Meet a lovely soul we met about a year ago here in the neighborhood. Here’s an edited excerpt of Stormy’s story to give you a sense of what drives this bright young spirit …
My name is Kenneth Alexander Leith. I go by Stormy Karma. It’s my artist name, my street name. It used to be my stage name when I would perform in drag back in the Midwest in Nebraska. I’m from Palmyra, a small farming town about 27 miles outside of the capital Lincoln. Nothing but cornfields and dirt roads for miles. I grew up on my grandma’s farm with my dad and my little bro. I was raised a Baptist and when I got older I started to rebel. I found that being Christian wasn’t meant for me, and my grandma and dad never approved anything other than that.
So I taught myself what I needed to know about witchcraft, how to perform a ritual, how to perform a ceremony, how to talk to the deities. But then the heavy lifestyle called me and I started a magical journey down the road not knowing that this would be a part of my life for the next 13 years. After living on the streets of Lincoln for a little while I joined a carnival and started traveling with them and that’s where I started practicing and learning about my spiritual beliefs. I can say today that I am a witch and I’m proud of it. I have manifested everything in my life up to this point and this is where my story in San Francisco begins.
When I first came to SF in 2017 it was the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. That’s when I met The Dirty Kids of Haight Street. I never knew that I’d end up right back here three years later, but here I am and this is my story. Being home free was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. 13 yrs on the road, traveling, seeing 28 states. Coming to SF was definitely a magical thing, it was a blessing. It may have been a curse as well at some point but it taught me a lot about keeping the faith even when there seems to be no hope.
FULL STORY (Unedited)
My name is Kenneth Alexander Leith I go by Stormy Karma it’s my it’s my artist name my street name I used to be my stage Name when I would perform a drag back in the Midwest in Nebraska. I’m from a small town named palmyra it’s a small farming town about 27 miles outside of the capital Lincoln nothing but cornfields and dirt roads for miles I grew up on my grandma’s farm with my dad and my little bro. I was raised a Baptist and when I got older I started to rebel I found that I found that being about being Christian wasn’t meant for me and my grandma and my dad they never approved anything other than that And so I learned and I taught myself what I needed to know about witchcraft and how to perform a ritual and how to perform a ceremony how to talk to the deities but then the heavy lifestyle called me and and so started a magical journey down the road not knowing that this would be a part of my life for the next 13 years and 2016 after living on the streets of Lincoln for a little while I joined a carnival and started traveling with them and that’s where I started practicing and learning about my spiritual belief. I can say today that I am a witch and I’m proud of it and I have manifested everything in my life up to this point and this is where my story in San Francisco begins at the beginning of 2017 a good friend of mine from Lincoln offered to take me on a train ride to San Francisco I never knew that I’d end up right back here three years later four years later But here I am and this is my story and my life from the same time I came to San Francisco and from the first time I came from to San Francisco oh oh
Being home free homeless as most yuppie put it. Was one of the most amazing experience i’ve ever had. 13 yrs on the road traveling seeing28 states. When I first came to San Francisco it is 2017 the 50th anniversary of the summer of love that’s where I met The Dirty kids of Haight Street. We all hung out in Buena Vista Park or down on Haight Street somewhere Everybody usually hung out in whatever it’s to park back then because that’s where we all kicked it . I never knew that I’d be back here in San Francisco three years later during the pandemic and 2020 before that I actually was living in a house with my street mom and working a job at a library as a distant vector for the libraries during covid 19 and then one day I got the news at the job was ending because another company had outbid my company and my company was only attempt service and so I told myself at the beginning of this job when this job ended I was moving on and I never thought that I’d end up here in San Francisco again But here I am and it’s been it’s been three years it’s been the best and the worst three years of my life.
When I got to San Francisco in 2020 I didn’t know what I was doing here except for except for uniting with people that I met back in 2017 and so I went on and I got I got everything that I needed to do describe food stamps GA and at this time at the end of heat and Stanion there was no mcdonald’s like there was back in 17 there was a homeless camp that was ran by the homeless youth alliance which also runs a needle exchange down on Clayton and Haight. I ended up asking the director Mary how can I get into this camp And sure enough they put me on the list in about a week or two later on January 1st 2001 I moved into the camp.
I met a kid who went by the name of Casey Jones he had a dog that was pregnant named aurora. Look outside the Larkin and something told me that I recognize this kid from somewhere and I didn’t know from where and he felt that he knew me from somewhere well I found out that his that he willing to give me a chance when it came to giving up but kept getting my hopes up I ended up talking to the hire and getting him into the camp and that is where I helped aurora and him out he was stressful it is depressing at points but I pushed through.
One night as I sat in camp in my tent I went to my oracle cards and I asked him if I get a pup what should I need that pup and I pulled the card Hecate. And being a witch for about 10 years I had never heard of the goddess hectic until I got this oracle deck and so I did my research and come to find out that hekatay is known as the triple goddess she’s a goddess of the crossroads underworld and witches.
Every time my Aurora was pregnant and her human dad would ask me to watch her I did I did everything that I was him. I take Aurora to the park and we’d sit in the park I’d have my arm around her my hand on her belly and I’d ask hechaty are you in there and each time and I counted a total of five times for the whole time she was pregnant the same pub and the same spot kicked and on February 21st 12 pups were born in that camp understanding when the time came to pick the pub of my choice the second one that I picked up was a female. Black little Cutey a lightning bolt on her chest thats white. I picked this little rhet up out of the kennel And I said Hecate is that you and she licked my nose and barked at me And to this day she’s still by my side there hasn’t ever left She’s been she’s been the best seeing that’s ever happened to me besides me Finally realizing that the Magic Is real.
A year and a half later I am I am writing this and telling my story and I couldn’t have imagine where I would have been if I didn’t come to San Francisco this time I was blessed to be where I’m at to be with the people that I am with to be around the people that I’m with if it wasn’t for that camp and for that kid I don’t know if I’d still be here.
As the year went by I continue to do what I did on the road with the hippie busses which was made trippy psychedelic art from photography. And one day something told me some higher up told me in my head that I needed to create a terror deck me not knowing anything about Tara said OKAY I’ll do it So I composed 78 cards a whole entire tarot deck I art but on top of it I took people from my past from my present. Something told me this deck had to be personal It had to be it had to be historic it had to be magical in my eyes and so for six months I’ve worked and worked and worked on my phone and composed these cards. And in this deck were people from the 60s like rainbow and people from my life back in the Midwest like my street sister who really never lived on the street She was and is still my best friend. And then you have the unforgettable crew of dirty kids took me in when I got here and called me family. And then as I was doing this I discovered a Facebook group called the House of witchcraft Give me a run by a woman by the name of Taren S. she is a conjuring witch of the South she’s a high priestess of the witches cottage coming in san Diego she is a well known author of witchcraft and has been a great blessing to me in the creating of this deck of Tarot.
There were cards that I struggled with her to play somebody on but in the end the Divine the goddess that I was working with at the time and still I’m working with showed me the way and by the end of October of 2022 the deck was finished and people were absolutely punished by it. I never thought that my art turned into a tarot deck would ever be anything. But just a deck that I created I created that would sit on a shelf and not be used so. But that wasn’t the case yeah I may have never published the deck but that was because something told me deep down inside that it wasn’t meant to be in stores or in other people’s hands. It was meant for me to reconnect to my magical self and my god and goddess and now as I sit here I can say that it helped him keep my head straight as best as it could it kept my mind busy as I waited define a place as I guys approved for a section 8 housing voucher earlier in May of 2020. I struggled really hard to find a place I was I was picky I was really adamant about not being in the tenderloin. And I got nowhere until finally I said OK let’s do what we got to do to not lose a voucher because I was running out of time I had already extended the voucher three times and there was one last place It was in the lower tender knob as I call it AKA lower knob hill and I had never seen it before but my housing people convinced convinced me to go ahead and put an application in And so I did and after all the other places and being denied by them because of my credit I felt like there was no hope of ever getting off the street even if I had this voucher and by the Grace of the gods I’m sitting here writing this and an apartment after 13 years of being on the street and being and being Humphrey and seeing the places that I have I have made it to where I am now which is housed in a warm place Yeah maybe a studio but it’s home it’s a home for my familiar Hecate and as of November 2nd 22 Hecate gave birth 2 11 pups and one of them is here is here with me and her today her name is Medusa Marie karma.
I could honestly say that coming to San Francisco the second time around was definitely a magical thing it was a blessing it may have been a curse as well at some point but it taught me a lot about being keeping the faith and losing helper even when there seem there seem to be no hope.
Meet a lovely soul we met about a year ago here in the neighborhood. Here’s an edited excerpt of Stormy’s story to give you a sense of what drives this bright young spirit …
My name is Kenneth Alexander Leith. I go by Stormy Karma. It’s my artist name, my street name. It used to be my stage name when I would perform in drag back in the Midwest in Nebraska. I’m from Palmyra, a small farming town about 27 miles outside of the capital Lincoln. Nothing but cornfields and dirt roads for miles. I grew up on my grandma’s farm with my dad and my little bro. I was raised a Baptist and when I got older I started to rebel.
I found that being Christian wasn’t meant for me, and my grandma and dad never approved anything other than that. So I taught myself what I needed to know about witchcraft, how to perform a ritual, how to perform a ceremony, how to talk to the deities.
But then the heavy lifestyle called me and and I started a magical journey down the road not knowing that this would be a part of my life for the next 13 years. After living on the streets of Lincoln for a little while I joined a carnival and started traveling with them and that’s where I started practicing and learning about my spiritual beliefs.
I can say today that I am a witch and I’m proud of it. I have manifested everything in my life up to this point and this is where my story in San Francisco begins.In 2017, a good friend of mine from Lincoln offered to take me on a train ride to San Francisco. When I first came to San Francisco in 2017 it was the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. That’s when I met The Dirty Kids of Haight Street. I never knew that I’d end up right back here three years later. But here I am and this is my story.
Being home free was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. 13 yrs on the road, traveling, seeing 28 states. Coming to SF was a magical thing. It was a blessing, it may have been a curse as well at some point but it taught me a lot about being keeping the faith even when there seem there seem to be no hope.
