus shelter
“About half of them have gotten jobs and I’m so proud of them,” Booker says. “Their parents were on drugs and I tell them they can do better. That’s what made them run away from home.”
There’s also the neighborhood dogs. “They go straight to my book bag because they know I’ve got biscuits in there. I’ve got all their pictures in my phone and I know their names.” Booker finishes her day by 1 p.m., although she can stay as late as 3 or 4.
Reprinted from StreetWise July 2226. 2019 (Vol. 27 No. 29)
In June 2022, StreetWise Editor
Suzanne Hanney wins eight first place awards for writing and for StreetWise the magazine itself, along with 2nds and 3rds, in the Illinois Woman's Press Association professional competition. Winning the most points in the IWPA's contest merited the prestigious Silver Feather Award. She also won the Silver Feather in 2023.
“Each year that God allows me to live another year my experience with life has taught me more and more wisdom. My ups and downs, how I handle situations, how I look at life. I don’t look at life like I used to look at it when I was 21 years old because I am almost 65,” John Kidd said in the 29th anniversary edition of StreetWise on August 23-30, 2021. “I look at life like, ‘It is what it is.’ What I put into it is what I will get back out of it. I do try to do a good deed every day as far as treating people nicely, being kind to people. I just treat people like I would want them to treat me.”
Kidd was the person who inspired StreetWise to do the story of John “Jack” Lyle, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, for the Memorial Day edition of StreetWise in 2019.
“He wasn’t the type that liked to brag,” Kidd said of Lyle. “He looked at it as a job, a simple job, and he did it.”
Just the same, Kidd said that he wants people to have the example of Lyle’s life and leadership. “He was
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Debbie Booker John Kidd
a role model as far as bravery, honor, loyalty. We can do anything we put our minds to if we just stay focused.” Kidd grew up in Auburn-Gresham, where he knew Eunice Jackson, who later married Lyle. He ran into Mrs. Lyle several years before and met her husband. She had urged him to write a memoir, which Kidd promoted to friends and fellow church members. Kidd had planned to go sailing with Lyle the coming summer, but Lyle died in January 2019 at age 98. Fewer than five Tuskegee Airmen are still living.
Kidd sells StreetWise at Diversey and Clark Streets and North Avenue and Wells Street and is also part of a Christian male singing group.
StreetWise: FAQ
What is Streetwise? StreetWise exists to elevate marginalized voices and provide opportunities for individuals to earn an income or gain employment. We offer two distinct pathways toward economic inclusion for anyone who wants to work – the Magazine Vendor Program and the S.T.E.P. Employment Program.
Who are those people with magazines on the Street? The people you see on the street have to make their own way to the StreetWise office in the South Loop and pay $1.15 for the magazine they sell to you for $3, making a $1.85 plus tips profit on each sale. They are vendors and this is their job! These are individuals who have lost a job, lost a spouse or partner, struggle with a health issue, etc. Many of them at one time had a home and a regular job, and never expected to end up in such a vulnerable situation.
What do the vendors use the money for when you buy a paper? For many, their short term goal is to make money for their basic needs and expenses. The longterm goal is often full-time employment and the ability to afford an apartment lease.
How much can they make and is it enough to live on? Like any entrepreneur, the amount of money earned varies with the amount of time, effort, and determination. Many vendors use StreetWise to pay rent and take care of their families, while others use it as supplemental income.
What makes StreetWise unique? StreetWise provides a dignified means of addressing the crisis of poverty and homelessness, and allows individuals immediate access to a respectable and legitimately earned income through their own hard work. The StreetWise vendors throughout the city are out there every day pushing to make ends meet.
What can I do to help out? Buy and take the magazine every week and engage your local StreetWise vendors. Introduce yourself. Learn their names. These are great people who are out there working, but they also would love your friendship, conversation and respect.
Gwendolyn Freeman
The temperature is nearly 90 degrees but a lake breeze is blowing from the east and it’s comfortable in the shade at 3 p.m. as Gwendolyn Freeman sells StreetWise in front of the Walgreens at 5440 N. Clark St.
The location at the southwest corner of Clark and Catalpa Streets is Freeman’s afternoon spot for selling the magazine. She spends her mornings – from 7:30 a.m. until 11:30 or noon – three blocks away at the Starbucks at Berwyn Avenue and Clark Street. Since she lives less than a mile away in Edgewater, she can walk home for lunch. By mid-afternoon, she’s back at work until 8:30 or 9 p.m.
“It’s a nice neighborhood the Lord blessed me in,” she said. “People are nice and friendly. They claim me as family and I love all of them. I call everybody up here friends although I don’t know nobody’s name. I like communicating with customers. They trust me.”
Freeman has been in Andersonville for six years and has sold the magazine at various locations: the Brown Elephant resale shop down the
block at 5404 N. Clark St.; Alamo Shoes, 5321 N. Clark St.; a local grocery store and a taco restaurant she wrote up in an EatWise column for the magazine. In her time off, she patronizes these stores.
Three years ago when she lost her fiance, who sold the magazine across the street, her customers gave her money, which she passed on to his family.
Freeman has sold StreetWise intermittently since 1993 when she was pregnant with her daughter. She was a panhandler who lived in the St. James Hotel on Wabash Avenue near former StreetWise offices on 13th Street and she tried selling the magazine at the suggestion of police.
She previously sold the magazine for 17 years at Waveland and Broadway and at the Starbucks at Broadway and Roscoe. She still brings magazines every two weeks to one of her Starbucks customers, “Miss Judy,” who owns a nearby lady’s bar.
Reprinted from StreetWise July 2226. 2019 (Vol. 27 No. 29)
In December 2020, StreetWise launched the "Where I Stay" podcast with Rivet 360, which was nominated for a Lisagor Award in 2021, and a Shorty Award in 2021 & 2022. The second season of "Where I Stay" began in November 2023, and episodes are currently being released. It has already won First Place - Podcast from the Illinois Woman's Press Association. Start listening at www.streetwise. org/whereistay or wherever you listen to podcasts!
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Copyright ©2024 PuzzleJunction.com Sudoku Solution 1 to 9. ©2024 PuzzleJunction.com Solution 33 Mythical nymph chaser 35 Luster 38 Young alpaca 41 Oval 43 Boo-boo 44 A wee hour 46 Permit 47 Parking place 49 Out of practice 50 Rajah’s wife 51 J.F.K. postings 52 Brood 53 Poet Van Duyn 54 Decomposes 55 Actress McClurg 56 Sense 58 Time delay 59 Go public with 61 Meadow sound 62 Refreshers 63 ___ Too Proud to Beg (1966 hit) 64 Holmes of “Dawson’s Creek” 65 “Now it’s clear!” 66 Overcast 67 Stand for a portrait Down 1 Pampering places 2 Duffer’s target 3 Burn soother 4 Fan sound 5 Dresser parts 6 Eddy 7 Injure 8 Gardner of film 9 Asian capital 10 Excavate 11 Young salmon 12 Australian export 13 Monster’s home 22 Bubbly beverage 23 Absorb, as a cost 24 Thwack 25 Great divide 26 Airports 27 Keys 28 Twinkle 29 Innocent 30 Promise 31 Golf score 32 “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” spinoff Last Week's Answers Streetwise 4/7/24 Crossword PuzzleJunction.com ©2024 PuzzleJunction.com Solution 41 Mauna ___ 43 Calendar spans (Abbr.) 45 Slough 47 Femme fatale 48 Moron starter 50 Climbing vines 51 Deserves 52 Monroe’s successor 53 Stick-on 54 Deserted 56 Feelings 59 Baby buggy 61 First-class 62 Carryall 63 Rework a paper 65 Purge 67 Japanese sash 68 Prosciutto Across 1 Arizona river 5 Droops 9 Befuddle 14 Cupid, to the Greeks 15 Sheltered, at sea 16 Reef material 17 Tennessee city 19 Fine fiddle 20 Aardvark’s morsel 21 ___ de France 22 Curtain holder 24 UN agency 25 British biscuit 27 Tiny flower 29 Big cat 32 Primitive weapon 34 Slacker 35 Prospector’s need 36 Bar bill 39 Honey maker 40 Decelerates 42 Lad 44 Beak 46 Debtor’s note 47 Sedate 49 Talipot palms 51 Drink makers 52 Musical passage 55 All 57 Pa. neighbor 58 Venomous snake 60 Choler 61 Broke bread 64 Squirrel’s stash 66 Legendary English outlaw 69 Craze 70 Assist, in a way 71 Against 72 Coasters 73 Overlook 74 Convene Down 1 Actress Rowlands 2 Persia, now 3 Bewildered 4 Fire remnant 5 Jack-tar 6 Kind of wrench 7 Hair goo 8 Merlin, e.g. 9 Maine’s National Park 10 Actor Deluise 11 Certain accent 12 Carpenter’s machine 13 Four Quartets poet 18 Parish priest 23 Roasters 25 Petition 26 Marry 28 Crumb 29 Triangular sail 30 Gulf port 31 Delight 33 Feline foot 37 Fr. holy man 38 Orange Free State settler 40 Military installations Find your nearest StreetWise Vendor at www.streetwise.org
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