MARCH 1, 2018 FREE - donations accepted
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· trilll~gl N EW S L E TT ER
carnnews@vcn.bc.ca
401 Main Street Vancouver Canada V6A 2T7 Email: carnnews@shaw.ca
Website/Catalogue:
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(604) 665-2289
carnegienewsletter.org
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from the LibrarY The last four years has been a whirlwind of Library magic with a bit of chaos, and a whole lot of awe-some connections. I've been with VPL for twelve years, and nothing has or ever will compare to working at the Carnegie. With that out in the open, I need to share that I am leaving the City, and heading to the Sunshine Coast. I'm from a small town, and after twenty years in Vancouver my husband & I decided to make a move, and get a bit closer to nature. Thank you for sharing your stories, your passions and or share lunch with me! It's been a privilege to be part floored by all the local heroes, activists, and advocates simple gestures of kindness, justice and understanding
interests, for simply popping by the library to say "hello" of this Centre and community. I have been repeatedly who persevere in the face of adversity .. also the quiet, that I've been witness to every day.
My last day at the Camegie Library is Saturday March 10th. Please stop by the Theatre between llam1:30pm to say "goodbye" and sign my Camegie Memories Scrapbook. I will miss you all deeply. Your librarian, Natalie.
Below is a shortlist of some of my favourite books. Lone Rider: the first British woman to motorcycle around the world by Elspeth Beard The Road by Cormac McCarthy The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rbys The Prison Meditations of Father Delp The Famished Road by Ben Okri The Chrysalids by John Wyndham Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives by Elder Thaddeus The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom Half Broke.Jforses by Jeannette Walls Forgotten Among the Lilies: learning to love beyond our fears by Ronald Rolbeiser
[*Winnie Trudel has retired from the Camegie Branch and is moving to the Sunshine Coast. Winnie is the petite Asian woman who many of us came to appreciate over her many years here. She was & remains a staunch supporter of the Camegie Newsletter, helping in keeping the Central Library's archive project up to date and keeping the keen interest among former staffers alive and well. Winnie is too demure to have her photo here, so let it be said that 'we know what you look like and hope to see you again (and again!).]
~~ ~ THAT'LLDRAWACROWn
needs onlv seconds to sink into your skin it just cannot resist to ail those 110tenjoying it nobody asked you to like it I need not point out that anything good call also suck, like a game show called Indigenous Squares as a celebration of 150 years males a splash while they are observing eleventeen thousand plus but for some reason the latter draws anything but a crowd, like a Skystain station displacement centre attention reminds yu every day of what was never home starvation with no ceiling above if you were \0 compare your dilemma with someone else who has gone into a full-throttle anxietv attack because thev have misplaced their 'ohc.:rodno' smart brain tumour phone I don't use 'em so ~11 I stupid or ignorant whatever give me pen & paper and every once in awhile I can feel roud.
I say jump people say how high are you(?) well [ may have fallen into a pharmacy or two now how many airmiles does a child receive as many as a brand -spanking-new jet, like the Skystain Station we have paid hundreds ofmillions for is it us the naive that took a time out to expense reality is it not scary when there is 110 one to trust, like a suicide note written in snow hey graveyards are coming to life - who has passed that you would have killed to have met?' Hanford Nuclear Daycare & Giftshop are failing the By R013ERT fv1cGILLlVRA Y safety tests let's just say the Titanic would've passed like a top decision-making body by the age of thirty "Yes, we will do anything for the poor man, anything we will all die the end at last let the young live on a but get offhis back." -Lco Tolstoy proper sighting of mistakes is free for all, like Vatican PD officials fired for 110tpraying on time god will have your soul life swings from docile to extreme 2018 Neighbourhood Small Grants one's escutcheon is just another's violently swinging extreme the horoscope people say 'more than a good The online applications are OPEN!! Please remember sign' you could hide worse no one but no one could to read the instructions as they change year 10 year. try to tale control but hang on there could be a fall. You can apply for the 2018 Neighbourhood Small Like the people who till up the Jerry Springer Show Grants and the 2018 Greenest City Grants here: the seats could be warm from reruns sickness never 11ttl)s loses its appeal like rocketships giving up their lives _-·.I/(•• _rnlll ts: \':1n cOllvrrfnlJ 11d a lion.ca for us to view and fantasize we could know what is Hard copies of the applications will be available at • what & what is real Strathcona Community Centre, Carnegie Community People walk thru crime scenes that used to draw huge Centre and RayCam! For those of you who have put crowds even thinkin about it is just too loud everyone vour name 1'o~ard to sit on the Advisory Committee, is a socioparh we are all capable of eating this planet's stay tune for an email ham me regarding training. last meal, like the extreme case of stroller rage we can I..;;';';;;';:";;';;;';';;';~;';"';;';;";;';';;';""''''''---------••••--. not let vehicles have a'Mthe fun like a suicide note in a ...---'-__ • shaken bottle of snow floating in your goldfish bowl "Grammar with Hum" thank god fish do not use guns I will never&have had When: Wednesdays 2:30-3:30 PM, the misfortune to own, Memories of good honest peoWhere: The Carncgie Centre. Learning centre, ple die & for what? The holocaust of living goes up I s= floor, 40 I Main St. often find myself at the lost&profound like a new TV Facilitator: Gilles Cyrenne series The Real Housewives of the Philippines watch In this introduction to grammar mini-series, Hum as drug users are thrown from helicopters to th mounalumnus Gilles Cvrenne will teach the nuts and bolts tainous ground so far yet so good (if your version of of English grammar. Whether you are learning Engjustice is that insane) common sense will be next now lish as a second language, or want a refresher, this there is no such thing bur hey 'good luck' structured course will work through the fundamentals Now abandoned houses no longer seem to exist as a of Engl ish grammar. doorway is a home poverty like any other disease When
"10th Annual Homeqround Festival" Carnegie Theatre Workshop
... Spring classes
Add the dates to your, calendar!
~;f~~r;~,o;:, r~k
April 21, 28 1 evening ..voice ..April 6 in the Carnegie Theatre . More details to come No experience necessary Free, everyone welcome! For mare injo: 604-255-940f
AN EXCERPT
FROJ\t
THE INAllClJR\L SPEECH OF NELSON MANDELA Our deepest fear is not Iha! we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is tha e aIV powerful beyond measure. It is our light. 110t our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am ! to be brilliant, gorgeous. talented. fabulous?" Actually. who arc you not to be? You arc a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. "There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us. It's in everyonc, and. as we let our light shine. we unconsciously give other people permission 10 do the same, A, we are liberated from nul' own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Lights. Tents and Action: Ah yet again this year Oppenheimer Park had iIS Homeground Festival, which was hosted by Carnegie & Gallery Gachet. As usual the Homeless Connect had taken place Tuesday Feb-
ruary 6'h, Wednesday kicked off with our Elder in Residence Les Nelson opening the event with the Harmony of Nations drummers, The festivity began, with Vancouver Community College serving fantastic food as all enjoyed Vancouver Opera. Ladies Tea Parry. Gallery Gachet, and other entertainment, In honouring and celebrating Black History month, local performers such as Michelle Rich ard rocked. It was cool to see our guc;;ts dancing and grooving Irorn their seals. And our last performers on Friday February 9th in the evening were Khari Wendell Mckelland and Desiree Onwson who also had our guests off their seats and moving io the music. It was soo nice 10 see our guests dancing & being nurtured with awesome food. , Thank you 10 our volunteers who helped run the Festival and our Camegie staff who helped organized the festivities. We will see you same time, same place next year! Stay Beautiful. Priscillia Mays
driven by circumstance to live in the downtown eastside a friend spoke passionately about:
the pain just look out my window first thing in the morning all the pain and screaming all night long
c,
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in slow motion and even the action of lifting one foot quaked with suffering she winced her entire body reacted with hurt and then she placed her foot on the filthy cobblestones of the alley and she shuddered and tottered staggered by pain
and this is the real crime the outstanding offense against society committed by so many human beings in the downtown eastside
and this woman is the real enemy of society what this culture endeavours to conceal
pain
pain
and this is the real object of all the intentions to 'clean up the area'
the pain this society produces like it produces automobiles or television shows the pain our pain so vast so huge so immense it is as though this society was constructed to produce suffering
pain "visible pain-bearers must be denied legitimacy as well as visibility because they assert that the legitimated structures are not properly functioning" waiter Brueggemann yesterday [ watched a woman on the 100 block of east hustings stand in the alley between the Roosevelt hotel and the Carnegie community centre her thick black tnlir was wild her clothes were dirty and dishevelled her feet and legs were bare and covered with bruises and scabs and sores and running wounds her feet were swollen she could hardly move and I could feel the pain vibrating the air from each step she took she moved like a jungle sloth almost imperceptibly
lonely suffering depressed suftering soul suffering traumatic suffering mental suffering grief-stricken suffering seduced suffering buried suffering addicted suffering heart suffering expendable suffering insomniac suffering angry manic fearful anxious suffering and there is a veritable megaindustry employed to deal with just one day's pain in vancouver to conceal the pain to confine it to hide it to tranquilize it to privatize it in psychologists' and psychiatrists' offices
in counselling centres and group therapies on the crisis phone lines in the 12-stcp groups in the bars and taverns and pubs in the pharmacies and drug stores where entire shelves and aisles are devoted to pain relief and pain killers pain screams that this is not a culture oflife but of death not a culture of heal rh but of misery and pain exposed and expressed subverts the lies of the media that say: 'look at us we're happy and comfortable and pain-free what's wrong with you? you better do something about it' pain cuts through the divisions pain cuts across class race age
Cricket
gender
pain is where we can identify with each other a woman 1 know who lives in point grey said she has never lived in the downtown eastside or any place like it but when she hears people from there speak about the pain they feel she knows those same feelings in herself but this wretched woman in the alley of the 100 block of east hastings explodes the lies her pain is naked her pain is exposed her pain is dangerous her pain reveals the cover-up her pain her pain is our pain Bud Osborn
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•
Both "Cricket" and "Cold" by Diane Wood arc in the book just released by the Carnegie Firewriters. Both are reprinted with the permission of the authors.
The cricket chirped In a corner A 11through my stay In the state psych ward In Cantonsville, Maryland.
Homeless
Hidden from the nurses Hidden from orderlies, janitors That bold little cricket Sang With us and alone Company on those long, cold Summer nights Newport cigarettes Dropped down drainpipes.
I go to the Friendship Centre on Wednesday. V·ie play bingo and they give us a meal and a bag offood to bri ng home. I was talking to this lady. She said she uor evicted. She said there was three houses and she _. by some lived in one of them. Thev were all bought Asian people. She cooks for the Community Kitchen and makes bannock in her house.So I told her 10 put her name down for Native Housing Society. When I left I wished her luck.
We never released the cricket Outside Never thought of it An unknown inmate One of us. Phoenix Winter
.
Marleen Wuuunee P.S. The lady resided in that house for 18 years. PSS. The lady was evicted with only a one-month notice and she told me she has listed with Nl·JS and is currently wailing for their phonecall. She is hoping for a one-bedroom
Cold I'm cold, I'm so cold My body is clenched around the pilot lite of my body heat like an angry fist I try 2 pull my head inside my shoulders, like a turtle A scarf and a toque make it a little less painful I'm COld,I'm so COld, Somebody open the door and let me in, Where did they go? Why didn't they give me a key? I want to cry "It's unfair" I DON'T want to sing Oh Canada I snarl at snowboarders at the bus stops 2 th North Shore Everything is beautiful the sky the mountains the water But I'm cold, I'm so cold, Why did they bring me here? Can I keep pretending this is OK and everything is beautiful? I know there's a lite at the end of today's tunnel. .. But there will B 1-2-3-4 maybe more months Of being so bone-aching cold that I will cancel plans and turn down invitations, and nap with my cat, who also cries at being left out in the cold Who invented this shit? This misery? A God who likes hockey and ski-ing? A Jock God? My Creator likes flowers & bees & ripe fruit The only cold in the world She created is ice cream and an ocean 2 swim in Maybe it's the Persephone story, She rules 6 months of the year, She's only alive 46 months of the year, and then She has 2 go back and live underground with Hades the date from Hell (literally!) and the Jock God climbs on his diamond-glittery ice throne, like something from the Carnival in Quebec City, 2 rule the winter world and we skid & slip & shiver & shudder as his subjects And some ruthless biker gang of American crooks Have dressed him up as Santa Claus, And ripped off a continent of people for their fur to trim his red suit, and their ski jackets And there is so little, next 2 nothing, in this promise of a mid-winter party, that speaks to me, Xcept 2 remind me of every broken promise ever made to me as a child Cold, so cold, without a key, waiting 4 a door 2 open, Waiting 4 a bus till'm frozen, Pins and needles in my fingers and toes, Like I'm being electrocuted Dragging my sorry ass over a calendar of cold blue shadows, Waiting 4 spring Diane Wood
Remembering
our DTES Women
Please explore·the.display presented by the women's Memorial March Committee 011 the historv or the March and the media's response to the rVlurdered & Missing. Women. inside the Carneuie l.ibrarv. Be warned: some image" and contel;1 are disn;rbinl! and trauic. The Women's Mel11~)ri:ll QuTIt can be seen in our print binder or htlp:fltinyuri.com/our-dtes.women Copies of the quilt panels are available for colour photocopying from the Curnegie Library - free
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Vancouver Immigration, (··it!7",~<hir.
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2512 E Hastings
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Vancouver, BC V5K lZ3 T: GC4-775-S800
F: 604-775-5811 Jenny.Kv,;an@parl.
c.ca
WHAT
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MISS'?
You are invited to a final public consultation about the new opera MISSING, by Marie Clements & Brian Current. It was work-shopped at Carnegie in 2016 and 2017 and received twelve performances in November 20 J 7. MlSSING was a eo-production of City Opera Vancouver. Pacific Opera Victoria, aad-Vancouver Moving Theatre and The Heart ofthe City Festival. Its original planning began in 2013. Opening Night was free, for the families only, and took place at the Russian Hall. It included ceremony and prayers, drumming and brushing and smudging, and a discussion after. Opening Night planning and protocol was led by a committee of elders and presented by Vancouver Moving Theatre and The Heart of the City Festival. A Her the private event, M ISSING ran Jive public nights at the York Theatre, then another six at Paci ne Opera in Victoria. We thank all who attended and supported this extraordinary project. As we plan to take the opera on the road, we come back (0 the DTES community to ask your critical appraisal. What worked? What didn't? \Iv'h::ucould be changed, and how might we better tell this story in music! A 11opinions are welcome, and all views arc important. Please join us. A final review is on Saturday 10 March. 2 - -tpm, Carncgie Refreshments will he served A message from:,Vorking Space onJ]omclessness came to this Newsletter, It gave a link to their websitc &ncw publication: the Landlord Engagement Toolkit. I( contains basic information about rights. procedures & limits to what each party - you & a landlord -- can ask fix when entering into a rental agreement. There are different organisations in cities & towns &, online to help people get & keep decent places to live. Get one!
Theatre
International Women's Day Tea at Carne9l!! Thursday, March 8th, 2:30 - 4:00 PM, on the second floor The second floor will be hosting a women only afternoon tea to celebrate the amazing women of Carnegie. \Vornen come unite!
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We acknowledge that Carnegie Community Centre, and this Newsletter, are occurring on Coast Sal ish Territory. 40"1Main Street vercocver ca-eca V6A 2T7 (6{}4) 665·2289
THIS NEWSLETTER IS A PUBLICATION OF THE CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE ASSOCIATION Articles represent the views of individual contributors and not of the Association. WANTED Artwork for the Carnegie Newsletter -Small illustrations to accompany articles and poetry, -Cover art - Max size: 17cm(6 %")wide x 15cm(6")high, -Subject matter pertaining to issues relevant to the Downtown Eastside, but all work considered, -Black & White printing only, -Size restrictions apply (i .B. if your piece is too large, it will be reduced and/or cropped to fit), -All artists will receive credit for their work, -Originals will be returned to the artist after being copied for publication, -Remuneration: Carnegie Volunteer Tickets Please make submissions to Paul Taylor, Editor. The editor can edit for clarity, format & brevity, but not at the expense of the writer's message,
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MONDAY, MARCH 12 WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
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AIDS
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POVERTY
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HOMELESSNESS
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VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
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ABORIGINA~ GENOCIDE
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TOTALITARIAN CAPITALISM IGNORANCE and SUSTAINED FEAR
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