Leaving Breezy Street: A Memoir

Written by Brenda Myers-Powell and April Reynolds

Narrated by Karen Chilton

"This is a full-bodied performance, complete with salty language and harrowing situations, but listeners will love Chilton's portrayal of Breezy's determination to find her place in the world." -- Audiofile Magazine, Earphones Award Winner


Belonging on the shelf with Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle and Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, Leaving Breezy Street—the stunning account of Brenda Myers-Powell’s brutal and beautiful life—is a critical addition to the American canon.

Fourteen years old, poor, Black, mother dead, two babies to feed and clothe, and a grandmother who is not full of motherly kindness, to put it mildly. What money-making options are open to a girl like Brenda Myers?

When Breezy, as she came to call herself, hit the streets of Chicago as a prostitute in 1973 she was barely a teenager. But she was pretty and funny as hell, and determined to support her daughters and make a living. For the next twenty-five years, she moved across the country, finding new pimps, parties, drugs, and endless, profound heartache. And she also—astonishingly—managed to find the strength to break from a brutal world and not only save herself but save future Breezys.

Great, compelling memoirs can bring us into worlds that have been beyond our comprehension and make us “get it.” What these books tell us is NOT that we can all move beyond the lives into which we were born. The lesson is that everyone deserves to be truly seen by others and offered a path forward.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Jun 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781250807779

Brenda Myers-Powell

Brenda Myers-Powell has been advocating for victims of sex trafficking since 1997. She is the co-founder and executive director of the Dreamcatcher Foundation, and 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.

Reviews for Leaving Breezy Street

[chicken64 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Achingly honest and authentic, it reads like an transcribed interview, but that’s what makes it so compelling. You’re hearing her train of thought, occasional repeated stories or phrases, and dialects of Chicago and LA and everywhere in between. She has this effervescent resilience but up until 22 years ago, had misdirected it. Her fast lifestyle — and often her lack of choice in her circumstances — prevent the analysis that would have brought the book to another level, but it also depicts Brenda as her authentic self. She doesn’t think too deeply about anything because she is always moving, always running. (Who’s the first baby’s daddy? Nonchalant as always, “Oh I think his name was Spoon”). I love her sense of humor and matter-of-fact attitude that you clearly need growing up on the streets. Keep going with your charitable organization, Brenda!

[Andrea Gail · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful story of hope and survival. Hearing Brenda read her own life back to the listener was amazing. Keep catching those dreams girls!

[Jamise Harper · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a story of survival and self discovery. So many trials, tribulations, abuse and violence. I appreciate the author bearing it all to share her story with the world She gives it to you raw with no filter which at times had me shook. I don’t think I’ve ever read a memoir that was this heartbreaking & jaw dropping. What a memoir and life!

[CrystalForte · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I can't rate this memoir... This is a story about struggle and addiction. This lady is the walking definition of a testimony ??