Push To Save East Bay’s Street Spirit Underway

by TJ Johnston

The campaign to resurrect Street Spirit went into full swing with a benefit attracting over 100 people to the Tamarack restaurant in Oakland on July 15.

The event raised over $8,200, Street Spirit editor-in-chief Alastair Boone announced on Instagram. She told a panel audience that her goal is to raise $250,000, which would pay for printing, paying staff and covering other expenses for one year after the relaunch. 

The Berkeley-based newspaper covering homelessness in the East Bay announced in May that its publisher,

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Advocating for Yourself

by Contributing Author

by Everett May

Most people can appreciate the value in having a good advocate on your side during life’s challenging moments. Almost everybody has experienced a situation when an advocate was either necessary or would have come in handy. In certain circumstances advocates are not hard to find—especially if there is money involved—but that’s not always the case. Sometimes your troubles have nothing to do with money, or they are something money just can’t fix.

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Women Recyclers in Bolivia Build Hope and Demand Recognition

by Contributing Author

By Franz Chávez, Inter Press Service / International Network of Street Papers

They haul many kilos of recyclable materials on their backs but receive little in return. These Bolivian women who help clean up the environment from dawn to dusk are fighting for recognition of their work and social and labour rights.

The inhabitants of La Paz, Bolivia’s political centre, walk hurriedly and almost oblivious to the women of different ages silently opening heavy lids of municipal garbage dumpsters that are taller than the women themselves.

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My Body Knows How to Survive

by Contributing Author

by Jack Bragen

The human organism is designed to survive as long as it can, to procreate when possible, and to contribute to the success, the survival, and the prestige of the group.

Human consciousness could be a product of the human body. It serves us by allowing us to think, to reason, to ponder and to be better. Consciousness, while normally it thinks itself in charge, takes a back seat to other creations of the body in some crisis situations.

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Insecurity with Security and the Law

by Contributing Author

by Derek Williams

One Saturday, I was sitting in front of the Safeway on Church and Market streets when a petite Black woman came up to me and told me that a store security guard just struck her on the head with a broomstick from behind. What made that worse was that she was on the toilet. What’s a mall cop doing in a women’s bathroom anyway?

A friend of mine overheard our conversation and commented that there had to be more to the story than meets the eye,

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