Street Sense Media

For so many of the guests featured in this series, Street Sense Media has become its own kind of home. Regardless of the conditions or circumstances that led someone to homelessness, Street Sense makes space for community connection and creative expression. In this bonus episode, Director of Vendor Employment Thomas Ratliff shares how Street Sense vendor-artists “become their own boss” and how you can support their great work.

People say “time and tide wait for none” and nudge us to make the most of our time and the trials or treasures we experience on our way. Jet Flegette keeps perspective, even when facing trauma: valuing people (and pets) over things, staying joyous and curious in the world, and remaining compassionate in sight of struggle. She talks about navigating grief, exploring trust, and exercising empathy – all of which help her tell stories that prompt people to better see and support each other. Given the chance to relive the toughest times, Jet says she’d do it all again and challenges us to ask ourselves what it means to fully feel and deeply participate in our lives.

People are naturally wired to evolve: to remain agile, adaptable, and ambitious even when facing serious life challenges. Queenie Featherstone and Morgan Jones explore the process of “rebuilding yourself” and describe what they strive for and how they thrive, despite housing insecurity. They discuss how – through health, humor, hard work, and helping others – they’ve grown. They also share their goal-setting and go-getting mindsets for working, studying, creating, and giving back.

For some, housing insecurity might seem a distant or unfamiliar threat. But scenarios that can thrust someone into homelessness take many forms, and they may not be as impossible or implausible as is convenient to believe. Street Sense vendor James Davis talks about his journey of moving from a “normal” life – complete with a house, career, travel, and family – into the uncharted territory of homelessness. He shares how he used his skills to support those he now found himself in community with, and how he helped cultivate the valuable “home” that Street Sense Media represents for so many people. 

If you could have a superpower, what would it be? How would you balance reveling in your strengths and leveraging them for the greater good? And what does it look like to be both superhuman and super humble? This special episode, a series highlight, captures a spontaneous conversation between several Street Sense vendors about the role models that mold us – and the roles or responsibilities we carry in trying to be the best humans we have the power to be.

While “community” can connect us, it can also mean different things to different people. Even in shared space, there can be tensions over who has the legacy or leverage to live and work there — who has the right to make it “home.” Responding to recent “not in my community” refrains, area natives Reggie Black and Robert Warren provide a different perspective, commenting on the history (and embedded inequities) of Washington D.C. housing policy.

When life leaves people feeling uprooted, sometimes places and spaces that feel like “home” can be especially grounding. For Frederic John, creative communities have helped him hone his craft, express his voice, and find a sense of purpose. As a D.C. native who also lived and worked in New York, he shares his unique take on this city’s historical and cultural evolutions — and on leaving a legacy through art.

As humans, naturally driven to connect but also to categorize, we sometimes make false assumptions about each other (especially across lines of difference). What does it take to challenge misconceptions about who you are? Or to consciously “break the cycle” and avoid becoming who you don’t want to be? Nikila Smith and Angie Whitehurst share their experiences as learners, lovers, daughters, and mothers – smart, strong, savvy women whose worlds misread them and their experiences of homelessness.

Street Sense Media artist/vendor and homelessness advocate, Wendell Williams, shares his experiences as a fifth-generation African American Washingtonian and his insights about the changes the city has seen, his personal experience with chronic homelessness, and his involvement with the street newspaper movement as a means to not only sell or distribute newspapers but as a way to address homelessness on a systemic level. Williams shares his unique perspective on a whole host of related issues from racism to federal funding to the role gentrification has played in exacerbating the homelessness crisis. Williams was interviewed September 16, 2022 fellow Artist/Vendor Aida Peery as part of Street Sense Media’s Oral History Project, “In Our Own Voices: Artist/Vendors 2003-2023.”

Street Sense Media artist/vendor, Amina Washington, reflects on her experience becoming homeless at the age of 14 and the ensuing years she spent being unhoused. She details her younger years, prior to becoming unhoused after a neighbor reported her father and she was sent to school in Florida. Upon finding Street Sense Media in 2022, she’s been able to utilize their various resources in order to find permanent housing and more financial stability. Additionally, through Steet Sense Media’s class offerings, Amina has been able to develop her skills as a poet. Amina Washington was interviewed October 14, 2022 fellow Artist/Vendor Aida Peery as part of Street Sense Media’s Oral History Project, “In Our Own Voices: Artist/Vendors 2003-2023.”