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- Miracle On The Streets
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- Dmae Roberts
Meet Miracle Draven, a 21-year-old with spirit whose has survived four years of living on the streets and crystal meth addiction to find family and love in Portland, OR. A longer documentary aired on Outright Radio Spring 2003 and was a recent winner of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalism Award and the NFCB Silver Award. This shorter version was produced for Stories1st.org: Growing Up, Growing Strong.
At any given time, about a thousand kids are homeless and living on the streets in downtown Portland. The Multnomah County Office of School and Community Partnerships says the number of homeless youth in the city is decreasing due to a network of services that work together to get kids off the street. Homeless youth are 13-21 years old and about 30 percent are estimated to be gay, lesbian, bi or transgendered. In Portland the estimates run around 30 percent. The reasons kids take to the streets usually involve instability in the family home, abuse or problems with drugs or alcohol. For Miracle Draven, a young homeless woman in Portland, it was all of the above and more.
Warning: There is strong content detailing drug addiction and prostitution. There is NO GRAPHIC LANGUAGE.
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Piece Description
Meet Miracle Draven, a 21-year-old with spirit whose has survived four years of living on the streets and crystal meth addiction to find family and love in Portland, OR. A longer documentary aired on Outright Radio Spring 2003 and was a recent winner of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalism Award and the NFCB Silver Award. This shorter version was produced for Stories1st.org: Growing Up, Growing Strong. At any given time, about a thousand kids are homeless and living on the streets in downtown Portland. The Multnomah County Office of School and Community Partnerships says the number of homeless youth in the city is decreasing due to a network of services that work together to get kids off the street. Homeless youth are 13-21 years old and about 30 percent are estimated to be gay, lesbian, bi or transgendered. In Portland the estimates run around 30 percent. The reasons kids take to the streets usually involve instability in the family home, abuse or problems with drugs or alcohol. For Miracle Draven, a young homeless woman in Portland, it was all of the above and more. Warning: There is strong content detailing drug addiction and prostitution. There is NO GRAPHIC LANGUAGE.
2 Comments
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Review of Miracle On The StreetsToward the end of the piece Miracle says "telling the truth will shame the devil" and that's what this piece does. Dmae Roberts pretty much shows you who's living on the streets, how they got there, how they are living on the streets,and how some are getting off of them. And In giving this demographic an identity it's no longer possible to write the homeless youth off as some statistic. There's a moment when a homeless girl reveals that all she eats are Little Debbie Star Crunches because they cost only a quarter. Well when she says this you immediately get an idea of what her life is like. this little detail is a shortcut to a life that's lived moment to moment, a life that's lived in public spaces. And this piece is full of these kinds of details. Most of the people Roberts interviews are homeless because they are homosexual and have been estranged from their families. Most of these kids also use and sell Crystal Meth, which is understandable once you learn that it supresses at least two side effects of homelessness: being hungry and being cold.
This is worth broadcasting at anytime because it addresses so many relevant issues. But if you want some context you could air this on a youth-oriented show, on a show that focuses on homosexuality or a show about homelessness or additction. |
Broadcast History
A 34 -minute version aired on Outright Radio. A 24 minute version aired on 100 individual stations around the country.
Transcript
MIRACLE ON THE STREETS SCRIPT
DMAE: I FIRST MET MIRACLE AT THE SEXUAL MINORITY YOUTH RECREATION CENTER IN PORTLAND. I WENT THERE TO FIND A HOMELESS YOUTH TO INTERVIEW AND A 21-YEAR-OLD BI-RACIAL AFRICAN AMERICAN YOUNG WOMAN WITH A GREAT SMILE AND FRECKLES VOLUNTEERED. AT FIRST I WAS TAKEN ABACK. SHE DIDN’T LOOK HOMELESS TO ME. WELL DRESSED AND CARRYING A RATHER FULL BOOKBAG, SHE LOOKED LIKE ANY STUDENT. I TOOK OUT MY MIC AND TAPE DECK AND SHE BEGAN TELLING ME OF HER FOUR-YEAR ODDYSSEY LIVING AS A STREETKID THAT BEGIN WHEN SHE WAS 17 AND HER DAD FOUND HER WITH ANOTHER GIRL.
MIRACLE: He caught me. With her. Yeah, he actually caught me in the middle of something with her and that’s how he found out. But,
DMAE: Your dad?
MIRACLE: yeah, my actual father.
DMAE: What’d he do?
MIRACLE: He paced--for like an hour, in front of us. And we’re like, we’re really s...
Read the full transcript
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Original music by Craze MC.
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Jonathan Goldstein
Posted on July 25, 2004 at 10:34 AM | Permalink
Review of Miracle On The Streets
Dmae makes you feel like you have to get out there and start gathering up stories like lost pennies on the sidewalk. There’s much beauty and pathos here. Tea Cup explains a fistfight and Miracle describes the numbing thoughts that go through your head when lying with a john. In one of the piece’s best scenes, the girls take Dmae into a toilet stall to show her how Crystal Meth is packaged. The story of Miracle brings you a world of experience that doesn’t come along very often—with such directness and lack of editorializing—in other media. This is what journalism should aspire to. I’ll never eat a Little Debbie cake again without thinking of Miracle.