Anitra Freeman

Abstract

I was introduced to Anitra in 2006 by organizer Michele Marchand, and I interviewed Anitra on several occasions between 2006 and 2008 and again in June 2010, when I met with her to discuss the penultimate draft of this chapter. Anitra is among the most visible of Seattle’s homeless or formerly homeless activists working to end homelessness. For the past fifteen years, she has contributed countless hours of work to grassroots organizations in Seattle that share a common commitment to empowering homeless people. My interviews with Anitra had to be squeezed in around her organizing commitments at various sites around town, including Mary’s Place before and after Women in Black vigils, in the offices of Real Change, the WHEEL Women’s Empowerment Center, a Portland restaurant during the annual conference of the North American Street Newspapers Association, and in the apartment that she shared with Real Change columnist Wes Browning, whom she married in 2010.