For over twenty years the Carnegie Centre at the corner of Main and Hastings in Vancouver has served the city?s Downtown Eastside community, providing literacy programs, a library, a weight room, a venue for films, concerts and other events and a place to seek refuge from the streets. The Carnegie Newsletter has been the voice of the Centre?s patrons, staff and volunteers.
Now, for the first time, a selection of prose, poetry, and artwork from the newsletter has been compiled in book form, showcasing the rich variety of views and talents of its contributors. From heartfelt paeans to friends, lovers, parents and children, to heated outbursts against the politics of poverty and ostracism, The Heart of the Community goes beyond stereotypical notions of Downtown Eastside life and those living it.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 810/.8/0971133
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 21
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn-bc
- ISBN
- 9781459312012 0921586949
- LCCN
- PR9092.V3
- LCCN Item number
- H42 2003eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaBVAU
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xvi, 239 p. ill.)
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00603026 (OCoLC)605723632 (CaOOCEL)409285
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaBVAU
Table of Contents
- Contents 8
- Introduction 14
- The Contents of the NEWSLETTER Itself 14
- Acknowledgements 16
- YOUR POLITICS STINK: 1986 18
- Well, It's Not Fancy 20
- The Poet's Task 20
- The Poor Are an Embarrassment 21
- Prison Violence 21
- THE NEWSPAPERS COULDN'T PRINT IT: 1987 22
- Carnegie 24
- Beer Glasses Tinkling, People Cursing 27
- Dear Readers 27
- Ineffable 28
- Ubiquitous Unicorns 28
- Prison Justice Needs More Than a Day 32
- My Favourite Whore 33
- A Place Is a Place Is a Place 34
- JOHN GETTING TRICKED: 1988 36
- The Balmoral's Cockroach 38
- Dad 38
- Big Buck the Porn Pimp Talks to the Fraser Committee 39
- Don't Let Children Play Hooker 39
- Haiku for a Downtown Eastside Friend 40
- Moral Purpose 41
- Parking Lot, First United Church 42
- EYEBALL TO EYEBALL: 1989 44
- The Philosophy of War 46
- Morning Prayer for Today 46
- To My Friend Jim, Who Runs the Bar 47
- Me As a Volunteer 47
- Doing the Door 48
- Song Without Words 50
- If Honour Is Truth 51
- It Was the Poetry What Done Me In 52
- Meditation 52
- WOLF'S AT THE WINDOW: 1990 54
- PROUT 56
- maybe i shoulda took up drinking 56
- Smithers Secondary School 57
- The Downtown Eastside Comes Alive 57
- Condemned 59
- To All the Great Volunteers 59
- Sign in The Window 60
- DOWN HERE: 1991 62
- THE CARNEGIE NEWSLETTER and the Politics of the Heart 64
- There Is a Miracle 66
- Rape Victim 67
- Reader Speaks Out 69
- down here 70
- Silence 74
- 4 DEAR LIFE: 1992 76
- From Where I Sit: A Tribute to Danny 78
- the respect no one will give 80
- There's something 2 b said 80
- A New Season 80
- Hello Paul! 81
- Water on Wood 81
- Family Viewing: Father 82
- I Am Thinking of Victory 83
- The Tires 83
- in the crystallized processes 84
- Volunteer Recognition 84
- Song 4 Lou 85
- Community-supported Farms / Farm-supported Communities 86
- KIDS COME HERE TOO: 1993 88
- To All the People of Carnegie 90
- Private Charity Won't End Hunger 90
- Sadhana 92
- heron's long wings beating away toward nightfall 92
- To Be Politically Correct at Christmas 93
- TAKE DOWN YOUR PANTS: 1994 94
- The Real Robbie 96
- Take Down Your Pants 96
- To Janice 98
- Volunteering 99
- A Woman Like You 99
- Earth 100
- Carnegie Character Portrait: Al Wilson 101
- Block the Bridge! 103
- BEWARE OF GORDON CAMPBELL: 1995 104
- YUP YUP YUP (whine whine whine) 106
- Human Rights Victory 108
- The BIG LIE! 110
- Beware of Gordon Campbell 111
- Info Insight 112
- COMPANY TOWN AND COMPANY PROVINCE: 1996 114
- A Short History of the Carnegie Centre in the Downtown Eastside in One Sentence 116
- Donald Where's Your Troozers 117
- We're Only Homeless 118
- NEW CITY OF FRIENDS: 1997 120
- Celebrating Life and Spirit in the Downtown Eastside 122
- The Power of Grief 122
- This Is a Letter of Asking 125
- Maybe I Won't Come This Way Again 126
- He Will Be Remembered 127
- Lest We Forget 128
- An Addict's Prayer 128
- A Resident's Notes from Mali 129
- Feelings From Behind The Wall 130
- The Hon. Allan Rock, Minister of Health 130
- the nest 132
- Editor, Vancouver Sun 133
- Anita at Night 133
- In the Dumpster 134
- Love Is What I Need 134
- Letter to John Drabble, Editor, Vancouver Sun 135
- A Womb Is a Room Without a View 138
- READING THE STREETS: 1998 140
- At Main & Hastings 142
- Boycott Conrad Blackism 142
- A Prayer for Children 144
- Listen Up People — It's Tourist Season 145
- a binner is a true spiritual guide 147
- A Message from 148
- The Oppenheimer Park Totem Pole 149
- Downtown Eastside Women: Break the Silence Against Violence!! 150
- I Went for a Walk 151
- Tirade 152
- . . . That's What Liquor Stores Are For 153
- Trash 154
- Poverty Pimping in the Downtown Eastside 156
- As a Reminder to All and Sundry 157
- Magnum Opus 158
- ORDINARY EVERYDAY EVENTS: 1999 160
- In Hope of a Better Past 162
- My Life Is Like the Wind 162
- Dear 'Gram' 163
- Memorial Rock at Crab Park 164
- oscar 164
- While Exploring Self-Same 166
- A Time for Mediation or a Time to Take a Stand? A Discussion Paper 167
- Quotes 169
- C.A.T. 170
- Black Slicker in the Rain 170
- ordinary everyday events 171
- Editor 173
- The Corridors of Death 173
- Our Carnegie Library Is the Cat's Pajamas 174
- 'we must suffer with them' 175
- 100-Block 179
- More of the Same 181
- Shit Saves Us 182
- The Song of Joan 184
- Looking or Seeing 185
- The Birthday of an Old Man 185
- Good Things About This Area, This Community 186
- Methadone Madness 188
- Christmas Eve at Muskrat Lake 188
- Finally! 189
- YOUR DRUG PROBLEM: 2000 190
- trouble 192
- Dim gis lukws niiy — To Change Homes 192
- Diamonds 193
- My Life as a Carnegie Volunteer 194
- The Carnegie Street Program in Review 195
- When I Was a Crow 197
- In Memoriam 198
- Sensible Solutions to the Urban Drug Problem 200
- Recovering Our Honour: Why Policing Must Reject the War on Drugs 200
- Way To Go, Andy! 204
- your drug problem 205
- Utopia 205
- The Whole World 206
- I Bought Her Ice Cream 207
- a thousand crosses in oppenheimer park 207
- Killing Fields 210
- CD Project Rocks Vancouver Folk Music Festival 211
- A Pissed Off Poem 212
- Democracy in Action 212
- The Stairs 216
- RAISE SHIT: 2001 218
- These Are the Faces: The Carnegie Centre CD Project 220
- For the Hokey Pokey Princess 221
- Carnegie Mission Statement 2001 221
- Hopes 222
- Jean-Marie parti 222
- Free Jean-Marie! 223
- The Golden Bin 224
- Letters to the Editor 225
- Defending DERA 226
- Paranoia 227
- Gap Between Rich and Poor Expands 228
- Women's Memorial March — Valentine's Day 229
- trust 231
- Bridge Housing Society for Women 231
- The Dugout 232
- Community Directions — Working with the Downtown Eastside 233
- Dan Feeney, Expertise and Political Judgment 234
- Local News 236
- Mosaics of Our History 237
- Who Knew 238
- Vision Quest 2001 239
- A Doorjamb's Edification 242
- Raging Grannie 242
- Affordable Housing Week 243
- Mould and Money 244
- Globalization and Poverty as Violence Against Women 244
- Between the Lines 246
- Poverty in the Promised Land 246
- raise shit — a downtown eastside poem of resistance 247
- Words for the Last Page 255
- Your Page 256
