Photo: David Conrads.
Leslee Johnson is the editor of the Intersection, a newspaper produced in Asheville, North Carolina, mostly by writers and artists experiencing extreme poverty. Johnson is a lecturer at the Asheville campus of the University of North Carolina.
When I was commuting to Boston, I often bought the Homeless Empowerment Project’s newspaper, Spare Change News, which was a way for unhoused people to make a little money while looking to get housed.
David Conrads writes about something similar at the Christian Science Monitor.
“Every Saturday, 12 Baskets Café in Asheville, North Carolina, becomes a newsroom. Writers spread out around the large dining room tables – some typing on laptops, others working old-school on pads of paper.
“On a recent weekend, Melissa Mayes is finishing an article on women experiencing poverty and homelessness in the city. Though she has never had to live on the street, Ms. Mayes, a retired nurse, is disabled, has difficulty affording groceries, and spent five years sleeping on friends’ couches before finally moving into her own federally subsidized apartment. The subject of women struggling to obtain food and housing is close to her heart.
“ ‘I see these beautiful souls,’ she wrote in the Intersection, a broadsheet newspaper produced by the group of writers and artists who come to the café, most of whom are homeless or living in extreme poverty. ‘I have come to know certainties of who they are: brave, relentless, hopeful. Also, broken, yet always healing. They make me laugh with their keen observations, cry with their disappointments.’
“That passage is from Ms. Mayes’ article, headlined ‘Have You Seen Her?’ in the April/May issue of the Intersection. … The publication is sponsored by the nonprofit Asheville Poverty Initiative (API), which also runs the café. The Intersection covers a wide range of topics and includes community news items, profiles, opinion pieces, poetry, and artwork.
“The force behind the paper is Leslee Johnson, a poet, essayist, and lecturer in English on the Asheville campus of the University of North Carolina (UNCA) who began having lunch at 12 Baskets four years ago. … She says, ‘IIt was a place where I felt more comfortable and present than in some areas of my life.’
“After learning she was a writer, some of the regular patrons opened up about their own writing projects. Ms. Johnson started a creative writing group, playfully dubbed the Moonlight Cheese Alliance, in which more than a dozen or so people meet at the café every Friday after lunch. …
“The seed to expand to a newspaper was planted when Ms. Johnson attended the Conference on Community Writing, a national gathering aimed at exploring writing as a tool for social change. She learned of a newspaper in Cincinnati written and sold by homeless and formerly homeless people. …
“ ‘We were doing something pretty close to the Cincinnati paper,’ she says. ‘There was energy around expanding from literature and poetry to news and opinions and games and humor.’
“But the true spark that brought the Intersection to life was a 2025 ordinance passed by the Asheville City Council extending restrictions on panhandling.
“ ‘When the panhandling ordinance was extended down Haywood Road, directly impacting a number of folks we serve every day, we knew we needed to step up and offer the paper,’ says Ben Williamson, executive director of API.
“Poverty and homelessness are major concerns in this city of about 95,000. … It is also one of the most expensive housing rental markets in the country. For Ms. Johnson, the Intersection is one tool to help the city address these concerns.
“ ‘As part of Asheville Poverty Initiative, our umbrella organization, we exist to build community and educate about the realities of poverty,’ she says. ‘Specifically, the street paper reduces fear and dismantles stereotypes by publishing news, opinion, and creative work by those living in deep poverty and homelessness.’ …
“Sellers wear blue vests and lanyards identifying them as official vendors of the Intersection. API offers vendors, many of whom are also contributors, an initial 10 copies of the paper at no charge and subsequent copies for $1 each. Vendors sell the papers for $4 apiece. …
“Emily Witherspoon is a contributor and vendor for the Intersection. Formerly homeless for two years, she now lives in an apartment and works several part-time jobs. She enjoys selling the paper and appreciates the opportunity to earn extra money.
“ ‘It’s fun, and it’s legal,’ she says. ‘You don’t have to stand there worrying about getting arrested.’ …
“In addition to her work with the Intersection and the Moonlight Cheese Alliance, Ms. Johnson directs UNCA’s Prison Education Program and has coordinated college-level classes and academic programming at Buncombe County Detention Facility in Asheville. …
“ ‘There is a lot of creativity and brilliance that goes unheard,’ Ms. Johnson says. ‘If I’m in a position to create a space to shine light on that, I feel like that’s an obligation.’ ”
More at the Monitor, here. “12 Baskets Café”! Gotta love the imagination that goes into the naming of coffee shops in general. Why is that, I wonder?
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