Spare Change News

Author: An Jiang

  • Radio

    While I was working at the needle exchange, there was a couple I still cannot get out of my mind. They were in their early 60s, homeless, and they had come up for the warmer weather. They liked Massachusetts best, but they wintered in Florida. Snowbirds. That’s the expression people have for those who have…

  • Free for All?

    “Free For All!” Directed by John Wellington Ennis freeforall.tv, 1:36:36, free online (streaming) The controversial presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 angered many Americans, who believed their ballots were stolen. The investigative documentary “Free For All!” (2008) lifts the veil of secrecy. In this film, director John Ennis investigates unsettling problems such as disfranchisement of…

  • LGBTQ Youth Adrift

    LGBTQ Youth Adrift “Outside” Directed by Natalie Avery KUED, 55:58, free online (streaming) There are over 1.4 million homeless youth in the United States today and forty percent of them are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ). The independent documentary Outside is a microcosm of their lives adrift in an anchorless world, addressing the…

  • The Background Behind the Uprising in Bahrain

    The uprising in Bahrain started on 14 February 2011. Planned and organized by a group of Bahraini youth, it was inspired in part by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt—the beginnings of the Arab Spring. The activists—who camped in the iconic Pearl Roundabout in Manama, the capital of Bahrain—first called for political reform and equality for…