From Street Vending to Poetry

Would you like to get $100 just to stand outside with a street vendor for one day?

That's what one native New Yorker did when his friend offered him $100 just to keep him company at his vending table. When Tony, who was strapped for cash, realized that his friend earned almost $4,500 a day on Fifth Avenue, he decided to try vending for himself on Fulton Street, between Broadway and Nassau Street.

Tony, a 42-year old military veteran, has been vending "on and off for about 10 years" and tries to fight the economic recession with street vending and poetry. Although he's never performed in public, Tony said he's considered using his poetry to get customers. Maybe you've joked with him before, or haggled with him over the jewelry and shawls he sells on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

Vending is a step up for Tony, although it isn't exactly his childhood dream of being a police officer. After his military service from 1985 to 1988, Tony's life spiraled into depression and drug addiction. He lived on the streets, under bridges and in subway cars. Although he felt that he had lost everything, Tony began to turn his life around.

"It took a long time to get my mind right," he said, "I tried different programs, but then I realized it wasn't the programs; it was really what was going on within myself."

That's what he turned to poetry, which he recites with a fast and steady rhyming beat. Tony's poems focus on his past struggles, as well as his feelings of revival and rebirth. "I believe each word serves a purpose," Tony said of his own writing.

Soon, Tony said he will start attending poetry readings and use his talent to make more money to keep food on the table. Until then, he plans to rely on vending to support his girlfriend, daughter and granddaughter. Faced with the upcoming winter and economic downtown, Tony plans to switch his wares over to gloves and hats, as well as offer his customers a discount - the "recession special."