Talk to almost anyone who attended Street Sense Media’s 15th anniversary celebration, Art Brings Us Home, and you’ll get the sense that it was much more than a great evening.
“Artistic expression and the practice of it is like therapy,” said vendor-artist Angie Whitehurst, who began participating in the organization’s theater and writing groups six years ago. “It helps alleviate stress, it helps you to breathe, to go to the next step, to be able to be visionary, to develop new dreams and make those dreams reality.”
The celebration highlighted the vendors and volunteers and the work they do in a nice, gracious, fun way, according to Whitehurst.
Fun there was. Held this year at Big Chief in the Ivy City neighborhood, the evening featured live music and dancing, an open bar and hors d’oeuvres, a giveaway of prizes and artwork, and a silent auction that included two VIP tickets to a live taping of “Dancing with the Stars” in Los Angeles.
Whitehurst’s words were echoed in those of Ann Herzog, a longtime customer and volunteer. “I had a lot of fun. The people who came with me had a lot of fun.”
Her friends, Herzog said, didn’t really know much about Street Sense Media other than what she told them. They were “just blown away by this wonderful, strong, community of people, staff, and vendors. I think the staff did a great job, and what a great job the vendors did, showing up and giving their stories.”
Those stories, told through poetry, song, photography, illustration, interactive art, theater and film, were an integral part of the evening. “With this particular celebration,” Herzog said, “you really understood the work Street Sense Media does and the intersection between homelessness and the community and creativity.”
Whitehurst was delighted by the performance of an artist and vendor she calls by his stage name, Pookanu. “I love his work,” she said.
Pookanu, a.k.a. Ron Dudley, has been doing hip-hop all his life, performing at many of the now-defunct clubs along U Street.
“Since I’ve been with Street Sense Media, I chopped it down to poetry,” Pookanu said. “I was doing music before I was doing the paper. Now I can put my work in the paper. This anniversary was my fourth event. I performed something I had in the paper called ‘Color Blind.’”
Dudley credits Street Sense Media “all day, every day,” with helping remove him from “street life.”
“This is the best job I’ve ever had,” he said. “[Selling the paper] taught me more people skills. It taught me to be dedicated. It’s the fact that it’s your own business. You treat people with respect, and you have something to offer.”
Both Herzog and Whitehurst said two of the highlights of the evening were the Denny brothers, vendor-artists David and Reginald. “David Denny and Reggie Denny are extraordinary people,” Herzog said.
“[Reginald] has a beautiful voice. He sang a beautiful song,” Whitehurst added. “[David], when you hear him recite his poetry, he does it with such passion. It touches everyone who ever hears him. It’s so sincere.”
David was also the subject of a documentary film shown at the event, which chronicles his journey from homelessness to housing with the help of Street Sense Media.
“The video really communicated to the audience the real mission work that Street Sense Media does,” Herzog said. “To have the customers and donors there and really see the vendors and see what extraordinary people they are — and then to see the video on David’s story — was just inspirational.”
Of his rendition of “The Impossible Dream” (as done by Matt Monroe), Reginald said “That was a ministry for me … I’m not poetic. I can sing and that’s what I was there to do.”
Reginald’s brother drew him to Street Sense Media. “I said, ‘Damn. He makes a lot of money just to sell some daggone papers and running his mouth, and I can do that – well,” he laughed.
Other vendors told Reginald about the organization’s artistic workshops and he thought it would be a chance for him to display some of his talents, most of which he had tried to keep hidden from his old community. “I joined the liturgical dancers, even though I was the only heterosexual at the time, but I didn’t care because I was uninhibited by what people said.”
For Reginald, this organization has been more than a newspaper. “Street Sense Media, for me, is a platform. Our mission is to raise awareness of the homelessness and poverty of our neighbors in the community, but it’s more than that.
“Street Sense Media is a platform for those who have been pulling back and not being able to speak out about whatever you have dealt with, whatever you are dealing with, whatever you aspire to do with your life.”
