She Listens

This is Shasta, and listening to other women's stories is her mission in life. Shasta has been unhoused off and on since 2004, and she's an advocate for women on the street. Now she has housing, she has a caring partner who is involved in advocacy with her, and she's eight months pregnant. At the age of thirty-eight, she knows there are no guarantees about what's ahead. But she has a heart for women living in the street.

"The whole world needs to change, and changing the whole world is beyond me. But I can listen to one person at a time, listen with all I've got, and I know that makes a difference. There have been times when I needed somebody to hear me, listen to me, be a witness to what I was going through and treat me like a human being. So now I do that for others."

I interviewed her today for an article we hope will be published in Street Roots, so I'm not going to give too much of it away here, but I do want to say she's one hell of an impressive woman. I took more flattering pictures of her today, and we'll probably use one of those for Street Roots, but I like this one because I think it catches some of her force, some of her determination and power.

Shasta concludes our interview, "I've got a baby coming in a couple of months, and once that baby comes, I'll be walking the streets with a baby in my arms, still doing the same thing I'm doing now--talking to women, listening to what they have to say. I'll be right here. I'm not going anywhere."

P.S. I could have sworn I had the camera on Shutter Priority, which I keep at 100. But no. It was on Aperture. Hence the soft focus.

P.P.S. Shasta will be reading your comments, so feel free to leave her a message if you wish.