The Denver Voice street paper vendor says you never know what people have been through
Nearly 10,000 vendors in 34 countries sell street papers, including Street Roots. Feb. 4-10 is the International Network of Street Papers’ Vendor Week (#VendorWeek), celebrating vendors’ work in the street paper movement. Here are just a few of their stories.
Larmarques Smith
Denver Voice | Denver, Colo.
Larmarques Smith came to Denver for a new start. He left behind his life in Indiana, including a career and family, because it hurt too much to stay.
“You don’t know that you’re going to lose the person that you fell in love with,” Lamarques said. “You don’t plan to lose them, but you choose them.”
The loss of his partner of eight years is what prompted Larmarques’ move to Colorado. Before moving, he dreamed of the Colorado Rockies and had a keen appreciation of Colorado’s approach to addressing opioid misuse.
“I was really happy that Colorado had an access point,” he said, “because people really do need it.”
His partner’s death will be three years ago next month. Afterward, Larmarques found himself in a spiral of guilt and pain.
“I was so angry when he died, because I thought he just went out and blatantly did it. Without me knowing, trying to hide it from me,” Larmarques said. “I never went to talk to anybody. Because I was just so angry. I just went on with my day; I just went on with my life.”
Unable to bear staying in Indianapolis, he left everything behind, including his job as a program manager at the Damien Center, a resource center for people with HIV and AIDS.
Living on the streets has made his fresh start a struggle.
“I had a career. I had friends. I had family,” he said. “But when you’re walking on the street and you look a certain way, or if you go into a courtroom, or anything where you don’t look the part, people judge you.”
Looking at him, few would ever guess that Larmarques is experiencing homelessness. He wears stylish, well-fitting clothes and walks with a confidence that betrays nothing of his situation.
But still, he has felt the pain of prejudice throughout the city.
“People never know what you have been through. People never know,” he said, his voice shaking. “I’ve walked this town in shoes and sandals, shorts and pants, and shirts and sunglasses and hats. And none of them knew that I came here because my partner died or that I had used the money he left me to move to start over.”
This is why he hopes to be the kind of person who can be there to support others, to listen to their story and to be a resource. Because he’s seen the worst outcome of having nobody there.
“You just never know what people have gone through,” he said. “So, it’s really nice to talk to people the way you would like to be talked to. No matter what’s going on with them. Because they may need your help – or you may need theirs.”
Courtesy of Denver Voice / INSP.ngo
STREET ROOTS VENDOR PROFILES: Meet our vendors
Street Roots is an award-winning, nonprofit, weekly newspaper focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. Our newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots