Synopses & Reviews
Everyone has a story to tell, but not everyone, especially if that person is homeless, is given the opportunity to tell it. Thus was born
Voices from the Street: Truths about Homelessness from Sisters Of The Road, a project with a unique and intimate approach. It compiles the personal stories of more than 500 people experiencing homelessness, who are confiding the facts of their daily lives and pasts, and discussing their dreams, fears, and solutions to homelessness. The results are a book of insight, naked truths and sometimes heartbreak that come straight from the streets and hidden places in Portland, Oregon.
The interviews, part of an organizing project of Sisters Of The Road, begun in fall of 2001 and have spanned into the new century with photographs taken by people experiencing homelessness. These photos, depicting the faces and landscape of homelessness, speak with the eloquence of poetry caught on camera and illustrate both the incredible hardship as well as the amazing resiliency and spark of the human spirit. The book is close to 120,000 words, with sixteen chapters and 25 photographs. The chapters range from describing how the person became homeless to relations to the police and legal system, to veterans, and finally the interviewers' own thoughts about the process.
There is a new sense of urgency to address the epidemic of homelessness that has swept through this country. What began as an alarming trend in the 1970s, became a crisis in the 1980s, and has now grown to a full-blown calamity. Today the statistics regarding people who are homeless have become as disturbing as the reality of their plight. Evidence of people experiencing homelessness among us is everywhere found in the haunted eyes of people who peer out from doorways, food lines, park benches, the hollow and secret places of our cities. This book brings those stories into the light.
Synopsis
A candid, guided exploration of homelessness poignant and powerful. The book aspires beyond mere literary voyeurism. Taken from over 500 interviews with those experiencing homelessness, Voices from the Street is an exploration of their narratives with photographs and family maps.