NEWSLETTER 401 Main Street Vancouver Canada V6A 2T7
(604) 665-2289
There is no February 15, 201 2 edition of the Newsletter. The Carnegie Newsletter has been published twice a month (with rare exceptions), 23 times a year since August 15, 1986. That's 25 12 years. Its little sister publication, Help in the Downtown
Eastside, has come out twice a year since 1991 , with money to pay for printing that raised separately every year for those 21 years. The Carnegie Newsletter started with 12 pages in 60 copies, the first issue being run off on an old photocopier at Carnegie Community Centre in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. It had been typed up and laid out in a basement storage room, converted to an "office." The seed of a kernel of an idea was planted, small yet untested against the storms of the time. The first attempts to stifle, then kill the fledgling paper came from the 1-person majority on the Board of Directors in the community centre. We were fearless, exposing unwelcome manipulations by this group of eight people, yet they were a microcosm of such spiderweb-like disdain and greed found everywhere. The connections a few had to like-minded politicians on City Council were also brought to light and exposure of such "running sores" and their political machinations became the push behind coverage of how such were affecting life among the poor and marginalised people of our area. The years between then and now have seen the Carnegie Newsletter grow to 1200 copies per issue, and into a 16-28 page forum for our voices on matters of poverty, housing & homelessness, violence against women- the murders and still-missing status of over one hundred and twenty women, the drug trade, the sex trade, "free" trade, development & gentrification, the marginali sati on and stifled reactions/responses to the stereotyping of low-income residents, community events, cultural festivals, art, sporis and other aspects of living in and among all thi s stuff. Everything except the actual printing - writing articles, poetry, locally created graphic art, input, editing, layout, collation/stapling/folding and distribution is and has always been done by people volunteering. No one from the editor to someone taking dishes to the kitchen has ever received any money for their work.