June 15, 2019 Carnegie Newsletter

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NEWSLETTER 401 Main Street Vancouver Canada V6A 2T7 Email: carnnews@shaw.ca

Website/Catalogue:

(604) 665-2289 carnegienewsletter.org

JUNE IS INDIGENOUS HISTORY MONTH

6

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Pr1o~ givenJo DTES artists and makers. SortY1 QO food vending.

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NATIVE

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES ON

Join us to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day at Oppenheimer Park on Sunday, June 16 This community-led celebration is a highlight of . the year, featuring a lunch service, performances and entertainment, vendor's village, community connections, crafts and children's activities.

Everything is free and everyone is welcome! Please feel free to bring your drum and wear your regalia. *Please note this is a drug and alcohol-free event.

Indigenous History Events at Carnegie Community Centre Monday June 17- Theatre 6:00 pm Vancouver Public Library presents "Let's Talk About Reconciliation" - Film & Discussion with Crystal Sparrow

Thursday June 2a-Theatre Film screening-"Edge

6:00 pm

ofthe Knife"

FridaY June 21-Theatre

11:00 am

Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration! Join us for Crafts, stories, Elder chat and Indian ice-cream

FridaY June 21- Theatre 7:00 pm Dance the night away to "Baby Phats"

Monday June 2lf- Theatre 5:30 pm

JUNE 3 -JUNE 27TH 2019

Cultural Sharing Program "We Press" craft night

PUBLIC OPENING JUNE 5TH 4:00PM

WednesdaYJune 26-3rd floor 1:00 pm

RD

1

- 6:00PM

THE CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE 3rd Floor GoUery 401 Moin Vancouver, RC.

V6A2l7

CURATE!) BY JAMES G1BSON jim.gibson@moil.tttnoontn.ca

Indigenous Crafts with Elders

From the Library I hope everyone will be able to take part in National Indigenous People's Day somehow. If you're not able to make it to some of the events planned in the community (see the poster in the library and throughout the centre), why not pick something up from our Indigenous Collection? Here's a few suggestions: Just before he passed away, Richard Wagamese published a book of meditations called Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations. They were, as he explains in the introduction, the thoughts that came to him during his morning spiritual practice. It's an easygoing book, in that you can spend an hour with it, or just read a single page, and still get something out of it.

CBQM looks like a fun DVD. An NFB documentary about "the best damn country music [station] in the Mackenzie Delta," it paints a picture of life in the north (the Mackenzie Delta drains into the Beaufort Sea) for the people of the Teetl'it Gwich'in nation.

There's been a lot of focus lately on preserving Indigenous languages, and the Squamish nation has made great efforts in this area, bringing their language from being 'critically endangered' to having • 449 active learners. The Squamish - English Dictionary, published in 2011, is one part of this. Not just a dictionary, it also contains a lot of interesting information about the history of this local language.

I always love to highlight music in this column, so I had a look through our CD collection, and came across Listen, by Asani, a group of 3 Indigenous women from Edmonton. I saw them play once (maybe at Salmon Arms Roots and Blues Festival. .. ) and really enjoyed it.

Please come and visit us at the National Indigenous Peoples Day celebratio at Oppenheimer Park on June 16. We will have a library table there. We'll also be at the Carnegie Centre celebration on June 21. As well, we'll be hosting a film screening and discussion as part of Cultural Sharing on June 17 at 6PM. It is part of a series of screenings with the theme "Let's Talk About Reconciliation", and is hosted by Chrystal Sparrow.

Happy Reading!

Randy

J?1~

•.:.•.:.•'W'0'•.:.•.:.• Carnegie Theatre Workshop

..•Special Guest Teacher ...

Scenes from a Hat Naoml Vogt 'BturRs for two sBssloRs IR JURB

Wed June 19 6:30pm-9pm

Sat June 22 2pm-4:30pm' In the Carnegle Theatre Naomi will take participants through the basics o/theatre improvisation, including short/orm improv games. Build skills and apply to short scripted scenes.

"Come ready to play and have fun!"

Naomi Vogt is a professional actor based in Vancouver, with years of experience as a teacher and improviser.

Free, everyone welcome! No experience needed.

Forinfo: Teresa 604-155-9401 thirteenojhearts@hotmail.com

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

On May 10, 1939, a bewildered 18-year-old Velma Demerson stood before a Toronto judge and heard the words: "You are charged with being 'incorrigible.' " Ms. Demerson was living with her fiance, a Chinese man she had met in Toronto, and was newly pregnant with his child. For this transgression she was incarcerated for 10 months, first at the Belmont Home and then at Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Women.

After her release, she married Harry Yip and lost her citizenship, following the rules of the 1946 Canadian Citizenship Act, which said women had to take on their husband's citizenship. (As China never accepted her, she remained stateless until 2004.)

Ms. Demerson, whose full name was Athena Mary ~e~erson Lakes, spent her retirement years seeking Justice for these wrongs. "She was on a mission, always on a mission," her daughter, Sylvia Lakes, says.

"She was just a humble person. It wasn't the notoriety, it was getting the word out, it was explaining what had happened to her and holding the government accountable."

In 2002, 62 years after being released from prison, Ms. Demerson received an apology and financial compensation from the Ontario government for her unjust incarceration. In 2017, federal MPs apologized for the loss of her citizenship.

But until her death on May 13 at the age of 98, Ms. Demerson continued to battle for proper redress for wrongs committed against thousands of women charged under Ontario's Female Refuges Act of 1897, many of whom lacked the resources to hire a lawyer.

"She never got a blanket apology for the women who suf~ered as she did. That's what really upset her," says Kann Lee, a filmmaker who is making a documentary about Ms. Demerson's life.

[The fact of Velma Demerson's death came to the Newsletter after publishing some more of her poetry in the last issue. It was important to her that people know how racist and bigoted the laws & attitudes of 'authority' were and, for many, remain. Ed.]

The annual General meeting happened on Thursday, June 6. Thanks to all who attended and special thanks to King-Mong Chan, who arranged for Mandarin translation for the first time. The elected members held their first meeting after the general meeting adjourned and this is the result: Executive President - Gilles Cyrenne Vice-president - Jack Lazariuk Treasurer - Lisa David Secretary - Paul Taylor Member-at-Large - Thelma Jack Directors: James Pau, Emma Price, Priscillia Tait, Mo Volaric, Phoenix Winter.

Committees of the Board, which meet monthly, are: Community Relations, Education/Library, Finance, Oppenheimer Park, Program, Seniors, Volunteers.

Each director is on 3 separate committees and a minimum of 3 directors must be present to have "quorum" and make recommendations to the Board. It can be a real challenge to get it all working well.

I ACCEPT I have accepted the responsibility of becoming the president, of the Carnegie Community Centre Association. After twenty years of living in this neighbourhood, five years of volunteering at Carnegie, three years of serving on the board, one as Vicepresident, and after a lot of thought when I learned that Phoenix wanted to resign, I decided that this was something I wanted to do. I feel somewhat humbled by the fact that most people on the board have been serving longer than I have and that they know more about what's going on than I do, but I am confident that I have their support, that I can count on them for any help I need, and that they will continue the good work they have all been doing to enhance this community.

I also know that I have the support of Vancouver city staff, with whom the board and I have an excellent working relationship, and I know that I will continue to enjoy contact with our many patrons, many of whom I count as friends. I am here to listen to the community.

More and more I am hearing these days that connection is the opposite of addiction. This is what

we at Carnegie Community Centre do as Downtown Eastside's living room with our hospitality, our food, and our many programs. We create connections. I have heard many stories of lives transformed because we are here; we are an alternative to the street; we are a better place to hang out than the pubs; we are often the first place where people experience a sense of community; we connect people - we save lives.

I am profoundly grateful that I have found the best community that I have ever lived in in my entire life. There is more love and compassion per cubic millimetre of space in Vancouver's DTES than anywhere else in the world. Of that I am convinced. As president of the association, I will do the best I can to honour the trust this community has given me.

Gilles Cyrenne

THANK YOU CARNEGIE, MERCI Here I am home Community is home Ici, c' est chez nous Those of us who have scraped bottom n that dark night of mind heart soul who have grovelled in that muck offered up in life's not so great moments depression addiction brain gone wonky mind askew mental health issues with heart off kelter We need one another as we recover hopefully some semblance of sanity In supporting one another we become community creators We build life that's healthier Ici, c' est chez nous Here I am home

Thank God for Mother Nature When feeling pain - I've read: • "don't go to bed" go outside and breathe fresh air . instead.

Start singing in the rain the recipe for pain and help others who cannot do the same if they are immobilized. and cannot go outside- on their own.

Then the pains of anger, rejection and disillusionment will have to step aside; for today you're given a 'present' yet to unwrap! inga g.

Gilles Cyrenne

Mad pride

I Mad

Honey

Exhibition: June 14th-July 27th, 2019 Opening Reception: Friday, June 14, 6.00-9.00pm As part of the international Mad Pride movement, Gallery Gachet celebrates mental diversity and confronts stigma with our annual Mad Pride exhibition. Mad Pride rejects the inference of illness and disorder, reclaiming the term mad. We recognize our "dangerous gifts" by opening creative critical conversations about diagnosis, medication, and psychiatry. We believe there should be "nothing about us without us" and we are here to offer an artistic radical challenge to confining social norms.

2019's Mad Pride theme is Mad Honey. From our collective hive we puzzle over poison, medicine, madness, sweetness and intoxication. Mad honey is a form of psychoactive wild honey transformed from the pollen of just a few rare rhododendron species from the Caucasus and Himalayan mountain ranges. It can be a natural remedy or a paralyzing toxin, cause euphoria or confusing hallucinations depending on the dose. We reflect on the meaning of adverse reactions through venom, sweetness and the dangerous gifts of nature.

The exhibition will feature four artists: Jackie Dives, Edzy Edzed, Janice "Jujube" Jacinto and Andrew Scott.

Mad Honey will also include a community component , collectively produced through a block printing workshop facilitated by Haisla Collins.

7

gallery gachet 9 West Hastings, tue - sat 12.00 - 6.00 "Art is a means for survival" ______

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Crab Park Motion Passes at Parks Board It is with excitement that we announce that through everyone's hard work, the Crab Park motion passed to create a healing lodge when they expand the port. It is now set to go through the City Council, at which we hope it is again supported and passed.

It has been thirty long years that the DTES has been asking for a healing centre at Crab Park or elsewhere to make sure that the effects of ongoing colonization, the reservation system, as well as the effects of intergeneration trauma are treated and recognized.

This goes hand-in-hand with the MMlW report which

just released its fmdings and defmed what is hap7 pening to the Indigenous women of the DTES, and elsewhere. We need to start to make changes now.

Lip-service as to inclusivity and equity is something we have been giving for a long time. Let's make sure our actions as well as our work embrace these terms as functions, rather than as descriptives. That is why we attend events such as the Aboriginal Social Justice Conference.

There still is organizing going on and we are trying to make sure that voices are heard that otherwise are sometimes missed.

Safety is a paramount concern, especially for those exposed to the elements each day.

The City stated CCAP must not like festivals since we organized with others to have the fence taken down. However, they were not correct.

CCAP recently met with the Powell Street Festival and they were able to make some changes for their festival this year to be more respectful of the campers and to highlight the housing crisis in the DTES as well as to make sure the festival isn't displacing the people sleeping there. This is an awesome outcome, as we hope it will also educate and influence the public on these important issues.

People are people and deserve respect whether they have "houses" or not, they have homes.

We are happy that festivals and others are recognizing the rights that people have as Oppenheimer is a protected park. In the City of Vancouver Downtown Eastside Plan, the percentage of shelter rate housing/market housing in new developments is supposed to be 60/40. And yet, the condos keep being built and the people continue to be displaced.

CCAP continues to work with the people sleeping in the park, and others, to help organize for possible housing. We won't give up the housing battle and we are not finished yet! Housing is a right! Not a privilege.

By ELL! TA YLOR

The Fight for InSite It is apparent that we need safe supply and access but at the least, we have safe usage sites which saves many lives every day. People fought hard for the first North American safe injection site and it became a reality in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver first.

VANDU sprung up in 1997 in Oppenheimer Park and they were a eo-plaintiff in the legal battle for InSite. " In the first few months, VANDU's membership grew from 20 to 100 and eventually reached more than 2,000. Although anyone can join VANDU, only addicts or former addicts have a vote at meetings or can be elected to the board. Further, the membership is composed of 113women and 113indigenous persons, roughly paralleling the make-up of the DTES itself." (taken from the paper Inside Insite: How a Localized Social Movement Led the Way for North America's First Legal Supervised Injection Site, pg. 10). In this paper, the history of InSite was documented as it was a battle which took legal action as well as the loss of a lot of lives.

VANDU has been an instrumental part of this fight.

The paper highlights another moment when VANDU's action was effective, as usual: "Another example ofVANDU's impact on [Mayor Philip] Owen occurred in 2001 when Owen decided to institute a 90-day moratorium on new services for drug users while government debate on the issue continued. At that time, approximately one person a day was dying in the DTES, so VANDU presented Owen with a coffin at his office with a check payable to the City of Vancouver for 90 human beings. Owen lifted the moratorium within three weeks" (p.l3). InSite formally opened as a three-year pilot project which was endorse by the CSDA. Insite serves over 700 people a day. One can only imagine the lives that have been saved by advocating for safe injection and usage spaces.

We still have far to go as we need safe supply as well as safe usage sites because of the new barbiturate being added to heroin as well as the fentanyl itself.

We must lift the stigma of drug usage as we are all drug or substance users in some way, whether we want to face it or not.

For instance, alcohol has many horrid effects on our society and is the cause for many violent incidents, whereas the rate of violence is way less for other substances. Just because alcohol is condoned by society, we offer treatment and we offer programs. Whereas a

homeless person in the downtown Eastside is just spit back into the streets with no regard for their life.

We at CCAP respect this struggle and to have the background is a great honour. We can only hope to help those suffering from addiction, those in the throws of disease, a disease judged by many but survived by few.

Please join the fight for a safe supply and for more safe usage sites. Let's keep in mind that people are trying to survive the deplorable SROs, the lack of housing, the lack of rights, and the lack of an acknowledged and recognized voice. We are here and we are going nowhere!

By ELL! TAYLOR April went to the airport in August. But because of the beating sun airplanes were late taking off. Careless of sunburn, April toted her carry-ons across the hot tarmac. Decades of use had splintered the deadly asphalt, leaving the door open for disaster. Eagerly, in a ghoulish way, April shuddered, enlivened by the potential horror. Free to indulge in horrific thoughts she was grateful she was on the ground, gathering her courage. Going to the steps of the little puddlejumper she went into the stifling plane. High above was the sweltering sun. In she ducked, hoping for airconditioning and getting a free sauna. June would have been 1! better month for travel, she thought, shuddering at the next six hours in the plane.

Khaki was probably not the best choice given the heat, but it was practical. Leaving the familiar landscape of Langley, it would keep out bugs and other pests where she was going. My oh my, her patience and nettle would be tested. No place for the weary or faint of heart. On top of that she had just broken up with her boyfriend and was bummed out. Packing up and becoming a summer firefighter was her revenge: putting her life in danger, questing for obliteration, a complete focus on the immediate. Respite at the end perhaps, with new buddies & a sense of camaraderie - small things but a spectacular escape to her mind.

August was an odd time, but the fires were bad this year. And torrential rains come down in the fall, hopefully. Violent weather for violent emotionsweather as mixed up as her heart. Xylophone sounds as she breathed in, imagining the sound of water droplets banging on a hot tin roof. Yellow sun keeps beating down, departure imminent. Zero time left before takeoff into a new life.

By PHOENIX WINTER

MINI SRO HOTEL REPORT CCAP's annual Hotel Survey and Housing report measures whether low income people can afford to remain living in their neighbourhood. With about 9,000 low income people in the community surviving on welfare and disability and about 4,000 on seniors' pensions, most folks have only $375 to $480 a month for rent.

This year CCAP found: Average rents in privately owned and run hotels were $663 per month -- $24 less than last year, and $115more than 2016.While it is a welcome respite from the brutally high $687 last year, it is still well above what someone on social assistance can afford, and the second highest average since CCAP began doing these reports 11years ago.

Residents surviving on social assistance of $760 per month (increased from $710 per month in 2018)-.andpaying the average SRO rent of $663 have $97 left for food and everything else for a month.

The top ten hotels with the fastestincreasing rents had an average rent increase of $160 per unit over last year - a 28% hike in rent, while shelter rate amounts increased by 0%. Hotels with an average rent of $600-$799 increased from 12to 01

21this year - almost double the number from last year 119units of permanent welfare rate housing were built in the DTES in 2018,compared to 21in 2017.

Although it's an increase from last year, at this rate, it would take over 10 years to house those currently homeless in the Downtown Eastside - not accounting for any increase in homelessness each year.

Downtown Eastside residents lost 191affordable units in 2018 and gained 78 temporary modular units and 190 permanent units.

The rate of change of new unaffordable housing (condos, market housing and social housing with rents above welfare shelter and pension rates) in the DTES in 2018 was 721:119 or about 6 unaffordable units to 1affordable, permanent unit.

The rate of change going forward into the foreseeable future with proposed and approved new DTES developments is 1,972:640 new unaffordable housing (condos, market housing and social housing with rents above welfare shelter and pension rates) to social housing or about 3 to 1.The new units could take up to 7 years to build.

Chinatown: this year, no new social housing units at welfare/pension rate opened in Chinatown. No new market-rate housing (condo or rental) opened this year so the rate Hotels where

the Average

of change for 2018 was 0:0. Looking into the future, the rate of change in Chinatown is 170 condos units to minus 3 affordable units.

Rent is 1,000$

or More:

Georgia Manor

Argyle

Metropole

Golden Crown

Burns Block

71-77 East Hastings

Hotels Where Thornton

Park

Hotels Where

the Average Pender Place

the Average

Lotus

Rent is 800$ - 999$: American

Rent is 600$ - 799$:

Brandiz

Lucky Lodge

Alexander Court

Palace

Chelsea

Grand Trunk

Lion Hotel

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The West

Woodbine

Laurel Apartments

New Columbia

Oanny's Inn

Hotel

Shamrock i

Station

Heatley Apartments

Grand Union

Ross House

Empress

York Rooms

•

Wonder Rooms

Cobalt

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the Average

Rent is 400$

- 599$:

Holborne

Oecker

Persepolis

Lew Mao Tong

.

PenderLodge

Belmont

St. Clair #2

Melville Rooms

Glory Rooms

St. Elmo

Harbour Rooms

Hi Idon/Bou rbon

Traveller's

United Rooms

Main Rooms

Afton

Arlington

r-,

Low Young CT

Astoria

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Creekside

Pacific Rooms

Arno

King's Rooms

Ivanhoe

Hotels Where Mt. Everest Rooms

est

I Keefer Rooms Vernon Apartments

the Lowest Rent is under 400$: BC Rooms

Keefer Cabins

Keefer Lodge 02

325 CARRAll

ST 560 RAYMUR

95 W HASTINGS

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137 KEEFER ST

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239 K.EEFERST

227 MAIN ST

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215 MAIN ST 424 W PENDER

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100 BLOCK VISIONING

On May 24, staff and volunteers of Carnegie Community Action Project and SRO Collaborative took to the streets oflOO block Hastings to gather community members' ideas about what they would like to see on the . block. CCAP members prepared and gave out a survey about Indigenous spacesshousing, community amenities, Insite, and the recently condemned Regent and Balmoral buildings. A big tent was set up in the middle of the sidewalk where hot dogs, cookies, pound cakes, fruit, and coffee were served. Although the morning started out grey, the sun slowly came out as conversation and food flowed from and around the tent.

05

Most strikin~ly, the run-down walls of the Balmoral were covered by big sheets of paper with the optimistic words of the Downtown Eastside community members scrawled in colourful pen. The papering over of the Balmoral walls served as a powerful visualization for the first step this event was taking: creating a truly grassroots and collective community vision out of the (oftentimes) traumatic experiences of neglect that places like the Balmoral represented for many of its residents.

Far from merely covering up the issues, many community members acknowledged the need for sensitivity regarding the building considering its possible connections to missing and murdered Indigenous women

with the input and direct control from the community members who would be affected by these changes.

in the DTES.However, the Balmoral (and the Regent across the street) were also potential sites of healing and reclamation for community members, with many envisioning the buildings torn down and replaced by truly affordable social housing at welfare and pension rates.

For too long, changes have been happening in our community without our community's approval and input.

The 100 block Hastings community vision is not only an opportunity for local residents to have a voice in what happens in their community, but also an opportunity for the City to finally listen to local residents and implement their ideas. There should be nothing about us without us!

Much of the feedback that CCAP volunteers gathered reflected the creative solutions and desires for change that residents of and around the 100 block Hastings envisioned for their community. The Downtown Eastside wants housing that is affordable and beautiful, alleyways with cozier alcoves and naloxone kits, overdose prevention sites and gardens, bread and roses.At the same time, the Downtown Eastside wants housing but not surveillance, more supervised overdose prevention sites but not more medicalization, more advocacy but not more control. These qualifications can only be respected if changes are made

06

CARNEGIE

COMMUNITY

ACTION

PROJECT

111:15 AM EVERY FRIDAY

The Carnegie Community Action Project is a project ofthe board ofthe Carnegie Community Centre Association. CCAP works mostly on housing, income, and land use issues in the Downtown Eastside (DTES),so that the area can remain a low income friendly community.

CCAP works with English-speaking and Chinese-speaking DTES residents in speaking out on their own behalf for the changes they would like to see in their neighbourhood. Join us on Fridays 11:15am in classroom 2 on the third floor ofthe Carnegie Centre for our weekly volunteer rneetinqsl Downtown Eastside residents who want to work on getting better housing and incomes and stop gentrification are welcome to attend.

Lunch is provided.

~Aillff,l;J53:M'l 1 CHINATOWN

CONCERN

GROUP

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CONTACT

US:

Office: 2nd floor of the Carnegie, 401 Main Street, Vancouver Phone: 604-665-2105 Email: info@carnegieaction.org Website: www.carnegieaction.org

Vancity

"Thankyou to Vancity for supporting CCAP'swork. Support for this project does not necessarilyimply that funders endorse the findings or contents ofthis report.

June Oppenheimer Park Update With the warm weather returning, we are still seeing record numbers of people sleeping in Oppenheimer Park, and the tension is growing. "Get out of our park!" was one comment a person driving by Oppenheimer shouted while I was witnessing the park raid one Wednesday morning. Not only that, but there was a dependable source that told me that people came in a car one night with baseball bats and screaming: "kill us some homeless people tonight!". It is clear that there is much anger about the issue.

What isn't clear is the housing that these people could go into it if only it existed! The fact is that people have no other options (some do but don't want to choose those options since those options mean deplorable shelters and controlling rules, for example). They are coming to the park because there is not enough housing and the DTES is the heart of this crisis. The DTES is where all these oppressions trickle down to effect people here three-fold.

We want to encourage people to talk about this housing crisis and work, in whatever way they can, to improve this situation. Yes, we need more housing (temporary and otherwise), but we also need compassion as the people are at risk. Not the people in the neighborhood, the people having to sleep outside without protections.

The City passed a motion months ago in which they stated they would work on putting in 24 staff monitoring (peer-based program like VANDU used to have) as well as having harm reduction supplies and overdose response people.

Our Connections Cambium Arts Collective at Carnegie In January 2019, Camegie entered into a new and exciting partnership with the Vancouver Park Board and Cambium Arts Collective to host the Artists in Communities program. The program places community engaged artists in a one year arts residency with a community centre. It builds community by encouraging a wide variety of interactions between artists and residents and by collaborating with community members who may not see themselves as artists. Carnegie Board members, Phoenix and Priscillia, participated in the artist selection process and it was clear that Cambium Arts Collective was the right fit.

The residency is called Our Connections and is comprised of poet/arts educator Amal Rana and visual artist/ sculptor Erv Newcombe. With many years of experience as community centered artists, Amal and Erv spent January conducting in depth consultations and needs assessments with staff, board and others in the DTES. From February to May, Cambium Arts worked with over a hundred community members in a very busy beginning to the residency. Cambium Arts has already facilitated a number of very popular upcycled workshops and art activations at the HomeGround Festival, in the Carnegie Art Room, the 3rd floor gallery and Oppenheimer Park, the DTES Small Arts Grant Fair and the Emerge Arts Festival. In the workshops, community members reused plastic bags to make art and functional items like wallets, eyeglasses cases, collages, walker seat covers, masks, weavings and more. The workshops have been packed and generated a lot of excitement, bringing together people connecting across diverse backgrounds, different parts of the community and multiple languages.

The workshops have drawn Indigenous community members who have adapted the medium of upcycled art to traditional art forms and expressions. Community members from Oppenheimer have sought out sessions at Camegie Centre and the same has happened with community members from Carnegie seeking out session at Oppenheimer and at locations such as the Emerge Festival. Several community members are now regulars at the sessions and continue to request more upcycled art workshops.

In the coming months, you will see more of Cambium Arts Collective exploring new art forms and activities at Camegie and Oppenheimer Park including at the annual National Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration at Oppenheimer Park on Sunday, June 16 and at Camegie Centre on Friday, June 21, the DTES Art Show, the Heart of the City Festival and more. Keep your eye out for posters on upcoming activities and stay up to date on the program through the online blog at www.cambiumarts.wixsite.comlwebsite

Burns is Back!

Carnegie Community Centre has long been home to six stained glass windows. Between the 1st & 2nd floors, as you stand on the winding spiral marble staircase, there are 3 along the lower part with almost life-size renderings of MILTON, SHAKESPEARE & SPENSER; above each of these are 3 more panes showing colour andtFIDES HISTORICA, a depiction of the British Empire, and LITERATURA. I've been here since 1982 & these have always been there. When Diane Mackenzie was director, she got her ex-husband to spring for over a grand to put curved, clear plexiglass over the entire display to protect them from any accidental damage. But wait ...

Carnegie opened as a community centre in January 1980 and under the stairs on the 1st floor there were 3 more 3x3 places with boards n them. Carnegie\s first librarian, Ron Carver, spent 7 years searching for the stained-glass windows that he was sure were supposed to be there. In 1987 he finally located them, in storage in an attic in Surrey. Through whatever grace

there is the 3 windows were returned and installed in the spaces under the stairs. They were a perfect fit!

These 3 were stained glass representations of SCOTT, MOORE & BURNS. Robbie Bums is like a patron saint in Scotland and revered by nuns and drunkards alike. GETting to the point ... About a year ago something happened whereby the Bums window was broken. With renting of clothes and gnashing of teeth - (I wasn't there but I heard) - "what to do?!?" was the loudest cry. Apparently, there is just one person or business in B.C. who could fix and restore the window to be equal to the others and it is done.

Come in and see what painstaking dedication and no small amount of skill & talent have brought back.

Maybe there is another ex-spouse out there who will spring for protecting the 3 smaller windows from any predation or malfeasance. This is worth keeping.

ByPAULR

TAYLOR

The Cycle of Life I saw a child A newborn boy With innocence he smiled Showing his natural joy

Bonnie. You're not going to be a vegetarian anymore ?

Shining unfocused eyes A bright bright blue With total trust he sighs Defenceless without a clue One moment they can focus Love they give so free All the hocus-pocus I realize that he can see!

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The Cycle of Life Continues to flower With joys and strife In eternal power.

Juana Peralta

Art Art is a guy with no arms and no legs He hangs on a wall in a house or gallery.

With a high def plasma convey screen .. with a wireless remote that sync's with your stereo computer and automobile Hymn to her & her to hymn Satellite and Wi-Fi streaming No need for origin or nature It's an exact copy Just google it.

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Before long he is old Sees the newness of life He is not as bold Now a husband with a wife

All I'm going to eat are burgers, fries and drink pop each day!

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No way!!! You're going to give me a heart attack!

BALLOONS IN THE SKY We know you mean well when sending celebrations oflife Balloons Up Into the Sky but they can take a nosedive and hurt the sea life and birds who wish to continue to fly high.

Before the end Allow a beginning Leave space for miracles Let yourself open to opportunity Overcome the obstacles Of yourself, your repressing fears Near to the Divine, rise Phoenix

Jessica's outdoor wisdom

Jenny Kwan MP Vancouver Immigration,

East NDP Refugee

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We acknowledge that Carnegie Community Centre, and this Newsletter, are occurring on Coast Salish Territory.

THIS NEWSLETIER 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.e. 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.

401 Main Street, Vancouver V6A 2T7 604-665-2289 Website carnegienewsletter.org Catalogue carnnews@vcn.bc.ca email

LSLAP (Law Students Legal Advice Program) DROP-IN Call 604-665-2220 for time

Next issue: SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Noon, THURSDAY, JUNE 27 WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION • •

AIDS POVERTY

•

HOMELESSNESS

•

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

•

TOTALITARIAN CAPITALISM

•

IGNORANCE and SUSTAINED FEAR

•

carnnews@shaw.ca

DONATIONS 2019 In memory of Bud Osborn $5 Drew Craig H.-$500 Barry M.-$250 Laurie R.-$100 In memory of those who passed in 2018 -$10 Elaine V.-$100 Glenn B.-$250 Barbara L -$50 Laila B.-$100 Michele C-$100 Michael C-$100.Douglas Z.-$10 Penny G.-$10 Farmer Family Foundation -

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