Curbside Chronicle vendors Mark and Rene got married last year, and now the Oklahoma City street paper wants to share what everyone missed from their wedding. Here’s the recap featuring everything from wedding cupcakes to the first dance.

Portland’s Street Roots has a periodic column about the parts of homelessness most people don’t talk about. In this instalment, vendors describe how a common cold can potentially turn into a life threatening illness when they have nowhere to go to recuperate while sick.

Portland’s Street Roots has a periodic column about the parts of homelessness most people don’t talk about. In this instalment, vendors talk about how they get through Portland winters on the streets, sometimes having to resort to novel, and in some cases dangerous, ideas.

The Big Issue has been reaching out to vendors across the street paper network to get the inside scoop on the cities they know best. Here, The Bridge vendor Tony talks about Memphis.

The Big Issue has been reaching out to vendors across the street paper network to get the inside scoop on the cities they know best. Here, One Step Away vendor Sylvia talks about Philadelphia.

Portland’s Street Roots has started a periodic column about the parts of homelessness most people don’t talk about. In this instalment, now shared with INSP, vendors describe their experiences of picking up parasites and bugs, such as head lice and scabies, mainly at hostels and shelters, and the effect it has on an already difficult way of living.

Writing poems since he was a teenager, Street Sense Media artist and vendor Franklin Sterling has developed a unique style based in medieval English and blending other languages to create something all his own.

INSP has launched a new initiative to help support street paper members situated in the US, Canada and Mexico. The North American Bureau will be led by the former executive director of Street Roots and backed by Seattle street paper Real Change.

With the 91st Academy Awards set to be broadcast on Sunday, Chicago’s StreetWise asked its vendors to view all eight movies nominated in the ‘Best Picture’ category and share their thoughts.

During this year’s #VendorWeek, Tim Harris, founding director of Seattle street paper Real Change, took part in their selling event. Paired with veteran vendor Michael, Tim found the experience challenging, but ultimately educational and rewarding, writing about it in his regular column for the paper.

Seattle street paper Real Change, which turns 25 this year, has put millions of dollars into the pockets of some of the city’s poorest residents — and has no intention of stopping any time soon. Spurred by its 25th anniversary, and its successful forays into solving the problems that an increasingly cashless society poses to street paper vendors, Sandi Doughton, a writer at The Seattle Times’ Pacific NW magazine, spent some time around Real Change’s staff and vendors.

Seattle street paper Real Change celebrated #VendorWeek by putting on a Big Sell event on Wednesday. But there was a twist: Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard was selling street papers with vendor Darrell Wrenn somewhere in the city, but could you follow the clues to find them? The challenge caught the imagination of everyday Seattleites.

Last summer, legendary Seattle band Pearl Jam performed shows in their home city to raise awareness of the homelessness crisis. The homecoming was five years in the making, and it was the issue of homelessness that prompted it. At the time, the band’s guitarist Stone Gossard spoke to Darrell Wren, a vendor for Seattle street paper Real Change. INSP is revisiting the interview today after Gossard and Wren captured the attention of the Seattle public during #VendorWeek 2019 by participating in Real Change’s annual selling event.

An unexpected message on social media brought Jamar Washington back into contact with his birth mother and family in 2018. His mother, Raelene Johnson – a Denver Voice vendor – reluctantly gave him up for foster care when he was three. This is the story of how fate brought them back together and how they are reconnecting with each other after so many years apart.

Wanda Boudrie, a vendor for Toledo, Ohio based street paper Toledo Streets, was recently named its Vendor of the Year, and to celebrate #VendorWeek, INSP is sharing her story. The publication’s director John Keegan reflects on what it is about Wanda’s personality that lights up the lives of Toledo Streets’ staff, vendors and readers.

In collaboration with The Big Issue, vendors from street papers across the world have been sharing some insider tips on the cities they live and work in, which we are sharing during #VendorWeek. Here, StreetWise vendor A. Allen talks about Chicago.

Jason Sheer has been involved with Street Roots for eight years and he credits the magazine with bringing an increased level of stability into his life. Here, he talks about his experience of homelessness and the support that he has received from Street Roots. He is hopeful about what the future will bring.

In the most recent count of the homeless community in Multnomah County, Oregon, 1,355 adult women were identified as homeless, making up 36 per cent of the total homeless population, a 16 per cent rise from the previous survey. Street Roots spoke to five of its vendors about what women living on the streets experience.

Jackie Turner is an artist and Street Sense Media vendor whose experience of homelessness has changed her worldview. She is acutely aware of the fact that homelessness happens for a range of reasons and that being homeless can be a depressing and hopeless experience. For Jackie, learning to love herself and appreciating the beauty around her has helped her to feel a powerful sense of connection to the world.

This year we asked vendors: if you could give a song as a present this Christmas, what would you choose? The result was the INSP Vendor Playlist, which is now available for your listening pleasure. A bunch of StreetWise vendors in Chicago explained in depth about their contributions.

This year we asked vendors: if you could give a song as a present this Christmas, what would you choose? The result was the INSP Vendor Playlist, which is now available for your listening pleasure. Street Sense vendors in Washington DC talk about their song choices, which range from festive classics to T-Pain.

Since 1990, communities across the US, while shoppers frantically prepare for Christmas, meet on the first day of winter and longest night of the year to commemorate those who have died while homeless in the last year. This year, 150 such gatherings took place on what is known as National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. Among them were those attended and organised by US-based street papers, accounts of which are collated here.

This year we asked vendors: if you could give a song as a present this Christmas, what would you choose? The result was the INSP Vendor Playlist, which is now available for your listening pleasure. Street Roots vendors in Portland, Oregon, run through their choices.

This year we asked vendors: if you could give a song as a present this Christmas, what would you choose? The result was the INSP Vendor Playlist, which is now available for your listening pleasure. One Step Away vendors in Philadelphia are like a microcosm of the entire street paper network – they have diverse musical tastes.

Larmarques Smith moved to Denver two years ago. Haunted by the death of his partner from an over-dose, Larmarques found it impossible to stay in Indiana, despite the fact that he had built a life for himself there. Living on the streets has been tough for him, as those around him have no knowledge of what he has been through. This is precisely what motivates Larmarques to reach out to others: he hopes to provide them with the sort of support that he himself is looking for.

The editors of The Curbside Chronicle make room in every issue to share personal stories from Curbside vendors, as their goal to document the challenges of homelessness. Homelessness can be an extremely difficult path and going it alone is never easy, which is why readers might notice that some of the magazine’s vendors have pets. In a series of conversations with Curbside vendors, we find out more about the furballs who have wagged their way into vendors hearts and become an integral part of the Curbside community.

Recently, two street papers in different parts of the world published similar stories celebrating organisations that give free haircuts to homeless people. Dortmund-based magazine bodo told the story of the Barber’s Angels, a group of professional hairdressers from all over the North Rhine-Westphalia region who had come to Bochum to dish out complimentary styling. Across the Atlantic, Nashville’s The Contributor described a day of business for the Nashville Street Barbers.

Chon Gotti, a vendor and salesman, discusses how he found himself without housing and how he moved beyond that point. A former officer, an advocate and parent, Gotti sees life as a matter of pride, confidence and strength. Along with discussing his business strategies, Gotti works to be a reminder that the homeless are not a stereotype, but people just like anyone else.