Cheri Honkala was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1963. Her father, Maynard Duane Honkala, was of Finnish ancestry, and her mother had Cheyenne Native American ancestry. She grew up watching her mother suffer from domestic violence. Honkala's mother quietly endured this abuse for fear of losing her kids.

Honkala has been repeatedly and prominently featured in the work of documentary filmmakers Peter Kinoy and Pamela Yates, the latter a co-director of the award-winning film When the Mountains Tremble. Their work with Honkala has included Takeover (1990), a film, financed by Bruce Springsteen (during the making of which they first met Honkala), "about homeless women that was planned as the first in a series on 'heroes of the new American depression;'" Poverty Outlaw (1997), the story of a homeless woman "who must break the law to survive" and which tells the story of the birth and growth of the KWRU; Outriders (1999), about the New Freedom Bus Tour; and The Battle for Broad (2000), about KWRU's and PPEHRC's march during the Republican National Convention in 2000 in Philadelphia. (Living Broke in Broke Times is a compilation film condensing Takeover, Poverty Outlaw and Outriders.)  In the 1990s, the Television Trust for the Environment, as part of its "Life" series, broadcast on BBC World News a short documentary on Honkala and the KWRU called The Philadelphia Story. In the profile, Honkala talks about gated communities and her complex feelings about the state of the country.  The independent film, August in the Empire State, directed by Keefe Murren and Gabriel Rhodes, profiles several persons during the 2004 Republican National Convention, including Honkala, who is depicted leading her PPEHRC march against the RNC. In the film, Honkala discusses her commitment to the principle of Gandhian nonviolent resistance.  In February 2008, on its flagship public affairs program, People & Power, Al Jazeera English ran a video profile of Honkala entitled "Homeless Hero," depicting a campaign by the Nashville Homeless Power Project, which had invited Honkala to that city to organize "the first major homeless action in the history of Tennessee." The video shows the construction of an encampment to confront Nashville's mayor, during his budget address, with the issue of homelessness. (The mayor never appeared.)  On September 7, 2012, Honkala was a guest of Bill Moyers for the program Moyers & Company, "Challenging Power, Changing Politics", along with her Green Party Presidential running mate, Jill Stein, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

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