外国“丐帮”的故事

阿高

徬晚时分，前去UTD大学参加当地华人组织举办的中秋晚会联欢会。

中秋联欢活动在这栋会议中心大楼里进行。

走进后，不经意扫了一眼大楼有条走廊两边，看见有些人物相片和纸牌悬挂在墙上，不知是什么讲座或展览活动，高校里面是司空见惯的。

联欢活动休息期间，出来走走，上个卫生间后，发觉这些墙上陈旧的纸牌看似并不是什么高雅华贵艺术品或学术讲座信息，似乎和街头流浪者-“丐帮”有关系。

比如这位流浪者腿边的写着“A Little…”

“索要一点点“狗粮”语句纸张。

图片摘自网络

比如这位无家可归者手中捧着的“homeless"牌子。

图片摘自网络

墙壁纸牌上“无家可归”，“饥饿”，“帮帮我”…醒目的大字笨拙的笔划述说他们的诉求，这是乞讨者的标志道具。这些为什么会在文化氛围聚集的高等学府出现？似乎有些东西向观者提示…

这些陈旧的纸牌是随意制作的，然而上面各种诉求—“食品、零钱、狗粮…”等等都历历在目，无声确胜于呐喊。

这些纸牌的安放位置就在会议中心的公共卫生间旁边，也是人流量比较频繁的地方，说明组织者的良苦用心，希望走过路过不要错过，至少能看上一眼，关注一下。

而且就在纸牌的对面墙壁上有着几组黑白人物肖像特写照片，炯炯有神，很有意思，特色鲜明。

照片拍摄的艺术感非常精彩，把人物面貌，生活特征都表现的淋漓尽致。每幅照片旁附有一张文字说明，讲述他（她）的故事。

我把三张图片汇集一起欣赏。看来他们的生活状况都是比较窘迫的。

流浪者和他的爱犬。

下面就提供一位流浪者的故事吧！文字用英中文对照。（如有不准确，多多谅解）

JUSTIN

It was a bitterly cold Boxing Day when my

dad and I came across Justin and two of his

friends at the corner of Yonge and Queen in Toronto. He was stretched out on a mattress. A couple of dirty blankets and a turp

protected him from the elements. Garbage

was strewn around. Justin told us that be has lived in Toronto.“Half my life.” Before that he

lived in Hamilton. When asked if he has any

farnily, Justin replied, “I'm the only ... only person. I have no family.”

He told us that while growing up he lived in a group home. He hasn't seen his family since

he was a child. When I asked him if he misses them, he replied with a simple, “No, " “Do you have a lot of friends?" I asked him. At this he

laughed and said, "Yeah, a littic bit, a little bit of friends."

“Don't you mind the cold?" my dad asked

Justin. “A little bit, ” he replied. "I just .. I just get on the side and then put the sheet on top of me."

Justin told us that he doesn't like shelters.

Then, elaborating. he said, "A lot of fighting. A big bottie hits you and then you have to go to the hospital. Everything happens at

shelters, " When asked what he did for

Christmas, Justin answered by saying, "I stay-ed around, stayed here, made money, and

made gift cards..." “Did you get more stuff at Christmas?" I asked Justin. “Yeah, for two or

three days I was getting stuff. A lot of food

was dropped off yesterday."

贾斯汀

那是一个寒冷刺骨的节礼日，我和爸爸遇到了贾斯汀和他的两个朋友在多伦多的中央街和皇后街拐角处。他躺在床垫上。几条脏毯子和一张防水布保护他不受风雨侵袭。垃圾到处都是。贾斯汀告诉我们，他“半辈子”一直住在多伦多。

在那之前住在汉密尔顿。当被问及他是否有家人，贾斯汀回答说:“我是唯一……个人。我没有家人。”

他告诉我们，在他成长的过程中，他住在一个集体之家。从那以后他就没见过家人，他那时还是个孩子。当我问他是否想念他们时，他简单地回答:“不”。

“你有很多朋友吗?”我问他。听了这话，他笑着说:“是啊，有一点，有一点朋友。”

“你不介意冷吗?”爸爸问贾斯汀。“有一点，”他回答。“我只是……我只是爬到一边，然后把床单盖在身上。”贾斯汀告诉我们他不喜欢庇护所。然后详细说明。他说:“经常打架。一个大瓶子砸到你，然后你不得不去医院。一切都发生在庇护所，当被问及他圣诞节做了什么。贾斯汀回答说，“我四处闲逛，呆在这里，赚钱，然后制作礼品卡……”“你圣诞节收到更多礼物了吗?”我问贾斯汀。“是的，整整二三天我都在拿东西。很多食物是昨天送来的。”

大厅走廊醒目处，张贴着这次展览活动的说明文字照片，上面详细介绍了旧纸牌收集者的事迹和拍摄照片的摄影师故事。起到了画龙点睛之笔，也就是希望走过路过的你该知道的故事。

让无家可归者人性化

莉亚（Leah den Bok）

摄影装置2024

几年前，我开车经过乡间的时候，晚上在我去参加一个演讲的路上，我撞到了一只鹿。就像我站在路中间，看着这个可怜的家伙，泪水充满了我的眼睛。小牝鹿害怕又痛苦，试了试，几次起身逃跑，但她的腿都断了，她不能。最后，她开始爬走，直到她消失在黑暗的森林里。当一名警察赶到时，我告诉他鹿去了哪里，希望他能结束她🦌的痛苦。他告诉我，他无能为力，因为她🦌站在私人领地。“土狼会抓住她🦌的，”他说，仿佛是为了安慰我。

作为一名动物爱好者，这段经历让我深受创伤。但更糟糕的是，我泪流满面地看着其他司机慢慢地绕过事故现场，甚至没有停下来问我是否还好。那天晚上我所遇到的缺乏同情心的情况，和那些无家可归的人每天面对的一样。

特蕾莎修女曾经说过:“今天最大的疾病不是麻风病或肺结核，而是被人遗弃、被人遗弃的感觉。”这种“疾病”与无家可归的人在街上遇到的冷漠和缺乏爱是一样的。

2015年，15岁的我开始了一项使命，让无家可归的人变得人性化，让他们的困境成为人们关注的焦点。这个任务带我去了世界各地的主要城市，在那里我记录了他们的挣扎

照片和故事。我的目标是传达一个简单的事实:无家可归的人就像你我一样。不管他们的环境如何，他们都拥有尊严和价值。

我挑战你去看看我照片中人物的眼睛。他们的眼睛诉说着故事——有孤独、恐惧和拒绝，也有希望、渴望和感激。它们表达了人类共有的情感。我也鼓励你去读他们的故事。当我父亲和我开始

在采访那些无家可归的人时，我们经常被他们愿意向我们这些完全陌生的人敞开心扉的意愿所打动。尽管面对着公众的蔑视和冷漠，他们还是勇敢地展示了自己与精神疾病、毒瘾，也有希望、渴望和感激。它们表达了人类共有的情感。我也鼓励你去读他们的故事。远离还是有勇气正视他们的故事?选择权在你。

HUMANIZING THE HOMELESS

photography installaion 2024

A couple of years ago, while driving through

the countryside one night on my way to a speaking engagement, I hit a deer. As I stood in

the middle of the road, looking at the poor

creature, tears filled my eyes. The young doe, terrified and in pain, tried several times to get up and run away, but with her legs broken, she couldn't. Eventually, she began to crawl

away until she disappeared into the dark

forest. When a police officer arrived, I told

him where the deer had gone, hoping he

would end hersuffering. He told me he couldn’t do anything ,because she was on private

property. "The coyotes will get her, ” he said, as if to reassure me.

As an animal lover, this experience was deeply traumatic. But what made it worse was watch-ing, through my tears, as other drivers slowly

maneuvered around the accident scene without even stopping to ask if I was alright. The

lack of compassion I encountered that night

is the same indifference people experiencing home-lessness face every day.

Mother Teresa once said, “The biggest

disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis,

but rather the feeling of being unwanted,

uncared for, and deserted by everybody."

This “disease” is the same indifference and

lack of love that people experiencing home-lessness encounter on the streets.

In 2015, at the age of 15, I set out on a mis-sion to humanize people experiencing homeless-ness and shine a spotlight on their plight.

This mission has taken me to major cities

around the world, where I’ve documented

their struggles through photographs and

stories. My goal is to convey one simple truth:people experiencing homelessness are just

like you and me. They possess dignity and

worth, regardless of their circumstances.I

challenge you to look into the eyes of the

individuals in my photographs. Their eyes tell stories—stories of loneliness, fear, and

rejection, but also of hope, longing, and

gratitude.They express emotions common to all human beings. I also encourage you to

read their stories. When my father and I began interviewing people experiencing homeless-ness, we were often struck by their willingness to open up to us, total strangers.Despite

facing scorn and indifference from the public, they bared eir struggles with mental illness,

addiction,away,or will you have the courage

to look them in ies? The choice is yours.

图片摘自网络

莉亚（Leah den Bok）是国际知名的时尚和肖像

摄影师

她致力于捕捉无家可归者的故事和图像。自2015年以来，Leah周游了世界各大城市，包括多伦多、纽约、洛杉矶、布里斯班和加尔各答。

通过她强大的项目“使无家可归者人性化”，记录了那些受无家可归者影响的人的斗争。她的使命是使这些人人性化，并提高全球对无家可归的意识。

莉亚的作品已被汇编成广受好评的书系列《无处可归:人们经历的照片和故事》，她把100%的利润都捐给了当地的无家可归者收容所。她的照片和她的故事在世界范围内引起了共鸣，为她赢得了BBC、CBS和CBC等主要媒体的特写。Leah也曾在一些重要的活动上展出并发表演讲，比如纽约的 ARTWALK，布里斯班的世界妇女节，以及安大略的She Talks论坛。

莉亚的奉献和才华为她赢得了无数奖项，包括BMFAs Murray克拉克森奖和2018年IDRF青年领袖奖。泛亚领导人崛起星奖及荣誉勋章。在国际上的提及2020年摄影奖乔斯科·罗森沃思奖学金，2022年从谢里登学院毕业。她也入围了非虚构类的决赛&社会变革类别国际图书奖和因为《无处可去》获得了柯库斯之星，在2022年打电话回家。大约最近在2024年，利亚获得了一份证书来自CFUW Orillia的表彰。

WE ARE ALL HOMELESS

mixed media installation 2024

Since 1993 I've been buying and collecting

homeless signs from people on the streets, in subways, under bridges, in cities near and far. It began due to the awkwardness I felt when I'd pull up to an intersection and encounter a person holding a sign, asking for help. Like

many people I wrestled with whether or not I was doing good by giving them money, won-dered how they would spend the money and how they got there. Mostly I struggled with

my moral obligations, and how my own

choices contributed in conscious or uncons-cious ways to the poverty I was witnessing. I

struggled with the unfairness of the lives

people are born into, the physical, mental

and psychological differences. In my struggle I often avoided eye contact with those on the

street, unwilling to really see them, and in

doing so avoided seeing parts of myself.

That began to change once I began asking

them if they would sell their signs. Immediate-ly the dynamic changed between us, as we

both had something the other wanted. Event-ually I became more comfortable with the

negotiations, and ultimately very comfortable in the conversations. I began to see them and hear them, and realized how vastly different

they (and their stories) were from each other.My relationship to the people experiencing

homelessness has been powerfully and permanently altered.

I still wrestle with personal questions regard-ing generosity. goodness, compassion and

guilt. And what it means to be homeless:

practically, spiritually, emotionally? Is home a physical place, a building, a structure, a

house? Or is it a state of being, a sense of

safety, of being provided for, of identity? I

now see these signs as signposts of my own

journey, inward and outward, of reconciling my early home life with my judgments about those experiencing homelessness.

图片摘自网络

我们都是无家可归

威利·巴伦特 (Wilie Beronet)

混合媒体装置 2024

自 1993 年以来，我一直在街头、地铁、桥下、远近城市购买和收集无家可归者的标牌。这始于当我在十字路口停车并遇到举着标牌寻求帮助的人时感到的尴尬。像许多人一样，我也纠结于给他们钱是否是在做好事，想知道他们会如何花这笔钱以及他们是如何得到这些钱的。我主要纠结于我的道德义务，以及我自己的选择如何以有意识或无意识的方式导致了我所目睹的贫困。我纠结于人们出生时生活的不公平，以及身体、精神和心理上的差异。在我的纠结中，我经常避免与街上的人目光接触，不愿意真正看到他们，从而避免看到自己的一部分。

当我开始问他们是否愿意出售他们的标牌时，这种情况开始改变。我们之间的关系立刻发生了变化，因为我们都有对方想要的东西。 最终，我对谈判变得更加适应，最终在对话中也非常自在。我开始看到他们、听到他们，并意识到他们（和他们的故事）彼此之间有多么不同。我与无家可归者的关系发生了巨大而永久的改变。我仍然在与慷慨、善良、同情和内疚等个人问题作斗争。无家可归意味着什么：从实践上、精神上还是情感上？家是一个物理的地方、一栋建筑、一个结构、一所房子吗？还是一种存在状态、一种安全感、一种被供养的感觉、一种身份认同？我现在把这些迹象看作我自己内心和外在旅程的路标，将我早期的家庭生活与我对无家可归者的判断相协调。

Wilie Beronet hes been buying and

collecing homeles signs for over 31 years as

part of a long term art projed titled WE ARE

ALL WOMELESS in 2014 . he begen a 31 day cross country trip to buy signs in 24cities,

which is he swbject of the documentary Signs af Humanity (currently available on Amzon

Primo).

The project has benn featured in media all

over the world, incliuding Yaboo! News, NPR-AI l Things Considered. HuffPost ,AI Jazera

America and Fast Company's blog,posted by Katie Couric. An UplWorthy video about the projeet has been viewed over 6.5 million

times , and there ane other viral videos in

English French( Brut) and Russian（Tok

media).

Research articles about this projeet have been published in The Americen Journal of Public

Health,and The internatinal Journal of Social

Psychiatry. Both project were done in colla-boration with Dr.Rosemary Frasso,Phd,Popula-tion Health, Philadelphia.

Willie is currentyty the San Richards

Professor in Creative Advertising ar SMU's

Temerlin Advertising lnstitute ,where he

teaches classes ralated to creativity,design,

and portfolio develoment.

图片摘自网络

威利·巴伦特 (Wilie Beronet) 一直在购买并收集无家可归者的标志超过31年，作为一个名为“我们都无家可归”的长期艺术项目的一部分。2014年，他开始了为期31天的全国旅行，在24个城市购买标牌，这是纪录片《人性的标志》

(Signs at Humanity)的的主题。(目前在亚马逊网站上有售)。该项目已在世界各地的媒体上进行了专题报道，包括雅虎! NPR新闻-综合报道，赫芬顿邮报，在美国半岛电视台和快公司的博客上，由凯蒂·库里克发布。关于该项目的

UpWorthy视频已被观看过650万次。《泰晤士报》，还有其他热门视频英语、法语(布鲁特语)和俄语(TOK媒体)。还有其他形式传播。

关于这个项目的研究文章已经发表在《美国公共杂志》上和《国际社会精神病学杂志》。这两个项目都是与费城人口健康中心的罗斯玛丽·弗拉索博士合作完成的。

威利现在是圣理查兹新加坡管理大学

Temerlin广告学院创意广告教授，在那里他教授与创造力、设计、以及投资组合开发。

图片摘自网络

流浪者是指一些没有固定住所和收入来源的人，他们经常在街头巷尾或公共场所出现，靠着乞讨或者从事一些简单的零工来维持生计。流浪者的生活状态可能是因为各种原因所致，例如失业、家庭问题、精神疾病、成瘾等等。

图片摘自网络

在城市里，流浪者往往是被人们忽略的群体，他们经常被视为社会问题的产生者，而不是社会问题的受害者。但事实上，流浪者也是我们社会中的一部分，他们也需要被关注、被理解和被帮助。

纸牌的收集者和为流浪者拍照的摄影师的故事观点或许有点启发。这篇文章提及世界各国都存在的无家可归流浪者的状况，也会引起社会的关注。

图片摘自网络