Stacey Walker sings a song at the Salvation Army's Sunday Night Karaoke.A little after 6 p.m. on a Sunday, as the crowd sips coffee and eats popcorn, a 29-year-old woman takes the stage to sing one of her favorite karaoke songs, Tracy Chapman's "Give Me One Reason."
The sluggish sound of guitar chords from the speakers signals the beginning of the song. Stacy Walker positions the microphone in front of her mouth, preparing for the four minutes and seven seconds of her week in which she feels most like herself.
"It gives me peace of mind. It sets me free again," Walker said. "I don't know what it is about singing or karaoke or being up here, but I feel accepted. I feel important. I feel like me. I feel like this is where I'm supposed to be, this is something I'm supposed to be doing."
Walker spends her week scheduling time to work a minimum-wage job around doctor appointments where she regularly undergoes minor surgeries for a rare form of skin cancer. The struggles of finding a job and working through her illness only magnify the difficulties she faces in finding a real home instead of sleeping under a tent or in a shelter.
Walker constantly is hiding the intimate details of her life from friends and co-workers, but singing karaoke at the Salvation Army offers her a moment in which she's just her and not her problems.
"I've always loved karaoke." she said. "It is fun. It is different. That's what I love about the Salvation Army doing it up here because it makes me feel like part of the world, not what society thinks of me if they knew I was homeless."
Walker has become a well-known karaoke singer. Usually she sings around seven or eight songs, but she is always ready to oblige upon receiving a request. When she isn't onstage, she's out talking with the crowd.
"There are a lot of similar faces, but there's also a few new ones," she said. "It's not always just homeless [who] are in here, and that's what makes it even more interesting."
As her song comes to an end, the sound of applause carries her offstage. After sitting down for a moment, Walker is once again browsing the songlist for her next performance.