Name: Sebastian Harding

Social Justice Group: Homelessness—Communities of Color and Children

Date of Fieldwork: February 2, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Urban Pathways

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

In this fieldwork we interviewed Shams Debaron. Many people know him as Da Homeless Hero. For me, what made the interview so interesting was the fact that he is a former homeless person, meaning that he knows how many homeless people feel. I learned that if it were not for books, he probably would not be where he is today and they had a tremendous effect on his life.

Something that specifically stuck with me was that when he said that him being from the “hood” (as he described it) many people around him did not understand how to turn their lives around and how society has forced the image that people who have grown up in rough neighborhood have to sell drugs or continue to act tough. I was also really surprised that he chose to create a homeless play. I like that idea because he did it to be different from the rest. This interview gave our group a ton load of valuable new information and I thank Shams for taking time out of his day to speak to us.