November 15, 2020 Carnegie Newsletter

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

ÂŁ0 IMEiiitiiiiliR ~ N EVVSLETTER

.

401 Main Street Vancouver Canada V6A 2T7

carnnews@vcn.bc.ca (604) 665-2289

Continuum, the first anthology from the Downtown. Eastside Writers Collective (DTES WC), is a document of endurance that distills this Vancouver neighbourhood to its brightest intensities. Varied, philosophical, poetic, and at times comedic, these texts reflect the generosity of the Collective itself where the common goal is to arrive on the page no matter what conspires against us. DTES WC evolved from Thursdays Writing Collective, a non-profit program begun in 2008 in Carnegie Community Centre to hold space for creative self-determination.

On its conclusion a decade later, the writers rallied and organized DTES WC. Entirely participant run and fuelled by commitment to expression, this group functions as both writing workshop and receptive stage where emerging writers exchange lines with award-winning authors, each equally expert in their life's journey to the page.

The creative flex here is playful and difficult even as it pulls the reader forward always insisting on full attention.

-Elee KraJjii Gardiner, author of Trauma Head, serpentine loop, .Against Death: 35 Essays on Living, V6A: Writing from Vanoouver's Downtown Eastside Continuum was released at a special event of the Heart of the City Festival 2020.

Contagion

CARNEGIE CENTRE UPDATES Carnegie is running measured access to the first floor washrooms and the theatre has been fitted to be a drop in, socially distant respite with room for up to 15 individuals. The Carnegie branch V~ncouver Public Library is also running a reduced hbrary access out the physically distanced respite area in the Theatre. They are open 12-4pm TuesdaySaturday to receive returns and hand out holds.

They also have a limited number of books that can be checked out! Additionally, the Learning Centre is also offering drop-in Tutoring and Support in the Camegie Theater Mondays 1-3pm! Tuesdays 1 -3:30pm! Thursdays 9-11am and 1-3pm with Capilano instructors. While the community centre still looks and feels very different than it did prior to COVID-19, we are looking forward to seeing you again and welcoming you back into the centre ..

We have continued to serve meals from the mam floor windows to patrons outside via the Carnegie patio. Hand washing stations are available outside in the food line.

Patrons are encouraged to maintain physical distance when in food lines up. We have maintained our current meal times of Breakfast 9am-llaml Lunch 12pm-4pm!Dinner 5-8pm. All meals are $2.

Additionally, there will also be snack bags, also for $2, and pop for $] through the takeout window.

Desserts, cookies, and hardboiled eggs are now also available through the window. Meal are all pre -packaged in ToGo containers and bags with all the necessary utensils & condiments for the meals.

Hear the rolling thunder, Lightning strikes so many ways.

We never know the future Or how we'll end our days.

A wise man plays the fool; God never shows her hand.

Beneath the tumbling water, A rock can turn to sand.

Casting for an answer, We kneel in fervent prayer Beside the rows of coffins-Our icons of despair.

The grubbing and the .getting The criminality Will callous accumulation Be man's destiny?

Love is the bread of life Forgotten in our greed Amid the murderous zealotry Embedded in our creeds.

Love must be in prominence With compassion and empathy Binding us together in Commonality .

--Stewart Brinton 3rd prize Poetry: Sandy Cameron Memorial Writing Contest " MUSiCgives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. " - Plato

Graffiti Trump saved us Jesus is an atheist Wisdom of the damned Usa David

11

GROWING NOT SO WHITE Recently, I learned from Audrey Siegle, a Musqueam knowledge holder and teacher, that the ecocide of our planet and the genocide ofIndigenous people were parts of the same colonization and that both were and are intentional.

Several years ago my Aunt Lise, whose ranch is now part of Grasslands National Park, took me to a place near the park where the the last buffalo hunt in Southwest Saskatchewan had happened. Circles of stones that had once held down tepees fashioned from buffalo hides are all that remain of the people who once lived there. It felt sacrilegious to me that an electrical pole with guy wires had been erected over one of these circles. Something from the ground cried up to me that I was in the presence of injustice. When I told Audrey about this she said I should go back there with medicine for the Earth.

My friend Jim, who grew up in Calgary, told me that he never saw an Indigenous person in Calgary all the time he was growing up, except at an "Indian" village set up on the edge of the Calgary Stampede and he wondered why those people always looked so pissed off.

After the buffalo were almost hunted to extinction by capitalist colonizing systems as a way of removing the mainstay of the Indigenous economy, the remaining original inhabitants were forced to adapt to the white man's ways in order to survive. The reservation land that was left for them was a small fraction of the huge territory over which they had once hunted and gathered, moving with the seasons and with the buffalo herds. Their way of life was destroyed. Imagine waking up tomorrow morning, stepping out your door, and all of Vancouver is gone. All that's left is bare ground. Once you discovered who was responsible for all the destruction, you might also be somewhat pissed off.

As a son and grandson of settlers who, with plow, came to the Canadian Prairies at the turn of the last century, who prospered as a result of the death of the buffalo herds, I am only beginning to realize the meaning and consequences of white privilege. Much of who I am and many of the benefits that have come my way are a result of my whiteness. Despite challenges, I always man- aged to land back on my feet with support from the dominant society.

From the book, White Fragility: Why It's So Hard/or White PeppIe to TalkAbout Racism, by Robin Diangelo, I learned that whiteness is a social construct invented to justify the slave trade and colonialism. Prior to getting this information, I once learned from a peer counselling community that being born white guarantees that I carry unconscious racist attitudes. I also now know that in order to become less racist, less white, I need to listen a whole lot more to people of colour, and I need to invite them to challenge me whenever I unconsciously express any racism; plus I must avoid becoming defensive when challenged. It's my job to keep things safe and to interrupt racism whenever I see it.

This enlightening book concludes with: Interrupting racism takes courage and intentionality; the interruption is by definition not passive or complacent. So in answer to the question "Where do we go from here?," I offer that we must never consider ourselves finished with our learning. (Diangelo, 153) As for me, next time I go back to Southwest Saskatchewan, I will bring medicine, recommended to me by Indigenous friends, to the land where those tepees once stood. I also feel strongly that we need to work harder at re-wilding more land, returning more territory to our Indigenous sisters and brothers and showing more respect for their unceded lands. A good start in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside would be for the Port Authority and the City to return those lots West of Crab Park, East of the Sea-Bus Terminal, to the Indigenous Community: for land that can be returned to nature, for building a Longhouse Healing Lodge.

Gilles Cyrenne 2nd Prize Essay: Sandy Cameron Memorial Writing Contest

A huge Heartfelt the

THANK YOU to Everyone involved in

iz" Annual

DTES Heart of the City Festival!'

This year's Heart of the City Festival was amazing! With thejherne This Gives Us Strength, the Festival featured over 200 residents and artists from the Downtown Eastside and across Canada sharing the stories, hopes, dreams and issues of our community. The Festival is strong because of the relationships, The Festival was very different

collaborations

and partnerships

we create together.

this year, and it was an honour to

work with all of you to help celebrate Carnegie's ao" Anniversary, and to present a successful Festival in face of the many challenges presented by COVID-19. We learned a lot about what works and how to reach the many members ofthe community.

With huge THANKS to the artists, participants,

audience

members,

community partners, funding partners, supporters, staff, volunteers, work teams, and friends for participating in an extraordinary Festival.

We are" planning next year - the 18th Annual OTES Heart of the City Festival, with the theme Stories We Need to Hear, to take place Wed October 27 to Sun November 7, 2021. If you have a project or a program idea to contribute or suggest for next year's Festival, give us a call: 604-628-5672, or talk with Rika in the Carnegie Community Centre 604-665-3003. www.heartofthecityfestival.com