Category: Profiles
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LAST WORD: Larry Thomas
Larry Thomas sells Spare Change News in one of Boston’s most bustling spots: outside of the 7-Eleven on Washington Street in Downtown Crossing, across from the Old South Meeting House. The downtown crowd is a colorful blend of Freedom Trail tourists, wealthy residents from the local high rises and groups of homeless people who mingle…
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JIMMY TINGLE: Local comedian is no joke
Jimmy Tingle, much beloved comedian, is a like a favorite son in Cambridge. He has enjoyed a large local and national following for several decades. In fact, he grew up and continues to live in Cambridge. He has long been interested in issues of social justice and is known for his humorous political commentary. Remember 60…
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LAST WORD: Beatrice Bell
It’s the morning of Good Friday at Spare Change News, and Beatrice Bell, one of the newspaper’s longest-serving reporters, is telling me an amazing story. At the age of seven, after a terrible asthma attack, she found herself having one of those life-changing experiences that are called, in the literature, “near-death.” For three days, which…
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QUEEN'S JOURNEY: How Project Hope helped her reinvent her life
It’s still hard for Queen to talk about her brother. They were very close growing up. She had 15 siblings, but Shein was her only biological brother. When they moved to Boston from Florida, they moved together. And when he moved to Florida, she followed him there. In school they used to call her “Shein’s…
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LAST WORD: Mark G.
Selling Spare Change News provides an obvious financial reward for the newspaper’s homeless, formerly homeless or financially strained vendors. But for some, the reward has an extra therapeutic dimension, which proves beneficial in their transition from the streets, as the story of this week’s profiled vendor, Mark G., makes clear. Anyone who’s experienced addiction to…
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FEMALE TROUBLE: Advocates address feminine hygiene
Brittany sat under an alcove in Harvard Square, sign in hand and a cup of loose change in front of her. She sets up there nearly every day, she says, with the same sign but with a different Dunkin’ Donuts cup. Her blue-dyed tips peek out of her yellow, owl-printed bandana. Kal stands next to…
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LAST WORD: Tommy D.
Tommy D. has fantastically blue eyes. Outside the Spare Change News headquarters, in the bright sunshine, it’s a little hard to tell exactly whether they’re blue, green or a mixture of both. When I mention how amazing they are, he replies jokingly that it must be something to do with his mixed Cuban/Italian ancestry. The…
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AMANDA PALMER: From Harvard Square busker to international phenom
From Harvard Square busker to international crowdsourcing phenomenon, Amanda Palmer launches a new creative project after writing a best-selling book. Here’s an exclusive interview with Amanda Palmer who started her ride to fame as a busker in Harvard Square. Palmer was the Eight Foot Woman covered in white who stood upon a stool in front…
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LAST WORD: Joe M.
One of Joe M.’s earliest memories is of jumping into bed at night and his mother saying, “Quiet, I’m praying.” Joe always respected his mother. Telling me about her now, he laughs at the little quirks in her character—for instance, the fact that she would always make Joe and his sisters go to church on…
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Linda Larson: Rise and Shine
The poems printed here were selected from Linda Larson’s most recent book, Rise and Shine, published by Wilderness House Press. Larson writes with exquisite talent and soul. She reaches into her past to give the reader stunning portraits of a kaleidoscope of feelings and situations, from a doorway in Cambridge on a cold winter night…