Saturday, March 1st, 2025, 4:30–5:30pm

By Noey B

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NOEY: After leaving [____] for a local event, I was scheduled to go to a different award ceremony only ten minutes away by car. I called my mom to ask for an Uber, but she was “busy” and my app wasn’t working at the time. So I thought, it’s only a few extra minutes, and I snagged the opportunity to capture street photography as I strolled by the Fairgrounds.

N: The sidewalk pavement was filled with cracks and the buildings faded into grays. My eyes, offset by the East Side’s natural evergreens, focused keenly on the scenery.

N: I never considered the signs. The barbed wire fences. The writing on the vans. The police sirens. Five minutes in, a car stopped at a red light called to me,

%: “What’re you taking photos of?

N: “Just this view past the fence.”

[view past the fence]

%: “What camera do you have?”

N: “I got a Canon 7D Mark II.”

%: “Ayyy, my brother’s also got a Canon.”

The light turns green.

N: “Ight, you have a good one bro!” I told him.

And as he leaves, the backseat passenger faces me—and flashes the [____] sign.

N: I didn’t think anything of it; after all, I wasn’t doing anything major. Ten minutes in, I was halfway across Second St when I heard an—

#: “AAAAAHHHHHHHHI!!#!.. .” from the left of the road.

N: Dang, I thought, I really should have put on a different outfit; after all, my tight-fit jeans must’ve made them think I was a square. But these jeans were no reason to [____] me, so I kept on without taking a glance. Fifteen minutes in, a homeless lady gets off her bike and starts talking to me rapidly.

▮: “Did you hear about that hate crime?”

N: “What do you mean?”

▮: “Over there by the Vietnamese church! Just yesterday someone exploded a bomb in front of the building,”

N: “What the heck.”

▮: “Yeah, it’s over here!” she directed,

I went ahead and followed since they mentioned the church was Vietnamese.

,,,

,,,

  ,

,,

▮: “The building was already fixed from the explosion, but the leaves still haven’t grown back! Take a picture,”

[tree w/o leaves]

▮: “There’s squatters living inside the building from the explosion, I can come in and show you,”

▮: “Are you a college student at [____]? You just came from that direction,”

N: “Yeah, I just finished class and decided to take photos on the way.”

▮: “What are the photos for?”

N: “They’re for personal use. I’ve been going around San Jose taking photos for my magazines.”

▮: “I used to be an English major, but then I got into [____], and now I’m homeless,” She kept on further ,,,

▮: “Do you have a business card?”

N: “Nah, but my IG’s @ripperchassis.” I grabbed a piece of paper from my sketchbook, tore it, and wrote down my user.

▮: “I don’t got a phone,” she said,

I realized that I had copies of the NYC TRIP that I brought for the event and grabbed a copy out of my bag as well. As I handed the magazine to her, she remarked,

▮: “You must be pretty wealthy to be able to print these,”

But upon noticing the cover, her smile shifted,

▮: “I thought you were taking these photos for the city,” She looked through more of the spreads

,,,

▮: “Heh.” N: “What part made you laugh?” I asked.

▮: “What it do, the part with the bird,”

The lady kept viewing the pages, and she kept smiling, as if she was back to her English writing days.

N: I told her,

“There’s only fifteen copies that were printed, and I want you to have this one because you seem to appreciate it more than the kids on campus.”

She left on her bike with the magazine in hand …

NOEY: There’s no way I could’ve ran if she robbed me—I was carrying a whole frickin’ camera across my neck and an iPad in my bag too! Overall, my experience with the homeless people who aren’t actively tripping has been chill. Then again, I’m never coming to the Fairgrounds while alone anymore.