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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 2015)
Vendors Page 6 The Sower’s decree by A ve ndor We all grow here... Some are stunted, deformed, maligned While others fly like spurious heat-seeking missiles For the time being... While yet some Move like world class ballet artists. Yet won’t all Wiggle like worms To a final compassionate embrace In a prismatic morphing spectacle Stirring and settling, raging and peaceful Like the one beautiful blue ocean Common to us all Fierce, Yet eloquent Like a yellowfish Darting amidst the coral reefs. Please report any errors to our managing editor, Joanne Zuhl, at 503-228-5657, or write to joanne@streetroots.org Answers to puzzles on page 15 Street Roots • January 30-February 5, 2015 and genial man with a low-key selling style. He gives passersby a warm smile and a simple greeting. He does well at the U.S. Bancorp Tower, especially when people are getting off work, as opposed to the morning when they tend to ride a wave of caffeine past all distractions. He sets his own schedule, selling for a SAM BOUMAN STAFF WRITER block of time in the morning and evening with a lunch break in between. ichard Rowe moved to the Portland Often for lunch he area just over a year ago from Texas, volunteers at Sisters of the where he did maintenance on oil rigs. Road on Northwest Sixth It was a dangerous job. Not as dangerous as drilling, he says, but well-paid and suited to his skills. He lost his job when oil prices fell and he became homeless for a spell. He moved up to Vancouver, Wash., to be with a girlfriend, a situation that went south quickly and landed him on the streets again. "It’s not an easy city to be homeless in,” he says of Vancouver. At one point he was given a ticket for sleeping on the sidewalk. He crossed the Columbia River to Portland three months ago and began selling Street Roots almost immediately. Richard sells at the U.S. Bancorp Tower and the nearby food carts on Southwest Fifth Avenue. He is a soft-spoken W M iW a r a w s 1 1 « Richard Rowe R Avenue and Davis Street in exchange for a meal. Personal drive and Hard work are important to him, giving him the knowledge that he’s making his life better. He starts selling each day with small goals - get lunch at the food carts, and stay positive each day - while working on the larger goals of getting off the streets and reconnecting with his family. “I know I’m not gonna be selling enough to get a room for the night,” he says. “Down payment on a car? That ain’t happening. So, little goals. And once I meet them, you know it doesn’t matter, because I know I’ve got papers for tomorrow. The Lord provides, you know. What little I want, He’s given to me.” A writers reflection BY JULIE McCURDY CONTRIBUTING WRITER It’s hard to wrap words around how I feel about Street Roots. How do you, after L s L 9 6 6 8 9 P Z 9 L 8 F 9 8 Z Z 8 9 L e L 6 9 P V 8 P 9 Z 8 g L 8 Z 6 P 9 z z 6 8 9 6 9 Z 8 Z 9 8 P t 9 Z 8 p L 8 9 Z 6 8 s 6 z p L z 9 9 6 Z 8 F p 8 8 9 L all, thank an organization that has been your birthing ground as a writer, while simultaneously witnessing and applauding your voice’s brand new strength? They mean it when they say giving the voiceless a voice. Honestly, it feels like we’ve grown up together. Let me explain. I had been unhoused for approximately two months when I first heard of Street Roots. I was encouraged through a mutual friend to approach the paper with an article about my experience as a woman outside. That article led to other articles and a ton of poetry submitted. These things gave me back the voice I thought I had lost when I became unhoused in the First place. I feel like, together, Street Roots and I weathered all sorts of things: right decisions, wrong decisions; good poetry, bad poetry; rain, coffee, protests, challenges and triumphs. Over the years, 1 have stumbled in and out of housing and back into housing again; into active addiction and relationships rife with domestic violence, and then into recovery from both experiences. Today, I am inside and in recovery. I hesitate to even think about where I might be now if it weren’t for those relationships formed with the staff and volunteers at Street Roots. At once empowering and supportive, I feel like I would have been lost without them. I feel like my whole history as an unhoused person has been chronicled with and through Street Roots, The experience has led to what has quite possibly become the healthiest, most longstanding relationship of my life. Honestly, how do you thank a group of folks for literally helping you help yourself back into life and the land of the living? 13 l a i f ■ EK3BB B B B B BEIBB B B B B B B B B B BEIBEIBEIBKZIEIBEIEIEDEIEI B B B B B B B BBBQEl B B BBB no nno ODOO BOI SIBBBBBBBBB OBOO BOBO OOBDO OOODOOB lO D O O O D B D D O O O O BOOB O D D B O B B O D BOBO boob l£j Street Roots is a proud member ol the International Network of Street Papers, celebrating International Vendor Week, Feb. 2-8.
