Gemiliana, Pero’s Bridge, near Arnolfini Arts, Bristol

Image: Juliette Pedram 

Jiddu Krishnamurti said: “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society,” but most often the threat to not fitting in this kind of society is: “You’re gonna end up selling Big Issue!”  

Big Issue is something well-established that everybody knows, it’s something that helps homeless people or is the way out for anybody that reaches the bottom. And I’m one of them. 

But we all know that life is not about what happens to you, it’s how you react and how you decide to stand up again.  

For me, Big Issue is a big opportunity because it’s giving me the opportunity to earn some honest money while I’m relying on the social system for food and a roof on my head. I have a place every night in a women’s shelter and I can get food every day. 

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Big Issue is giving me the opportunity to earn some honest money to buy my personal things and be a little bit independent. It’s also training me to get back into business because you buy your magazines, so you invest in yourself and you double what you do. So it’s really a good practice not to feel totally lost and build good habits.  

At the beginning I was very confused and didn’t know how to approach people. I must admit that I am the most unusual Big Issue vendor. I’m the silent one. Because, for me, Big Issue is free will. I don’t like to bother people. You know what it is and if you want it, you just have to stop by. 

Like a living statue, when somebody comes to me, I start interacting: I smile, I give my greetings, my attention and I chat. If somebody doesn’t show any interest, I leave them free to walk by and I become invisible.

My pitch is very interesting because it’s a micro reflection of society. When I arrived, Big Issue asked me which pitch I felt comfortable with and I said I want to live the full experience of selling the magazine as a homeless woman in Bristol. I wanted a pitch where people have the time and interest to stop and talk with me. I’m very fond of contemporary art so I asked to be close to the Arnolfini gallery and also I love the harbour.  

The beginning of the week for me is always very good, because I have my regulars in the evenings that get the new issue. My clients vary from younger women from the offices who are very well educated, some great gentlemen and every day a new character is added to the list. 

With each of them the conversations can vary from environmental issues, politics, religion in modern days or simply just they give me the opportunity to talk about the housing problem – the reason why so many people are ending up homeless nowadays.  

When I sell Big Issue, I’m not looking for pity from people. I’m looking for solidarity. I’m not doing Big Issue to boost insecure egos of people that need to feel better because there are people in a harder situation. 

That’s why most of my regulars are women that don’t come with pity in their eyes. It’s charity wrapped with dignity and it’s very beautiful when it happens in that way.  

We have no reason to pity each other. We have to make a coalition of pissed off people. Why does society still allow for these situations to happen? We have to bond all together and get upset and fight the real enemy rather than keep pitying each other and still keeping these gaps. 

Every time things get too much, I look for a way out in a book or a music album. 

Interview: Juliette Pedram 

Pero's Bridge, Bristol, UK