FORWARD

It was sometime around 1993 when my world fell apart.  i spent long days and nites @ cafes, walking on railroads tracks, sleeping in my car or at friends’ houses-not wanting to go home.

One of those days i met Jake and the rest of  “the punx” – they too were walking on railroad tracks, sitting at cafes, and sleeping in cars.

Several days later Jake introduced me to the house at 714 Humboldt St. it was not a “Youth Shelter” run by some respectable organization.  Yet it sheltered us.  It was just a house; it had a lease and rent even though it should have been (and eventually was) condemned– even though no one knew who was on the lease anymore.  And no one knew how we came up with the money every month, but we did.

714 was an outpost, a stronghold.  714 was a place that we held on to.  714 Humboldt St. was constant, though its walls were crumbling, its windows shattered, its foundation sinking and its inhabitants chaotic at best - it was always there, its doors always unlocked and welcoming.

714 Humboldt St. was the home on the streets; covered in spray paint, it was a place of pure pain, joy, love, violence, creativity, self-destruction and dysfunctions.

714 saved my life.

The people there became, and will continue to always be, my family.  With them i learned how to smile, laugh, cry and fight.  i learned how to be angry, how to forgive, how to stop being a victim, how to stand up for myself and how to love life again.

In 1995, 714 was shut down and we were evicted.  Our Peter Pan-style home was stripped down. New walls were put up, and some BMW driving yuppie moved in.  When 714 was taken away from us, we were tossed into the churning waters. We had lost our one constant thing. We had lost the one thing we could hold on to in this storm of life and survival.  All of us lost boyz and girlz went scattering to the wind like so much chaff. 

During that time at 714 Humboldt St.,i wrote in my journal nearly everyday, sometimes more.  i was pretty self absorbed to say the least. On a sunny day on the porch of 714 over 10 years ago, Qlaire and i had an idea to put out a compilation of everyone’s  writings and art, an oversized zine if you will. i attempted to start the book more times than i like to remember and failed every single time.  i struggled with the usual culprits of artistic destruction: time, money, self doubt…. You name it and i lost the battle to it.

Last year, after Jake’s funeral, Adam and i started hanging out more.  i got up the nerve to show him what i had compiled.  And it took off from there.  The boxes were pulled out from storage, Adam’s old zine collection was brought out, a case of beer was placed on the living room floor and we began the process of putting the book together.

The pages that follow are a collection of my journal entries and the writings and art of many of those that were there for the last couple years at 714 Humboldt St. 

This book was produced for those that are with us only in memory, and for those who are still out there that remember the words etched on the wall before it fell: “We will never be the same”.