March 27, 2019
“There’s a lot of courage out here,” were the words of Kaia Sand, executive director of Street Roots, when introducing 11 women and men last night who have lived, fought, and survived homelessness, ready to present their poetry to a full house.
There could not have been a more fitting title for the poetry presentation either: Making the Invisible Visible was what happened during each and every reading, words opened windows into worlds often unknown to those of us protected from living on the streets.
There’s a lot to learn out there. At least for those of us who pacify their conscience by buying Street Roots on a regular basis, supporting the entrepreneurs, members of the local homeless community, who sell the weekly street newspaper published in Portland, OR. Vendors receive 75 cents for every $1 paper they sell. For that they stand day on ends on cold street corners, in all weather, facing who knows how many people who avert their eyes for everyone who glances at them, or engages in quick conversation while buying the paper.
What stays invisible is the talent and perceptiveness of those trying to connect. What stays hidden is our own timidity to face misery that contrasts with our privilege. Off we rush, having paid a token buck.
There’s an incredible amount of creative power out there. Last night’s poems covered a wide range of topics, lengths and forms, and skill levels that demanded, at their heights, publication in its perfection. My belief that poetry should, if possible, be presented orally to unfold its full power, was confirmed again. The merging of words, describing lived experience, and the face, voice and gestural expressiveness of the experiencer made a whole, doubling the impact. Some of the poetry was polished, some written that very day, some describing personal experiences that make you wonder how they can be survived, some lovely paeans to a world we all inhabit, and others a call to political action to fight for economic and social justice.
There was a lot of palpable emotion out there, on all sides, presenters and audience alike. It veered from sadness to anger to joy, from disbelief to curiosity to relief that we share aspects of the world, when the poems covered experiences we are all familiar with. Tears and laughter were openly displayed helping to forge a sense of community in a group of people from backgrounds all over the map. I sat next to a woman who turned out to be one of the leaders of the poetry workshops organized by Street Roots. Her display of encouraging words, gestures, sounds and smiles added one more emotion to the mix: my jealousy of never having had writing teachers of such humanity.
There’s a lot of community engagement out there. The event was organized by one of the artists currently showing at Gallery 114 who hosted the gathering, David Slader, and introduced as well by a Board member of the Pearl District Neighborhood Organization, Stan Penkin. A terrific review of InkBodySkinPaint+Fire, Slader’s work and that of his friend Owen Carey, a renowned Portland photographer who I admire, can be found here:
https://www.orartswatch.org/tattoo-you-art-in-the-flesh/#more-72865
You have a few more days to catch the exhibition, it’s worth it, if only for the whimsey of small plastic cows strategically placed across the room…long story.
You also have a few more days to make up your mind how to help an organization like Street Roots, but then get to it! Here are some options to show support: http://streetroots.org/support
Another possibility is to get engaged in their newest advocacy project, a plan to improve the ways we respond to problems unfolding on the street. It is a big endeavor and could use all hands on deck. Attached below is an outlining of the problems and proposed solutions and a TV interview that describes the project in a few minutes.
https://news.streetroots.org/2019/03/15/portland-street-response-street-roots-special-report
Let me close with a poem of one of last night’s presenters, Brandon Morgrove.
Photographs of the presenters, via iPhone, since there’s a lot of ineptitude out there when your’s truly once again packs a camera with an empty battery…. I also couldn’t figure out for the life of me why the names and the images did not want to center. Oh well. The title photograph was grabbed from the Street Roots social media site, they will forgive me!
Carl
Street Roots is wonderful. It has excellent editorial content, and lovely poetry. Executive Editor Joanne Zuhl was a regular guest (every other week) on my radio show.
Nicky
Lori Lematta, that sweet girl, became a member of our church and is there every Sunday, selling her Street Roots. We love her. I have been buying SR for many years, but I now read them every week – it is an excellent paper, head and shoulder above the lamentable Oregonian!