Tiburon author’s ‘Front Street’ reframes life inside Bay Area tent cities

Tiburon author Brian Barth (right) with LaMonte Ford, an activist and leader of Oakland’s Wood Street Commons encampment. Ford is among those featured in Barth’s book, ‘Front Street: Resistance and Rebirth in the Tent Cities of Techlandia.’ (via Brian Barth)

Tiburon author Brian Barth says he’s interested in homeless people’s dreams.

“We don’t really talk about the dreams of our unhoused neighbors,” he says. “But I think we should. They have dreams just like anybody else.”

Living on the street, he says, can inspire deep reflection on what a person wants out of life.

“When you’ve hit rock bottom out on the street, if you survive that experience … you go through a process of rebirth, in a way,” Barth says. “And your values may change. Your goals, your perspective on life changes.”

Those individual dreams, which Barth heard from hundreds of homeless people he met in Oakland, Cupertino and San Jose, provide the source material for his new book, “Front Street: Resistance and Rebirth in the Tent Cities of Techlandia.” Barth, an investigative journalist who has written for The New Yorker, Washington Post, The New Republic, National Geographic and Mother Jones, will speak about his work at 4 p.m. Feb. 28 at Book Passage in Corte Madera.

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