Category: Personal Essays
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VOICES FROM THE STREETS: A wake-up call
In an interview for the last issue of Spare Change News, I spoke a little about the last time I was homeless four years ago. It didn’t last very long, about three or four months, but it was just a tad traumatic for me. And yes, traumatic is a bit of a strong word. But…
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VOICES FROM THE STREET: Thinking of you, Willa
It’s maddening as a writer when you’re working on your column and you’re way past deadline. Then something pops up. It makes you stop the presses and restart as I’m doing now. I don’t like it but if I don’t get this out it would be lost. By now everyone on the planet has seen…
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VENDOR VOICES: When I was homeless
For me, the 1980s was a time of creativity, a lot of stress and homelessness. I left Boston after six years and went on to complete my associates’ degree at a suburban Long Island college. Once I got back to New York, I registered with a temporary employment agency and worked in my first full-time…
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EDITOR’S NOTE: No place like home
When I first applied for affordable housing in Somerville three years ago, I had no idea the dream of having my own place would eventually become a reality. It was a long shot. I submitted forms for the AVA Somerville complex slotted for Assembly Square and I quickly dropped off the required paperwork. I crossed…
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VOICES FROM THE STREET: A certain sadness
I, along with millions of others, watched the events that unfolded in Baltimore last week. Like so many others, I was also angered and saddened by what went down. It’s a scene that has become all too familiar over the last year. A young black man was killed by the police, seemingly without provocation. Freddie…
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Beatrice Bell is SCN's vendor/writer of the year
When I first met Spare Change News reporter and vendor Beatrice Bell, she was standing across from the mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, holding her recording device in front of the newly elected politician’s face. It was the opening of the rush-job Southampton Street shelter and she, along with a team of Spare Change News…
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Lessons from Jimmy Tingle
When I returned to Boston in 2007, I was a mess. I was struggling to find work and, after securing an apartment in Somerville’s Davis Square, I responded to an ad on Craigslist for a job that would introduce me to the man gracing our cover, Jimmy Tingle. Tingle’s Off-Broadway Theater was a haven for…
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OPINION: Need a life? Try saying 'yes'
Some time after 1984, life was good and I was on a roll. I had successfully completed graduate school where they presented me with a shiny new Ph.D. I was on the road to recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. I had a great job, where I wore suits every day and made more money…
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Never give up
When I first met author Joe Putignano, he was two years sober and headlining in the touring production of Cirque du Soleil’s Totem. In the show, he was known as Crystal Man and, after he heard me share at a 12-step meeting, he walked up to me with a sweet, almost shy grin. “You’re writing…
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Homesickness and the Endless War on Terror
Every spring, the mist over the shallow lakes across Kansas settles quietly in the early morning hours. During the long winter months in Massachusetts, the ponds and bogs encased by bent willows are sprinkled with slipping ducks on slick ice patches. On the mountaintops in California, in early fall, snow kisses their rocky tips, while…