The Seattle Public Library Presents 'Stories About Home': First-person Storytelling About Homelessness on June 6
release date: May 30, 2019
Join us for Stories About Home, a night of storytelling with insight into the experience of homelessness, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, June 6 at Seattle University's Pigott Auditorium, 901 12th Ave.
This event — like our Ignite Project Homeless event in 2018 — uses the Ignite speaker format: five minutes, 20 slides, with each slide timed to appear for 15 seconds. Twelve speakers will tell us what home means to them and how homelessness has reshaped them.
Speakers and topics will include:
| Anthony Pardi | Pardi releases music under the name Ethos and is a father, musician and community advocate who was homeless for a year. He will speak about the varied struggles and privileges we all face, and how these can radically affect the views we hold of ourselves and the world around us. |
| Ava Levine | Levine is a Louisiana-born veteran who earned a master's degree in social work while raising two sons as a single mother. She will speak about how bipolar disorder resulted in her homelessness, hospitalization and legal problems. |
| Bobbi Jenkins | Jenkins worked for Seattle’s Human Services Department — which handles the city's homelessness response — for 20 years before she found herself homeless and living in a car. |
| Caireanna Mills | Mills is an Alaskan Native and a student at Seattle Pacific University who will be sharing her story about homelessness and her mother's addiction. |
| Cavan O’Grady | O'Grady moved to Seattle in 2006 and was homeless for several years, staying in DESC’s downtown shelter and the Union Gospel Mission before getting permanent housing. He has volunteered at DESC and the Recovery Cafe and has worked for Pioneer, the Millionair Club Charity and Community Psychiatric Clinic as a peer counselor. |
| David Sorrentino | Sorrentino is a disabled veteran who took a 2,700-mile bike ride to raise awareness for other disabled veterans. Sorrentino will speak about the struggles that began his homeless journey and how working toward his a dream of racing the world’s longest mountain bike race helped rebuild his life. |
| Jordan Iverson | Iverson has worked in homelessness nonprofits, seeing homelessness up close personally and professionally, since moving to Seattle 10 years ago. He will be sharing a story about the importance of connection with someone experiencing homelessness. |
| Krystal Marx | Marx is a Burien City Councilmember who, after experiencing homelessness as a child, is open about her family's current struggle to remain housed today. Marx is now the wife of an Army combat veteran with PTSD, a mother of four children under 12, a community activist and a nonprofit professional. |
| Mark Toner | Toner has been involved in local law enforcement for over 30 years. He will be sharing about one particular experience with a man who lived in the foothills of the Cascades. |
| Michael Brooks | Brooks is a formerly homeless man who works in case management connecting individuals with counseling and other recovery resources. He will share his experience to help other homeless men and enlighten the public on what it's like to be homeless. |
| Mindy Woods | Woods is a single mother and Navy Gulf War veteran who has experienced homelessness twice in the last eight years with her son. She was a founding member of the Resident Action Project (RAP) in 2015 and is a board member on the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance and Community Services Advisory Council (CSAC) in Snohomish County, which advises the county on homelessness and poverty. |
| Nikki Gane | Gane is the founder of Dignity for Divas, a Seattle nonprofit that supports women as they transition out of homelessness. Her focus on "self-care as a way to restore self-worth" was inspired by her own experience fleeing an abusive marriage and becoming homeless. |
More information
Library events are free and everyone is welcome. Registration is suggested, but not required.
This program is presented in partnership with The Seattle Times's Project Homeless and Seattle University's Project on Family Homelessness.
The Library's dynamic approach to building community that enriches lives includes programming that brings people, information and ideas together to respect and embrace the well-being of the people we serve. We celebrate Seattle’s many cultures by forming strong partnerships with community organizations.