Steetwise Documentary...where are they now?

Cafe Society
1

Sometime in the early eighties, director Martin Bell and photographer Mary Ellen Mark did an amazing doucmentary called “Streetwise.” It basically documented the lives of the “street children” that hung out in the Pike Street area of Seattle. The end of the documentary was especially tragic.

I watched it several times and recently wondered what became of these kids. A cursory search on the web indicated that Lulu (the lesbian protector of the children) was killed in a streetfight in 1985, and that Erin “Tiny” Blackwell (whose mother referred to her as going through “just a phase”) is now a mother herself. I was wondering what became of the other kids? Are they still alive? Did they get out of the “life” of prostitution and drugs? In particular I was curious if anyone knew the fates of Rat, Shadow, Patti, and Munchkin…

Any help is appreciated…Thanks

2

Saw that doc too. It’s real good. If I were betting… dead or in jail. Hopin’ for better.

3

Lots of us died or went to prison. But unknown to the public there were 100’s of us children in the streets in the 70’s and 80’s not just the few portrayed in the documentary. Although many died, many of us survived.
We have husbands/wives, children, college degrees, job and we are drug free. Don’t count any of us out. We are survivors.

4

Zombie children or not, there is a section of the relevant Wikipedia article that mentions the fates of about half the kids.