DIRECTOR'S DESK | Creating a family where everyone – housed and unhoused – is included has been a priority of Street Roots from the beginning
Harry Richards draws people as they dream themselves to be, he explained to me.
The longtime Street Roots vendor opened up his notebook to an image.
“This guy wanted to be a cloud,” Harry said. “So I turned him into a cloud.” He flipped the pages to other drawings – dragons, a tree, a pirate.
“Kids like to be animals, cartoon characters, Sponge Bob,” he said. “When you’ve done hundreds and hundreds of pieces like I’ve done over the years, it’s a lot of creativity to put on paper.”
It’s time to dream up who you’d like to be when Harry draws you because he’ll be on hand at the Street Roots Street Party on Sunday, Aug. 18 . His drawings will be celebrated alongside other vendor talents in our Street Roots marketplace, where vendors can extend their opportunity to earn an income. Vendors will be available to sell crafts, poetry and more.
We’re celebrating 20 years, Street Roots-style – in the streets, open to all. A core value at Street Roots is bringing people together, housed and unhoused, and this has always been a priority.
“It didn’t matter whether you were a volunteer that had never experienced homelessness or whether you were someone who was right in the thick of it and was in crisis,” said Bryan Pollard, who co-founded Street Roots.
Pollard is now the director of programs and strategic partnerships for the Native American Journalists Association, of which Street Roots is a member.
“I wanted to provide a lot of opportunities for people to come together and just be people together,” Pollard explained of his early vision for Street Roots. “That was a cultural thing that I always tried to instill, and it ended up being a seed that is planted that I think has still grown.”
It has grown. Just as Harry imagines the impossible – a person in cloud form – the founders of Street Roots imagined a community that is alive and rooted through the interactions of all of us.
We look for opportunities for those interactions between people who are housed and unhoused. Most of the year, this happens through the exchange of news on street corners.
For our celebration, we are bringing people together through food, art and music.
And we wanted to make sure that no one would be prohibited because of an empty wallet. So it’s free.
This is in no small part due to the generosity of Laughing Planet , which is rolling up the burritos, and Stumptown , which is serving up cold brew coffee. There will be music by The Jenny Conlee Quartet and DJ Mami Miami of Noche Libre. Kids will have their space with face-painting and art.
And, of course, don’t forget the vendor marketplace, so tuck some bucks for Street Roots vendors!
Sponsorships by Travel Portland , NW Natural , OMBU , Oregon Health & Science University Care Management Social Work and CareOregon have also helped us throw the party. We could use more support, always, to keep all this going, and in our 20th year, we are asking for people to become monthly donors at whatever level works – $5, $20, $50, $100. This sustains us.
What Pollard hoped Street Roots would become we have, in many ways, become. Now in our 20th year, we hold strongly to our Street Roots values. And that’s why, as we worked to celebrate those two decades, we very much wanted to celebrate in a genuine and inclusive way – as Street Roots as possible, with all of you.
Kaia Sand is the executive director of Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots.org . Follow her on Twitter @mkaiasand .
Street Roots Street Party update
We’ve been long planning our date to celebrate in the streets. But Aug. 17 has become a date seized by out-of-town white supremacists espousing violent rhetoric. Chief Outlaw and Mayor Wheeler have announced a big police presence.
Clearly, it’s not a good date for us to invite you all to let your guard down and enjoy a street party.
But at Street Roots, we adjust and make the most the of the conditions we face.
So we’ll throw the party the next day, Aug. 18, instead, to celebrate Street Roots and to show solidarity, standing strong against white supremacy, standing strong against hate – housed and unhoused people together.
Let’s come together.
WHEN: 1-4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18, 2019
WHERE: 200 Block Northwest Davis Street
COST: Free, including food and entertainment
Street Roots is an award-winning, nonprofit, weekly newspaper focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. Our newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots . Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today .
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