Wednesday, December 27, 2017

My Friend Buzzy Passes Away

Most of the West Side Market shoppers will know Melvin "Buzzy" Bryant from his Saturday morning shifts selling the Cleveland Street Chronicle.  He passed away on Christmas 2017 here in Cleveland; dying peacefully in his sleep.  I am pretty sure that Buzzy once told me that he spent 10 years living on the streets in Cleveland.  He panhandled and slept outside.  This can be very difficult on the body, and I am so glad that he died peacefully in his own bed and not in the cold on the streets.

Buzzy came to Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless for an art show organized by the AmeriCorps VISTAs led by Staci Santa.   He was so fond of Staci and would do anything for her including getting off the streets.  He was featured on the front cover of the program for the event. Buzzy started selling the Homeless Grapevine and just stuck with the organization for 20 years.  He was a quiet guy who was a friend to everyone.  No matter how poisonous and cantankerous the vendor, Buzzy was your friend.  I talked to Buzzy about why he was homeless and he said that he just did not want to be a burden to his family. He also said that he was afraid that he would die alone and no one would find his body like Luther Vandross.  I actually do not think that Mr. Vandross died in his bed undiscovered for days, but his point was he felt it was better to have a significant other when living in an apartment.   As soon as he got into housing, he took in family members who were struggling.  One time, I checked in on him and he had a niece and three kids in his one bedroom apartment.  On another occasion he sought my help to try to get fresh fruit and vegetables back into the senior building he was living, again demonstrating that he was more concerned about his neighbors.

The vendors always controlled the rules of selling the paper, and Buzzy was really good at trying to help shape the rules to be fair to everyone.  He was great at calming people down during the every-other-week vendor meetings.  He only rarely got angry or frustrated.  Buzzy volunteered regularly and took time to attend NEOCH events like the Memorial, the dinners, and the Annual meetings.  He was a genuine good guy, which is not common anymore. I went to a Browns game with him before and accompanied him on a couple of speaking engagements.  Buzzy spoke at my going away party and brought a tear to my family by talking about the NEOCH summer picnics he attended.  Buzzy said he was amazed that I brought my young children to the gatherings to hang out with homeless people.  In his experience, very few people treated him like a person when he was homeless and were more likely to shield their children from a guy living on the streets.

Buzzy was politically active and voted regularly.  The articles that he wrote for the Chronicle over the last year were about the election and some thoughts he had.  Here are a few interviews and one piece written by Buzzy. I would provide more but most of the Grapevine/Chronicle links on the NEOCH website are broken unfortunately.

Here is a biography of Buzzy written by a volunteer at the Homeless Coalition in 1997.

Here is a story by Buzzy in 1998.  All the vendors had to write one story an issue to keep the Chronicle grounded as a newspaper of homeless people.  In addition, this was a rule that the vendors voted on to keep the West Side Market premium shifts only to experienced sales people.

Here is an interview with Buzzy from 1997

Found an article from January 2013 about how Buzzy sold the paper. 

NEOCH posted some kind words by his fellow vendors who really liked Buzzy.

I miss Buzzy and he was a solid friend to many Clevelanders.

by Brian Davis

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