Mischief and her little brother grew up in a small town outside Fort Wayne, Indiana, called Churubusco. For a while, they lived with their mother before she passed away. For the remainder of their childhoods, they went and lived with their father.
In 2013, tragedy struck Mischief and her family when an accident claimed the life of her little brother. Due to prior circumstances, she was unable to be there when he passed.
“After that, I just needed a change,” she said. “I needed to get far away from that place.”
She moved out to Portland, where she got set up with a job and a place to stay. However, in 2016, Mischief lost her job, which subsequently led to her eviction. For a short time, she was able to move from place to place until 2018, when there was no other available shelter. From there, she relied on community outreach efforts as well as the friends she had made along the way.
Thanks to one of those very friends, Mischief was able to find Street Roots. It was roughly a year ago when she first became a vendor, and so far, it has been a good way of supplementing income. She has also found that it gives her the opportunity to interact with people with prior knowledge of street papers.
“I get a lot of people from out of town that recognize that I’m a street vendor,” Mischief said. “A couple from Minneapolis mentioned they were regular buyers of the street paper there.”
Before leaving Indiana, Mischief studied chemistry and political science at the University of Saint Francis at first and then at Purdue University – Fort Wayne. The latter study still ignites a passion for politics and advocacy to this day, and Mischief is always looking for ways to get involved on the local level.
When she gets the time, Mischief also loves to work on visual arts.
“Art feels like a great outlet,” she said. “I’ve been mainly focusing on 3-D Magic Eye designs.”
Magic eye, also known as “autostereogram,” is a type of optical illusion that uses a repeating pattern to control the perceived depth of the image. Mischief hopes to submit some of her art to be published in Street Roots sometime in the near future.
While she has no set location, Mischief normally sells around the NW Couch Street area, near Powell’s and the Starbucks at the Northwest 11th Avenue intersection. You can support Mischief through the @StreetRoots Venmo by entering her name and badge number (831) in the payment notes.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
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