Brenda Myers-Powell : From prostitution to sex victims advocate

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Brenda Myers-Powell was pimped out, left for dead then survived to fight for other girls.

Now, the Chicago native has penned a memoir sharing her brutal story and how resilience got her through.

Myers-Powell’s Leaving Breezy Street is a heartfelt memoir about turning her life around. From a street hustling sex worker and self-described “messed up crackhead” to an advocate for victims of sex trafficking.

A Troubled Past

While most teenagers were relishing the simple moments of life like outings with friends, having a crush, working their first job, by age fourteen Myers-Powell had given birth to two daughters.

She was poor, with a limited education, and only had a grandmother, whose version of tough love often veered beyond “tough,” to rely on.

She did not know where to go or how to support herself and her girls, but she was pretty, funny as hell and determined to thrive.

So in 1973 she hit the streets of Chicago’s West Side and turned tricks, eventually renaming herself “Breezy.”

For the next twenty-five years Myers-Powell moved around the country always finding new pimps, parties, drugs, and endless, profound heartache.

“Folks tell me, ain’t all that happen to you,” she says. “I wish it hadn’t… I wish to God I was lying my head off.”

Amidst the shifting landscapes she breezed in and out of, she gave and received kindness from friends and strangers.

Through all those years, her family, her daughters, her brothers, her aunts, and more, waited with open arms for her to come back home.

Amazingly, she managed to find the strength to break free from this brutal world, get clean, and save herself.

Leaving Breezy Street is a truth-revealing story — combined with joy and humor — of how a Black woman living in the underbelly of American life picks herself up and rebounds.

Brenda Myers-Powell Today

Today, Myers-Powell is an advocate for sex trafficking victims. She works to save girls and women just like her from a future on the streets.

She is the co-founder and executive director of the Dreamcatcher Foundation. Additionally, she has sat on the board of numerous organizations.

In 2020, she was selected to serve on the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking.

Brenda’s work with Dreamcatcher and victims was the focus of the Sundance Award–winning documentary Dreamcatcher.