Spare Change News

Category: Arts & Culture

  • First Person: A Paper With A Future

    First Person: A Paper With A Future

    Like any good Greater Bostonian, I always dutifully bought each new issue of Spare Change News when it came out every other Friday. Jesse, my Spare Change vendor who sells the paper in Court Square, not too far from the State House in Boston, was a very nice guy. He was big on the mission…

  • An Underdog’s Approach

    James Shearer Spare Change News The other day a student who was doing a project on Spare Change asked me why I do what I do? Meaning helping the homeless, and why I’m so dedicated to it? And what led me to sticking with Spare Change? Even though I was vocal about how it wouldn’t…

  • The Poetry of Alexis Ivy

    Alexis Ivy lives in Brighton, Massachusetts. Her recent poems have appeared in Main Street Rag, Off the Coast, Common Ground Review, The Chiron Review, Tar River Poetry, and is upcoming in J Journal and Eclipse. Her poetry collection Romance with Small-Time Crooks will be published by BlazeVOX in 2013. DEATH ROW Texas has taken the…

  • Kamikaze Moods: Based On a True Story

    Jacques Fleury Spare Change News Kamikaze: of or pertaining to a suicidal attack by a Japanese airplane pilot in World War II. — Webster’s New World Dictionary, Third College Edition Seuqcaj woke up one morning in the year 2000 and felt the white walls in his apartment closing in on him. At first, he thought…

  • Why the Wealthy Should Worry About Inequality

    Mike Reilly International Network of Street Papers The work of Joseph Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University in New York and former Chief Economist for the World Bank, is recognized worldwide. He has written a long string of books, numerous papers and a wide variety of essays and articles, many focusing on equilibrium in the…

  • The Grand Champ of Women's Boxing: A Massachusetts fighter opens the door to first-ever women's Olympic boxing

    Noelle Swan Spare Change News NORTH ADAMS, MASS. — In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court’s first woman justice, Sandra Day O’Connor, was still a newbie. Astronaut Sally Ride had just become the first woman in space. And Gail “The Champ” Grandchamp wanted into the Olympic boxing ring. She wanted it with all the ferocious energy…

  • Editorial: Get Smart On Crime

    “Tough on crime” talk might sounds good to legislators who like surefire-sounding answers that sell well to a crime-weary public. Three strikes and you’re out. Lock ‘em up and throw away the key. Build more jails. But even some of the nation’s more conservative states are learning that being “smart on crime” means more than…

  • Music Review: Debo, Ethiopian pop revival

    Elliot Strassman Spare Change News Debo, a self-described “Ethiopian pop” group, played the Brighton Music Hall last month to promote the release of its first full-length LP. The group, based in Jamaica Plain and led by tenor saxophonist Danny Mekkonen, draws from Ethiopian pop and folk music of the late ’60s and ’70s to create…

  • The Poetry of Bob “Bikerwolf” Bryant

    Miles Passed By By: Bob “Bikerwolf” Bryant Roads traveled, Lessons learned Righteous Runs, Crash and Burns Scarred body, Wounded Soul Miles passed by as two wheels rolled Friends enter, Friends leave Sometimes happy, Sometimes peeved Yesterdays passed, Feeling old Miles passed by as two wheels rolled Hopefully destined, To always roam Ride with Brothers, Ride…

  • The Spiritual Life: An Alternative Way of Healing Mind, Body, Spirit (Part III)

    Jacques Fleury Spare Change News Read Part I Read Part II The right road disappears beneath our feet. – Alice Walker So far, I have discussed how I came to Reiki, my initial skepticism and nagging curiosity about the practice, and the disputed founder Dr. Mikao Usui’s Reiki principles of “do not worry, do not…