Tamara Knapper is interested in the sound of words. It’s a fascination that comes up often while talking with her.
“My name is easy to remember: Tamara,” she explains. “Ta” as in “tall,” and “Mara” like “Maria.”
With an engaging smile, she’s quick to laugh and joke.
“It’s funny,” she said. “My mom wanted to name me Emerica. My father described the choice as a way to honor America.”
Even when asked about her safety strategies during Covid, Tamara laughed and said that, among other precautions, she’d been vaccinated. “I made sure I got the Moderna shot,” she said. “Sounds a little bit like ‘America,’ yea?”
In foster care as a child, Tamara has lived in Portland all her life. Now she is a mother of five grown children who also live in and around Portland. Tamara has an apartment in Southwest Portland just off Capitol Highway. She uses the bus to get to and from Street Roots, but she’d like to be closer to downtown.
Tamara is a hard-working, successful Street Roots vendor, selling 20 to 30 papers a week at her post outside Basics Market at 938 NW 14th St.
She’s been working with Street Roots since the spring of 2017 when struggling to live on $40 a week, she met a vendor selling papers and asked how she could get involved.
Since then, Tamara has participated in MoJo, Street Roots School of Mobile Journalism and Communication, the program developed in 2021 which teaches vendors communication and journalism skills.
She’s also participated in the Street Roots Ambassador Program, conducting surveys to better serve people in houseless communities.
As we celebrate Black History Month, Tamara invoked the spirit of Martin Luther King. She said she tries to keep Martin Luther King alive in the hearts of others so that he will “survive in heaven ... I just don’t always know the best ways to do that.”
“I want to be one of the leaders,” Tamara said. “I’m proud of this country. I want to accomplish the American Dream.”
Though she acknowledged that she was still working to “grow into myself,” and that she hadn’t “totally developed” her talents, Tamara is a seamstress and is working to develop a line of teddy bears and dolls, a project she began for her children when they were young.
“I’ve got a lot of ideas,” she said. “I’d like to develop a line of dolls for Disney. It’s a project that would connect me with my children.”
Tamara is looking forward to Valentine's day when she plans to celebrate with a group of women she met in a wellness group.
You can find Tamara at her post outside Basics Market at 938 NW 14th Street. She can also be supported via @StreetRoots Venmo by entering her name and badge number (496) in the notes.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
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