May 15, 2022 Carnegie Newsletter

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401 Main Street Vancouver Canada V6A 2T7

(604) 665~2289

WRITERS RESIST

First Annual Downtown Eastside Writers Festival in January or February 2020, there was a meeting. There is always a meeting somewhere about something. At this one an idea came out of the blue: "Let's have a downtown eastside writers festival!" It was tangy and had the unique flavour of 'never-been-done in the 'hood' - Phoenix Winter has been facilitating the Firewriters once a week for several years; Gilles Cyrenne had been involved with the Thursdays Writers as it got to the end of its 8-year existence and kept the energy flowing by helping form the Downtown Eastside Writers Collective; I'd been the editor of the twice-monthly Camegie Newsletter since 1986.

It seemed like a good idea ... then the pandemic hit and the idea became dormant.

This year (2022) with restrictions waning and people learning to be as safe as they could be, it was generally agreed to go for it. With the invaluable administration work ofBeverly Walker, the organising committee began to flesh out possibilities and suggest names of people who could facilitate different workshops and events.

OPENING Firt event was May 5 with meet and greet with short welcomes by organisers and the new Director of Camegie Jaimie MacGregor. Over 25 people listened while Vancouver's poet laureate Fiona Tam spoke of her road and read her work. Fiona was also facilitating Blue Pencil consultations with writers & poets hoping for feedback on their work from a world renowned and published author.

Elee Gardiner then led a Creative Writing workshop for the remainder of.the afternoon. Elee had formed and facilitated the Thursday Writers for over 8 years and helped several writers get their work published. The theme for this event was her first sentence: "Fight Realism with all the magic forces of Poetry."

POETRY CABARET Diane Wood has been hosting this program once a month for several years, where anyone can come and share their work, either poetry or prose, with an audience. There were over 25 people and 17 had the guts to get up and face the welcoming crowd. It was quite a selection, with poetry, music, one-person diatribes and more.

FRIDAY Blue Pencil Consultations with Fiona Lam saw people get l-on-l time in scheduled IS-minute increments over 3 hours. As she said, "An editor makes suggestions, and the writer mayor may not agree." I know from experience that being edited is hard for some to go along with ...

PUBLISHING 101 with Penny Goldsmith was interesting. Penny has run Lazara Press since 1982 and had Henry Doyle (who published his poetry in NO Shelter); Robert Bonner (working on his book about the impacts of Foster Care); Myra Pierre and her collection of poetry inA Rising of Voices and Mehap, who has been an editor at Geist Magazine to share their work and how publishing is possible.

Questions and comments from the 15 or so participants gave insight into how getting published needs as-

sistance from people who know.

CREATIVE WRITING at MEGAPHONE was a workshop facilitated by Celine Chuang & Alyssa Martens, both part of the Festival and part of their ongoing fostering of poetic talent.

STORYTELLING with Jim Sands was the culmination of 4 weekly workshops held in Carnegie over the month of April. Every person has a story and some are up to sharing part of theirs. The performance part saw five people telling stuff from childhood to a duck named Dog to a conversation between Coyote and Owl. Jim got everyone involved with his ukulele and remembering poets who have passed.

POETRY SLAM!! with RC Weslowski was an amazing night with poets competing! The format had ten people sign up to each perform their work, then 5 randomly-picked people in the audience would rate them with numbers, There were almost 30 people there to keep it all honest and it eventually got down to 3 poets getting prize money. First was Yvonne Mark for her poetry of recovery. This was a fun event!

SATURDAY INDIGENOUS STORYTELLING with David Geary was one ofthe online events. His title for it was Tricksters, Transformers and Shapeshifters and David talked about characters can change how we see what's coming. Participants wrote and drew to see first hand how the narrative is ours to modify.

WEAVING THE PATH is a documentary film and explores the conveyance of knowledge by weavers -Iike Debra Sparrow. The film explored the history of weaving in Coast Salish cultures and how this is being carried into the present by artists like Sparrow. _ , ACTIVIST AFTERNOON ~~s hosted by-Diane Wood in Opperiheimer Park. The first gathering - Slogan Writing - was facilitated by Mildred Grace German. Every demonstration, every protest, every political statement centers on a theme or reason and it can be truly inspiring to hear what drives people in a slogan - just a few words or a phrase that keep people together EVERY CHILD MATTERS BLACK LIVES MATTER POWER TO THE PEOPLE Poetry & Prose as Protest named the 2nd half of the afternoon, with individuals sharing their personal causes and writings. There was a traditional soapbox, appropriate in Oppenheimer with its history of being the Powell Street Grounds beginning in the 20s & 30s as a gathering place for poetry and prose and protest. I've heard st ies and seen pictures of gatherings of a few thousand people to share and foment reaction to some political or societal cause celebre and the clashes that followed.

On Saturday it was people reading their poetry and rants about the ills of the day and the struggles of many. " 'ZINE MAKING with Hari Aluri was given most of Sunday. Perhaps 10-12 people started in the morning and, over 3 hour-and-a-half segments the work progressed. The first part was to go from ideas to pen - what do we want to put down and together to make our own publication; the 2nd part was to have each person contribute their impressions of the Festival and the neighbourhood; the 3rd part was to gather all submissions, work on editing, layout, making acknowledgements and contributors, including artwork, and putting it all together to make an actual booklet of the work just done.

WRAP-UP CELEBRATION This was the last event but felt like we'd just begun. Held at the Propaganda Cafe on E.Pender it was a

You are loved by many, Your family and friends miss you.

If seen please call 778-700-5673 or 778-350-5371 We are so worried about you, please come home to us.

Report: Annual Drug Overdose Deaths Reach All-Time High in U.S. Synthetic drugs like fentanyl have combined with fallout from the pandemic to drive a steep rise in deaths.

A record 107,600 people died of drug overdoses in 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today, another tragic indication that powerful synthetic drugs and the Covid-19 pandemic helped fuel a rapid increase in deaths. The estimated total is likely to change as the CDC continues to review death records, but nevertheless, the startling increase constitutes evidence that the opioid crisis has only continued to grow in size and scale.

In Canada the number of overdose deaths was 5368 between January & September 2021, meaning over 7,300 people died in this country In BC there is a continuous call for a safe supply and resources to promote harm reduction for those still active in their addictions. The response is very limited and decried as woefully inadequate.

In Alberta the Conservative government of Jason Kenny is going in the opposite direction with "Just Say No." being the core and thrust of what they are passing off as drug policy.

Numbers seem brutally impersonal but each is a person who died and could have stayed alive if not Ifor the intervention of hopelessness. Reports are to keep each of us growing and aware of the work to do.

Dirty, Damaged, Different My father and mother became parents burdened with pain, loss, bitterness.

To their graves they took their secrets.

During life they'd each likely felt dirty, damaged, different.

Without intention they'd passed on their poisonous legacies by what is clearly defmed abuse.

I was not exempt from feeling dirty, damaged, different.

Throughout the years I've expressed sincere sorrow to those upon whom I'd inflicted pain as a result of my feeling dirty, damaged, different.

PRT As I focus on compassion and forgiveness from others, I feel the guilt and shame lift.

I feel less and less dirty, damaged, different.

Nowadays, I am more at peace.

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I envision some day feeling

GRIEFWAVE Thursday, May 26 6 p.m. - 7 p.m.

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DTES Writer's Collective A writing group for all levels of expertise, and all areas of interest.

OUR MEETINGS We meet at the Carnegie Community Centre every Thursday afternoon, 1:00-3:00pm in Classroom !I on the 3rd Floor. Due to Covid~19 restrictions, we are limited to 12 participants; due to physical distancing requirements.

The DTES Writers Col\ectiv~ evolved from the Thursdays Writing Collective, which ran from 2008-2018. TWC published eleven chapbook anthologies WIth the support of Canada Council, City of Vancouver, Simon Fraser University and Carnegie Community Centre.

>hotos by Yvonne Chow

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USTSlDE SPEAKSUPt let's Speak Up! Is a

participant-led initiative that involves learning together about issues that affect our community, and wQrking 'a IOrlgside ~ bthers.to advocate for change ',

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Pick up a copy

ot the booklet or for more information

contact - Tintin Yang .•.(she/her)

604-2152030 WWW.QteshQU.sE!.ca .!£..tispf!..ilktJP@dt~shOUSi!.,C'3

The OTESNeighbourhood H()use is I(i«;ated on the traditional territory of the Musqueam. Squamish and TsleU-Wat..ttuthPeoples

Green New Deal Economics I have been studying Economics for most of my adult life. I am not an expert but given the kind of world wenow live in as a result of the neoliberal expert economists who have dominated the last 50 years, we need a different kind of economic understanding. .

Academic and.expert professional economists who have most influenced the world recently have derived their approach from classical liberalism, from a belief that the supremacy of the "market" is the best determinant for organizing society and human affairs. These economists, with their belief in libertarian philosophy and individualism, recommend dismantling goverrunent programs, advocate legislating to suppres~ unions and workers' rights to organize, and attempt to dismantle any kind of collective initiative - including public education, old-age pensIOns, and medicare. These beliefs and imtiatives frame the foundation of late-stage capitalism, with its high interest rates and austerity programs designed to oppress the working classes and the poor. .

Right wing libertarians andneoliberal economists recommend that govermnents' only roles should be to support policing, finance the military, protect private property, and enforce capitalism.

Milton Friedman, of the Chicago School of Economics and Frederich Hayek of the Austrian School are probably the two most influential neoliberal economists. Friedman's assistance to Pinochet in implementmg a neoliberal system in Chile required the murder and jailing of all opposition, created massive inflation, inequality, and unemployment, and implemented a constitution wfiich gave all the power to the wealtht John Maynard Keynes, probably the most enlightened economist ofthe 20th century, called Hayek s book Prices and Production, "one of the most frightful muddles I have ever read," adding, "it is an extraordinary example of how, starting with a mistake, a remorseless logician can end m Bedlam." (1) The supremacy of the market is based on the belief that the "invisible hand" of commerce creates the best way to arrange (or not arrange) how society functions. This "hand" is invisible because it is the hand of the super-wealthy 1% manipulating governments, markets, and investment wealth. It is invisible because it Iiides their criminality, tries to hide their destruction of the environment, and hides behind a system designed to enrich the already wealthy and their absolute dependenc.e on the carbon economy.

Fortunately in recent years many heterodox economists have come forjvard to contradict the economic Bedlam imposed by the sURerwealthy 1% ruling class with help from tlie 5% who hold the majority of stocks in so-called "public companies, who are all supported by the'20% owning class sycopliants.

In her book, The Case for the Green New Deal, Ann Pettifor demonstrates how we can apply the principles outlined in her previous book, The Production of Money: How to Break the Power cf'Bankers, to transform our planet to a steady state green economy that is a subset of ecology. There are limits to what we can extract from nature and limits to how much garbage we can spew into the biosphere. We need to learn to live as partners with the Earth.

We cannot transform the carbon based economy and implement a Green New Deal without also completely dismantling the power of cross-border fmancialization that no~ rules the world. Her approach, based on Modem Monetary Theory, outlines where and how democratic govermnents With their central banks can achieve green economy goals. For example neoliberals, despite their animus toward government, are often dependent on governrnent bonds as security for speculative investment that contributes nothing to the real economy. Governrnents could end that practice.

We need to understand our present economic situation in order to transform to a Green New Deal. I recommend reading The Case for the Green New Deal first because it presents the nuts and bolts of how to proceed. For a deeper understanding of our power as a democracy, read The Production of Money. Both books are fairly short and easy to grasp.

We need to elect leaders, who understand the power we have over the money system, with the vision and courage to lead us through these perilous times, times of Bedlam, caused by intentional marketfundamentalist mistakes designed to funnel carbon economy wealth to the filthy rich, as they destroy our planet. Plus we need to study, lobby, organize, and demonstrate. https:llen.wikipedia.org/wikilFriedrich_Hayek

By Gilles Cyrenne

Huvanne is leaving Huyanne Le- After 3 years as CommunityProgrammerfor Volunteerism and Recreation at Camegie is moving to a new role at Burnaby Primary Care Networks as the Engagement and Projects Coordinator.

She will miss the volunteers, staffs, and patrons dearly, her time at Carnegie community centre was challenging, rewarding, and exciting. Her last day onsite will be Saturday May 21 sr, the connections she have made and work accomplished at the centre will continue to inspire her well into the future.

Huyanne sent this to say ~until'we meet again, and all the best wishes to her!

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The Lie of Separateness It claims to be freedom but binds us in weakness in servitude to this monster we call growth this monster we call business Clinton said, it's the economy, stupid }

it's mammon its fires demand we feed it our children and every moment of our joy our souls life itself it's life itself this lie of separateness is killing the world itself we poison and burn it's ourselves we kill when we feed our world to the lie of separateness Poem & Art by Edward Wilson

Oh Where Did the Love Go Oh once I met an old man He seemed so very wise It reflected in his demeanor And his soft grey eyes I said, "Could you tell me mister Where does the love go When your baby leaves you With your head hanging low?"

He said, "Please sit you down And I'll answer the best I can For I too had this question When I was a young man Maybe it goes way way up And lives among the stars Or it could be in a juke box That you hear in lonely bars Perhaps it's in an echo From far off in the hills Or it lives in a haunted place That gives you willies and chills It may be in a poem In an old dusty book That is where love goes When your heart is forsook It coul be in the song of a little bird That no one ever sees Or it could be in the whisper Of a passing summer breeze It might be in a letter That you have kept for years But if you ever look It brings a flood of tears Well, I thanked that man most graciously And soon was on my way But I will remember what

He said to me that day

Oh where does love go When you finally say good-bye The answer that he gave to me You can't say was a lie PatrickFoley

- Waiting for the Muse In the Leaming Centre On the 3rd floor Hopeful writers waiting For the Muse.

Their pens are tempered With inspiration and dedication.

They dance across the blank pages Laying down their truths.

They-scratch and carveandssicise them And in the process' Unlock their souls.

They celebrate their loves Both lost and won.

Words follow on the heels of words Memories assume their places Hopes are given voice Mistakes are owned Secrets are revealed Questions provoke answers Problems cry out for attention and solutions.

And the Angel of the Written Word Pushes, prods and nudges the writers To enter spaces they have never been before.

But with courage The writers discover the story, the poem or the song That has remained hidden in its germinal form until now When it has been revealed With the inspiration given by the blessed Muse.

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