By Jeanine Budd
Thursday night, students will have the opportunity to support local music and a local street magazine while helping to raise money for the homeless. A night of blues, folk and punk rock will take place at Paradise Lounge, 969 Commonwealth Ave., to support What’s Up Magazine and Spare Change News.
The event will take place as the first advertising effort for the two street newspapers, who recently merged when What’s Up’s lease in the South End became unaffordable. Emily Johnson, executive publisher of Spare Change, said the newspaper will expand its page count by four when it adds the What’s Up supplement starting in February.
“Our main goal is to let people know that we’re merging and changing,” Johnson said. “We also need to bring in a little extra cash for our organization because there are bills to pay, and at the same time we’d like to help four local bands who need exposure. Hopefully we’ll also get some new readers and volunteers from Thursday.”
Jordan Tavenner, What’s Up designer and lead vocalist of Blackbutton, the first act of the night, said the concert will help spread awareness about the publications.
“It’s nice to just be aware that there are nonprofit organizations and street newspapers and street magazines and stuff like that all over the place and they’re kind of interesting,” Tavenner said.
According to Spare Change’s website, it began in 1992 as one of the nation’s first street newspapers to benefit the homeless. Every other week, it’s published in Cambridge by the Homeless Empowerment Project.
HomelessEmpowerment.org describes the paper as something that “serves as both an avenue for expression and an advocacy tool for the homeless community – giving homeless and formerly homeless writers, poets and illustrators space to showcase their skill and share their experience.”
Every two weeks, 8,000 copies of the paper are published and about 95 percent of them are sold to the public by vendors who are currently or have previously been homeless. Many of the 130 enrolled vendors have been able to earn enough selling the $1 publication that they can support themselves.
The paper also provides a Writer’s Fund, which is supported by individual grants and donations and allows the paper to encourage and compensate contributors who live below the poverty line.
What’s Up used a similar method by employing vendors in search of alternative employment. Like Spare Change, What’s Up devoted its coverage to the arts and social awareness in Boston. What’s Up’s Fall 2007 issue was the last stand-alone issue published.
Thursday’s show will feature singer-songwriter Justin Shorey, blues band Blackbutton, punk group Destroy Babylon and R’B outfit Worlds Collide. The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10.
