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by Morgan W. Brown
Cambridge, Massachusetts—As darkness fell, one day late in January of this year, young and old gathered at "the pit" in Harvard
Square to call attention to homelessness and the dire need to create more affordable housing.
Huddling together, attendees attempted to light candles in the growing chill, a chill which was only made worse by the brisk winter winds, in preparation
for a candle light vigil and the street-march to come. Whether they were busy organizing or were engaged in conversation, each
person tried to stay warm, as it grew colder by the minute.
The frigid weather could helped bring to mind why each person was there
and how urgent the cause was. Many of those participating were indeed either
homeless or formerly homeless.
The evening's initial program commenced and people stood listening to
short speeches and announcements, holding signs or sharing the task of
holding banners urging the need for housing, jobs, livable wages and for other basic human needs to be met.
After a moment of silent reflection, the drums and tambourines gave out
their beat and rhythm as various chants were called out, including:
"What do we want?" "Housing!" "When do we want it?" "Now!".
From the pit, the group—numbering over fifty people—marched down the
city blocks and streets to the steps of the Old Cambridge
Baptist Church, on Massachusetts Avenue, chanting all the way.
Once the participants arrived at the steps of the church, another program
was observed, which included inspirational speeches and songs, along with
prayers and another long moment of silence.
While the air was raw and cold, it was nonetheless highly charged with
energy and excitement—not only by the moment or the cause being addressed,
but by what everyone anticipated would take place within the coming
14 hours.
This were among the community's preliminary events held in
conjunction with the fourth annual Homelessness Marathon sponsored by the
Homeless Empowerment Project, hosted at the Old Cambridge Baptist
Church.
Based at the Old Cambridge Baptist Church, the mission of the Homeless
Empowerment Project is to play a role in ending homelessness in the
community by providing income, skill development and self-advocacy
opportunities to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Along with the production, distribution and sale of their independent,
street newspaper, Spare Change, the Homeless Empowerment Project operates a
writers' workshop and a speakers' bureau.
Several of those participating in the community events that evening would
stay for either most or all of the night-long, nationwide,
radio broadcast.
In fact, some were there to take an intensely active part in the
Homelessness Marathon. This would mean they would either be among those
speaking during the open mic periods, being a panelist or being a person
at the on-site street microphone posing questions during one of the many
discussion panels. The discussion panels focused on a given topic or contributed in many
other ways to this truly democratic event.
Jeremy Weir Alderson (aqua "Nobody") founded the Homelessness Marathon in
1998, as an offshoot of his regular radio program "The Nobody Show", which was
broadcast weekly on WEOS, a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate in
Geneva, New York.
The Homelessness Marathon—already the largest media event in America
that focused on poverty—has been widely recognized as a historic broadcast.
Tapes of the marathons have been archived by libraries at Harvard, Stanford,
Cornell, UCLA, Berkeley, the University of Chicago and many other
institutions around the country.
The mission of this acclaimed radio broadcast is to let homeless people
speak to the nation. But that is not all that happens during the annual,
overnight program that originates from a different city each year. Host
"Nobody" broadcasts from outdoors to dramatize the plight of people with
nowhere to go when it's cold. For 14 hours, he interviews experts on various
aspects of poverty in America (e.g. health care, hunger, public housing,
etc.) and takes calls from around the country in addition to talking with
homeless people.
The Homelessness Marathon is a consciousness raising, not a fundraising
event. "As a matter of policy, the marathon doesn't solicit money, because
we really want people to understand that ending homelessness isn't a matter
of charity but a matter of changing the way our society is structured,"
Alderson stated. "It's a matter of changing our national priorities. And to
do that, we've got to listen to what homeless people, themselves, have to
say."
"That first year, I was just thinking of it as a matter of conscience,"
Alderson says. "Basically, I just wanted to get on the air and say, 'This
isn't right, and I want no part of it,' and, of course, I wanted to bolster
this argument with the opinions of experts and the voices of homeless
people." He got the idea of broadcasting from outdoors in the dead of
winter, he says, because he wanted to dramatize the plight of people with
nowhere to go in the cold. And the marathon has been broadcast from outdoors
ever since, even though other things about it have changed.
Over the years, the marathon has become something more than just a
broadcast. Dozens of people, affiliated with organizations or acting on
their own, contribute their time (no one on the marathon staff gets paid) to
help get the show on the air. And each year the broadcast has been
associated with small marches and candlelight vigils around the country.
"I'm not kidding myself that just the marathon is going to change the
world," Alderson says, "But that's the goal, to create a world where the
marathon will be obsolete, because there won't be any more homeless people...I used to think I had to scold people and tell them why they ought to care,
but now I know that people really do care, and that homeless people aren't
on the streets because that's where Americans want them to be. So I've
backed off a lot, and I now mostly look at the marathon as giving people the
reasons for what they already know in their hearts."
"I've really come to believe that the American people want this problem
solved," says Nobody. "That's the good news. But there's bad news too. The
ongoing terrorist attacks and economic downturn are sure to make the numbers
on the streets spike up dramatically. I think there's going to be an urgency
to the next marathon unlike anything we've encountered before."
The fourth marathon was on at least 35 stations coast to coast, including
stations broadcasting to such major metropolitan areas as Los Angeles,
Seattle, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. The fifth marathon will be hosted
in Portland, Oregon by community radio station KBOO and Street Roots,
Portland's homeless paper.
To learn more about the Homelessness Marathon, such as how to acquire tapes
from previous broadcasts, where to listen in your region, how a
local radio station in your area can carry the broadcast or how to
call in during the event, information is available online at:
http://www.homelessnessmarathon.org
For more information about the Homeless Empowerment Project in Cambridge,
Massachusetts or Street Roots in Portland, Oregon, go to:
Homeless Empowerment Project:
http://www.homelessempowerment.org
Street Roots:
http://www.portland.quik.com/roots/
Morgan W. Brown is a serious & persistent homeless activist, writer and poet
living in Montpelier, Vermont USA.
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