Rupal Ramesh Shah People experiencing homelessness often have difficulty accessing basic medical services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed several guidelines to ensure the unhoused are prioritized during vaccine implementation. One of them is to work with Continuum of Care Programs, which promote community-wide efforts to end homelessness and address…
Arts & Culture
From The Tractor Seat Nov 20
By Fred Steele (Road Scribes of America) As we scan the headlines of the news from day to day we often see stories that we believe have no connection to our lives only to discover they were defining moments that changed all our lives. Yesterday is a day we might not recognize as a catalyst…
From The Tractor Seat Nov 20
By Fred Steele (Road Scribes of America) As we scan the headlines of the news from day to day we often see stories that we believe have no connection to our lives only to discover they were defining moments that changed all our lives. Yesterday is a day we might not recognize as a catalyst…
Champion of the Underdog: An Interview With Dolly Parton
“As a writer, I have to leave my heart open,” Dolly Parton begins. “That’s why I have always said I never could harden my heart, even against hurt or anything. Because as a writer, if you harden your heart, you’re not going to feel all that emotion you need to feel, and you won’t be…
‘Friends’ Star Inspired to Action by Friend’s Homelessness
David Schwimmer, former star of “Friends,” turned his artistic talent to telling stories that highlight the struggle of homeless people after discovering that his friend had been living on Skid Row, hiding his homelessness even from those who knew him best. Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons “I had a friend who was homeless for two…
The Business of Fancy Dancing by Sherman Alexie: A Movie Review
“I’ve had sex with one Indian woman, 112 white boys, sixteen Black men, seven Asian men, three dudes of ambiguous ethnic identity, one really homely guy, and zero Native American men.” — Seymour Polatkin, poet. I just finished watching “The Business of Fancy Dancing” again and I feel as if this is one of the…
Columns
Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby: A Book Review
This amazing story is about a Black ex-con father, a white racist ex-con father and two families wracked by the pain of two sons, one white and one Black, who get married and have a surrogate mother gift them with a beautiful female child. Ike Randolph was set free from prison fifteen years ago and…
Bizarre Boston: Raising Hell at Harvard
When I think about college students raising hell, I picture kegs of beer, red plastic Solo cups and loud music. Oh, and maybe a beer funnel or two. In my mind, the phrase “raising hell” is just a metaphor for having a wild time. However, maybe it’s not always just a metaphor. For some Harvard…
Uncertainties and Impermanence
My wonderful wife, Mary Esther, and I just returned from a visit with the surgeon who will be operating on her back. It’s much more involved than we thought it would be, and we are meditating every day just to help us cope. We’re trying to keep it in the day, but we can’t help…
LAST WORD: Christina Sukghian Houle
About a month ago, an artist called Christina Sukhgian Houle dropped into the Spare Change News’ headquarters to meet with some of the vendors. Christina has joined forces with the newspaper’s co-founder, James Shearer, with the goal of making a documentary on homelessness in the Boston area. Christina is a relatively recent transplant to Greater…
Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby: A Book Review
This amazing story is about a Black ex-con father, a white racist ex-con father and two families wracked by the pain of two sons, one white and one Black, who get married and have a surrogate mother gift them with a beautiful female child. Ike Randolph was set free from prison fifteen years ago and…
“They Were Locked In, We Were Locked Out”: A Story of Lockdown and Homelessness in Harvard Square
It was 22 March 2020. There were about 12 of us living in the shelter. Saturday morning was our last day there. We had no place to go. It would be my first day outside with nothing open, no restrooms, no place to sit and have a hot cup of tea, it really was hard…
The Avoidable Crisis
Stanley Forman: 40 Years After the Soiling of Old Glory
The photo was chilling. Before a crowd of onlookers, a white man appears to be attempting to stab a black man with the tip of a flagpole. “It really showed racism,” said photographer Stanley Forman 40 years after he took the Pulitzer Prize-winning snapshot of an anti-busing protest that had turned violent. “It was whites…