LA Times: L.A.'s Sidewalk Talk: really listening to words on the street
Brooke Dooley looked around, not quite sure how to proceed.
She and a small group of volunteers had just arrived at the North Hollywood Metro Station to participate in an event called Sidewalk Talk — ready to listen to any passersby who wanted to chat, offering Angelenos the simple gift of being heard.
The task seemed easy enough, but logistics were getting in the way. The wind picked up, making it hard for Dooley to hang up her “Free Listening” signs. Security guards at the station had strong opinions about where the group could and could not stand.
Eventually she was able to set up two plastic chairs on a stretch of heavily trafficked sidewalk along Lankershim Boulevard, wedged between a bus stop and a coin-operated public restroom. A man on a bicycle pedaled by, back and forth, hawking pepper spray for $5.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Dooley said. “This is an experiment.”
Sidewalk Talk, the brainchild of Bay Area therapists Traci Ruble and Lily Sloane, organizes groups of volunteer “listeners,” training them and sending them into the streets. The first event took place May 7 in San Francisco, where about 30 listeners chatted up strangers in 12 locations.