Category: Profiles
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For Homeless, Mobiles Are a Lifeline
Jesse Call www.street-papers.org The Contributor – USA His daughter is in the hospital and is about to die. Her blood work shows she has diabetes but does not know it. He has finally landed a job if he can start later today. She might get a job if she can interview tomorrow morning. The river’s…
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Danny Glover: Artist & Activist
SCN caught up with Danny Glover walking down Flower Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The 6’4’ actor is towering and humble at once. His salutation is a standard greeting that is southern hospitality mixed with California cool—“How you doing, baby?” Glover is most widely known for his role in the Lethal Weapon franchise Since 1979,…
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Art That Moves
Human Geographer Fabrizio Eva comments, in the documentary film The Possibility of Hope (companion piece to the theatrical release Children of Men) that “‘one of the primary characteristics of human beings is that they have always moved.’” Homeless artist Darcy DeSouza embodies that human trait in both physicality and imagination. For the past fifty years…
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Talking About Revolution
Tufts, President Lawrence S. Bacow presents Tufts graduate, singer songwriter and four time Grammy winner Tracy Chapman, with an honorary doctorate of Fine Arts during the universities 2004 commencement in Medford, MA. Recognizing her for social activism, music and community work. Growing up in a poor, working class family, raised by a single mother in…
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In the Grip of the Possible
At the center of Bread and Puppet Theater’s performance on Cambridge Common on Sunday, September 2, and reaching into all the troupe’s high-spirited paraphernalia (magically painted school bus, raucous parade), are the Possibilitarians (ie. all of us) who make up the performance’s “Complete Everything Everywhere Dance Circus.” The famed political puppet collective, started in 1963…
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The Kind Banker
Fred Robbins was in his late 70s, homeless, and ready to give up when he walked into Bank of America’s South Boston branch and caught the attention of Banking Center Manager, Valerie Ferry. After spending more than a year getting to know him, reaching out to several organizations, and helping him fill out piles of…
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A Founder's Reflections
All my life, heroes, both real and imagined, have influenced me from books, movies, television and music. Even those whom I have met in person, and, yes, even those costume ones from comics (no, I have no desire to run across rooftops, though that may be fun). Though I don’t consider myself a hero like…
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Diversity & the Future of Boston
She’s spent her career helping organize voters in poor urban neighborhoods, working to reduce youth incarceration, and empowering underserved communities. Now, she’s aiming to make Boston a more fun, business friendly city. Malia Lazu, Director of the newly formed Future Boston Alliance, aims to improve Boston’s image by luring and keeping creative industries in the…
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Occupy Homelessness
Xander is always reaching out to people, so it wasn’t surprising to see him talking to police officers outside the Bank of America building on one of the first nights those sidewalks were occupied. In planning for the start of Occupy San Francisco (then known as Occupy Financial District San Francisco), organizers wondered whether the…
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Racism: A Personal Meditation
Racism has been a constant companion all of my life. I, first, met him in the first grade in Richmond, Kentucky. During this tender time, I had developed a crush—or whatever 6 and 7 year olds call it—on a girl in my class who happened white. Somehow, my teacher, who was white as well, caught…