Arts and Culture

Street Spirit Newspaper Secures New Partner, Seeks Community Support

Published

8 years ago

October 14, 2016

There are few media outlets that exist purely to support and raise the voices of the homeless community.

“Street Spirit,” a newspaper serving the Bay Area’s homeless, breaks mainstream media trends by reporting on the issues most pertinent to homeless people, while also providing a source of income for nearly 100 people who live on the streets.

Since March of 1995, the newspaper has been published through funding provided by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization that promotes peace with justice.

That changed this July, however, when AFSC informed Street Spirit editor Terry Messman that the organization would cease its funding as of Dec. 31, 2016.

“It was devastating to hear the news. It was completely unexpected and out of the blue,” said Messman, who began his work with AFSC in 1986 as the director of the origination’s Homeless Organizing Project.

According to Eisha Mason, AFSC’s associate regional director of the West Region, the decision to cut ties with Street Sprit wasn’t an easy one. But due to a reduction in funding, she said, AFSC must now put three of its programs to rest: a farm worker program in Stockton, an American Indian program in Seattle, and Project HOPE, which publishes Street Spirit.

“The decision to end a program is always very painful for us, since the communities we work with experience extreme injustice, and this is certainly true of Street Spirit,” Mason said. “We did our best to be responsible by setting a date for ending the program that was six months out, with the hope that the local community would be able to support the newspaper.”

Now, it appears AFSC’s timeline may have worked out as they had hoped. On Sept. 22, Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA), a Berkeley-based art jobs training program, announced its decision to take the newspaper under its wings.

“This is so exciting in terms of injecting energy into the newspaper. At the same time, we are absolutely committed to keeping the paper as it is, fulfilling its mission and vision,” said Sally Hindman, executive director at YSA.

Under the new partnership, YSA will be involved with six dimensions of the newspaper’s publication. This includes working on the Street Spirit Advisory Board, establishing a weekly youth writing group with homeless and underserved youth, working with Messman, and advertising art for sale and YSA events.

In addition, youth involved with YSA will sell the paper along with the silkscreened shirts and tote bags that they make and sell. They will also write in the paper about their own community organizing campaigns.

“This is something we relate to. It’s a paper that tells us about what’s going on in the streets and our lives,” said artist and YSA participant Michaela Duphay.

Messman said he is equally pleased with the partnership. “(YSA) is committed just as we are to giving a voice to homeless people and showcasing their humanity and artwork. It’s a perfect match of organizations.”

Since AFCS announced it would no longer fund the newspaper, Street Spirit has already received thousands of dollars in donations, which have helped guarantee that the paper will continue for the next 12 months.

But Street Spirit advocates and Hindman, who in 1995 first suggested that Messman create the paper, say community support is still needed.

“We are thinking of doing a crowd-funding campaign, or reaching out to major funders in the city to say ‘look, if we want to keep the poor alive in this age of gentrification, this is the place to go,” said Amir Soltani, a human rights advocate and co-director of the film “Dogtown Redemption,” which exposed injustices against the homeless community following the closure of a West Oakland recycling center.

Soltani and others are now urging the community to donate and rally together to keep the newspaper running. In the meantime, Messman said the future of Street Spirit looks bright.

“In the last 20 years, we haven’t asked for public funding, but now we have to,” Messman said. “It’s been a rollercoaster ride since that near despair I felt in July to the true hope I feel now.”

Visit youthspiritartworks.org and thestreetspirit.org for more information on how to help.

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Related Topics:homeless newspaper Street Spirit Youth Spirit Artworks

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Arts and Culture

Faces Around the Bay Dr. Carl Blake, Pianist

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999. One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Published

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Oakland Post

Dr. Carl Blake

By Barbara Fluhrer

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999.

One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Blake obtained a Bachelor of Music from Boston University and continued post-baccalaureate studies in Jamaica before earning a Master of Arts in Music at San Jose State University. He was the recipient of two Fulbright residencies in Honduras and completed a third residency at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. He has a Doctor of Musical Arts from Cornell University.

At age 19, Blake, then an undergraduate piano major at Boston University, was “discovered” by Impresario Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams, who is the Founder and Director of Today’s Artists/Four Seasons Arts.

Williams honored Blake by awarding him the first Marian Anderson Young Artist Award. Anderson personally presented the award at the Masonic Auditorium in S.F. Subsequently, Blake was presented by Dr. Williams in his San Francisco debut at The Herbst Theatre. Williams subsidized a year of study abroad for Blake at the Paris Conservatory of Music. Additionally, Williams sponsored Blake’s New York Weill Hall debut, where he has performed twice since. Blake performed several times at the Yachats Music Festival in Oregon.

Blake continues to perform nationally and abroad. His hobbies are reading, baking and travel. He says, “I’m still pumping ivories, as Belgian pianist Jeanne Stark described the disciplined practice of concert piano.”

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Arts and Culture

Oakland Jazz Great Offers Master Class as City Declares “John Handy Day”

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city. Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

Published

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Oakland Post

(L-R) Del Handy, John Handy, Roger Glenn, and Joe Warner celebrate John Handy Day at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, Oakland. Photo by Lady Bianca.

By Conway Jones

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city.

Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

“John Handy is a jazz icon and an inspiration to musicians everywhere,” said Ayo Brame, a 16-year-old Oakland tenor saxophone player who is enrolled at the Oakland School for the Arts.

In celebration of this day, the reception in downtown Oakland at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle was a gathering of artists, young and old, coming together in his honor and celebrating his 91st birthday.

Handy presented a Saxophone Colossus free masterclass for musicians. This class afforded a rare opportunity to learn about the saxophone from an aficionado. The class was free and open to all – saxophonists, vocalists, aficionados, students, and casual listeners.

“As a longtime friend for over 60 years, and fellow musician who has had numerous opportunities to share the stage with John, it has always been a pleasure performing with him and hearing his creative interpretations of the music and his gift of ease inspiring the next generation of jazz musicians,” said Roger Glenn, a multi-instrumentalist.

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Arts and Culture

Musical Chronicling Life of Betty Reid Soskin Set for Bay Area Debut

Betty Reid Soskin’s storied 102 years includes time spent as a WWII defense worker, activist, business owner, songwriter, National Park Service park ranger and so much more. Now the Richmond icon is the subject of a musical based on her incredible life.

Published

2 months ago

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Oakland Post

Betty Reid Soskin. Photo courtesy of Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond.

The Richmond Standard

“Sign My Name to Freedom,” a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) production which will focus on the life, music and writing of Ms. Soskin, will premiere at San Francisco’s Z Space Friday, March 29 and continue through Saturday, April 13. Tickets range from $15–$65 and can be purchased online at https://www.sfbatco.org/smntf

The musical is directed by Elizabeth Carter, while playwright Michael Gene Sullivan integrates Ms. Soskin’s own music throughout dialogue between what SFBATCO calls “The Four Bettys” as they progress through a century of experiences of this awe-inspiring American woman.

The cast of “Sign My Name to Freedom” features Tierra Allen as Little Betty, Aidaa Peerzada as Married Betty, Lucca Troutman as Revolutionary Betty and Cathleen Riddley as Present Betty Reid Soskin, according to Artistic Director Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. and Managing Director Adam Maggio. Other casting will be announced in the future.

Jackson said that having Soskin’s blessing to steward her life’s story is an honor and career highlight for him and that her journey stands as “a beacon for Black Americans, women and people of color all across the world [and] is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.”