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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2018)
Vendors Page 6 o C E N T R A L C IT Y CO FFEE Shinkiudl. Sh-gwuL. Sourcing & roasting craft coffee to benefit programs at Central City Concern. IN STORES New Seasons Market, Whole Foods, Food Front Cooperative Grocery, Green Zebra, Chuck's Produce, Food Fight!, Cherry Sprout Produce, and Know Thy Food. AT YOUR OFFICE Interested in serving Central City Coffee at your office? Get in touch with us and we can help you make that happen. 503.226.7387 ON OUR WEBSITE Buy Central City Coffee online and have it shipped directly to you or a friend. AT KASBAH MOROCCAN CAFE Get your espresso favorites at Old Town's newest spot (201 NW Davis Street), featuring Central City Coffee! Follow our Facebook page for updates and specials. centralcitycoffee.org facebook.com/CentralCityCoffee coffee@ccconcern.org Answers to Page 15 Puzzles 6 9 8 t? I. p I- 8 z L L Z 8 9 6 9 8 9 Ï7 1- 8 9 I L Z 9 6 9 8 8 Z L 6 8 L 9 Z 8 6 9 I 9 L 6 8 t7 I- t7 9 9 8 8 8 8 6 9 L 9 1- t7 z 9 t7 z 8 8 I- 6 L 9 9 F L 6 Z t7 8 8 9 “I lived with various family members,” she said. “I felt like a sack of potatoes they kept passing around.” She ended up in foster care and lived for a time in Columbia Villa, a housing project that became a dilapidated Portland ghetto BY HELEN HILL C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R rife with violence and concentrated poverty. She remembers hearing gunshots arbra Weber describes herself as a often. tiny person, but she has enormous Barbra began to connect with homeless compassion, intelligence and an people she met in downtown Portland. activist’s dedication to improving the lives “I felt safer on the streets,” she said. of people who, like her, call the streets “I’m so tiny, I stick out like a sore thumb. home. Homeless people were very supportive.” Barbra was born in Kellogg, Idaho. She was sent to another foster home in “I had the odd couple for parents,” she Beaverton, and then to the Open Meadow said. Her mother was bipolar and Alternative School, but she felt safer with eventually placed in long-term treatment, her homeless friends. By the time she was while her father, who had high-functioning 14, she was on the streets of downtown autism, served in the military. He worked Portland, with the supportive community as a machinist, repairing brain boxes in she’d found there. Asked if she was ever helicopters. afraid, she replied, “I’ve moved around so “He had really small hands,” she said. much, I know I can survive anything.” Barbra describes her upbringing as a bit Barbra is the mother of three children. of a dysfunctional rodeo. Her son Michael was born when she was “I took on a typical hero role. I had a 16; her daughter, Stephanie, was born a brother who died at 7 weeks and another year later and her son James the following who I raised. I changed every diaper,” she year. said. It hasn’t been an easy road. Stephanie The family moved constantly throughout was born with non-communicative the U.S. and Germany. hydrocephaly and required massive care “I was in six different schools in first until her death at age 3. Both her boys still grade, and I flunked second grade.” struggle with bipolar disorder and autism. Barbra’s grandmother provided a sense And Barbra herself said she was recently of stability during her childhood. diagnosed with a brain lesion in her speech “From the time I was born,” Barbra said, center, after experiencing narcolepsy, “she would read the Bible every day to me. balance issues and difficulty She got me a little Bible of my own. I could regulating her emotions. talk by the time I was 2. By the time I Through the ups was 3 , 1 could read and write. I owe and downs of a that to my grandmother.” dramatic and full Barbra was 6 and her brother life, Barbra has was 1 when her mother suffered a nurtured her big nervous breakdown. Her family heart and was living in Germany at the B time. “She wasn’t dangerous, but they put her behind bars,” Barbra said. Barbra was allowed to visit her, “a memory indelible in my brain.” Her mother was transferred, along with the rest of the family, in a cargo plane headed back to the United States. Barbra remembers being allowed to sit beside her mother, who was put in five-point restraints. “She talked me into undoing her restraints, and they didn’t let me sit beside her after that.” After her mother was placed in treatment and her brother went to live with an aunt, Barbra’s life became unmoored. Street Roots • Jan. 12-18, 2018 altruistic spirit. “I really want to be an advocate and learn how to give back,” she said. She serves on the board of Homeless EcoVille, a visionary community based in Virginia that seeks to create safe housing through gardening and the construction of tiny solar-powered homes. She lived in Virginia before returning to Portland last year. Barbra is also active at Sisters of the Road, where, as part of the Hygiene Huddles, she gives presentations to organizations about access to hygiene for people on the street. She also volunteers with Right 2 Survive as a media point person, using her skills and experience with marketing and social media. Barbra found Street Roots last fall, encouraged by her partner, Bryant King, a Street Roots vendor and frequent contributing poet. Together, they sell papers at Fourth Avenue and Morrison Street. “I like being in the special Street Roots club. The only thing you need to belong is a badge. It’s friendly, like a little family,” she said. “Street Roots vendors are not overly needy. We share cigarettes, camaraderie and encourage each other not to use and drink.” Barbra is passionate about changing the public view of homeless people. “I wish we were treated better, with respect as a community. We are looked at like a problem that needs to be fixed, but we aren’t the only ones with addictions,” she said. “There are people who are really sick outside, lying out in the rain. I want to help change the view of homelessness. I want to help create safe spaces.”
