Category: Profiles
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Chris Faraone on Journalism in the Trump Era
When local alternative journalist Chris Faraone sparred with Andrew Breitbart—founder of Breitbart News, the ultra-conservative site that has promulgated racist, sexist and antisemitic content—in 2012, only one came out alive. Shortly after Faraone and Breitbart clashed on WRKO, Breitbart died. Faraone likes to claim credit for Breitbart’s early death—his book is entitled “I Killed Breitbart.”…
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Eric Alterman: Reviving the liberal label
For nearly a year and a half many journalists and media outlets have struggled to make sense on Donald Trump’s sexist, racist, xenophobic campaign for President. But not The Nation’s Eric Alterman. “I think Trump is in many ways a continuation of what we’ve gotten from the Republican Party for the past 20 years,” Alterman…
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NARAL Pro-Choice America President Talks About the High Stakes of Women’s Reproductive Freedoms
By Emily Green Courtesy of Street Roots / INSP.ngo. Before a national television audience, Ilyse Hogue took the stage on the third night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention and did the unthinkable—she spoke publicly about her abortion. Her words struck a chord. Abortion remains a highly divisive social issue that carries with it a…
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Long Road to Recovery
Drug addiction destroys the “American dream” for many people. According to the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2014 approximately 25,000 men and women lost their lives due to prescription drug addiction. My mother, Betsy Cartagena, from Roxbury, Massachusetts, lost her chance at the dream when she…
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From Homelessness to Housing: A Revere woman shares her journey and a call to action
The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless is a statewide public policy and direct service organization that’s presently working on expanding the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition program, a key homelessness prevention resource. The expansion of RAFT would make it possible for low-income individuals to receive financial assistance to help stabilize their housing crises or to…
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LAST WORD: Walter Stewart
Walter Stewart was born in Gary, Indiana, a city founded by the United States Steel Corporation in 1906. Steel production ran in the blood of Garyites for over a hundred years and still, today, the city produces 7.5 million tons annually. With their combined careers, Walter’s father and grandfather worked in steelmaking for over 70…
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LAST WORD: Marc D. Goldfinger
This week’s Last Word features an interview with Marc D. Goldfinger, Spare Change News’ resident writer and poet and the newspaper’s poetry editor for the last ten years. With the help of the poet Lee Varon, Goldfinger is currently putting together a poetry anthology featuring work published in Spare Change News over the years. Writing…
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LAST WORD: Michael Shorey
“You’re interviewing me now?” says Michael, with disbelief in his voice, when I corner him after the weekly vendor meeting at the Spare Change News headquarters. Michael is in the office to pick up his papers and the last thing on his mind is an interview with me. However, when we get started, he has…
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MURPHYS’ LAW: Dropkick Murphys’ Matt Kelly talks 2024 Olympics, hometown pride
It’s hard to think of Boston without thinking about the Dropkick Murphys. They’re synonymous with the city today, and rightly so. They’ve worked hard over the last 19 years to get to where they are in the music scene. They’re connected to the biggest punk bands to come out of the city, such as the…
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LAST WORD: Gregory Currie
When Gregory Currie said he came from a political family, I had no idea he was the son of Jackie Currie, a woman described as a “Detroit legend” after serving many years as Detroit city clerk and Wayne County commissioner. As he was growing up, Currie sometimes felt like he was being groomed to be…