taking down stories and photos, of course

I met many people, and i of course saw my familiars–for which i was extremely grateful. the guys i have been looking for... some of them were there. and they liked the work so much.

The work received coverage in the Star and Jim spoke brilliantly at the launch.... He is lovely and always a joy to work with.

But I remain uncertain–perhaps it is fatigue. Did people really get the "arts" or did they not? Did they understand what was being conveyed? That there would be nothing really happening those days in Metro Hall without this work? How do we teach society about the arts? This is a crucial juncture as arts funding is being cut all around us. Maybe that is what disappoints me.

Though I talked to many people about this work, about the relationship between disability and health and homelessness–and I know some of them understand. I know some of them are thinking more about the connections.

And so that is what leaves me full of gratitude. The people I spoke with, who heard, the people I listened to, who told me their stories so I could witness their lives and be resolved once again to the necessity of this work.

Remember that. There are people on the streets who need multiple kinds of solutions for housing, who need to be involved in discussing the solutions and the problems. Who are experiencing severe health care problems. Remember that.

setting up - a day in the life and asleep in toronto

set up the exhibit on Monday and it was a long, long day but full of joy. So, you must come down and visit us. More stories of homelessness again told. One person denied access to shelters due to a disability.... Recently hospitalized they were discharged back to the streets with no follow up care. What is health if you are denied full access to it?

What is it to be homeless, underhoused, living perhaps with failing health, with a disability and unable to access adequate healthcare? To hope either for a home or support for the places you yourself choose? What is it for a society to wish for the end of homelessness without including the perspectives of those who live it? These are only some of the questions that I find preoccupying me as I work with people who are living these lives right now. What I have learned is that there is not one solution, one perfect home that can be built. I have learned that some people will always choose the streets for some parts of their lives. I have learned that when people are despairing a small piece of some/any thing given freely can mean solace.
And I have learned there are people on the streets who are visionaries and their visions are being ignored.

These exhibits, a day in the life and asleep in toronto, offer a perspective and try to offer some way of imagining through our inadequate representational and symbolic systems. Bringing these systems together we hope maybe the complexity of homelessness is more readily revealed.

Exhibit - October 1, opening!!!

If a picture is worth a thousand words,

how many pictures does it take to understand just one word: homelessness?

Our work, along with work from some other folk will be premiering at Metro Hall. As well we will be launching a report of the findings from the work done.... should be a powerful event so hope to see you all there!

Homelessness – Solutions from Lived Experiences through Arts-Informed Research is a collaborative initiative to put forward and take action on the knowledge gained from eight arts-informed, community-based participatory research studies in Toronto.

Save the date and be sure to join us on October 1, 2008 to launch our exhibit and help move our recommendations forward:

Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Time: 9:30 am – 12:00 pm
Location: Toronto Metro Hall (Rotunda)
55 John Street, Toronto, M5V 3C6

A Day in the Life: Stories and Photographs of Health and Homelessness in Toronto
asleep in Toronto
Coming Together: Homeless Women, Housing and Social Support
Count Us In! Inclusion and Homeless Women in Downtown East Toronto
I WAS HERE
The Street Health Report 2007
Street Health Stories
Struggles, Strengths and Solutions: Exploring Food Security with Young
Aboriginal Moms

Success and a call...

Look carefully at this photograph. Taken yesterday outside Metro Hall. Somethings have not changed in our wonderful city. People still sleeping...

Anyway apologies for not writing. I have been busy! But I am writing with some good/ish news. We have become part of a large Social Sciences and Humanities Public Outreach project that has been awarded funding. One part of our work involves exhibiting work from asleep in Toronto and a day in the life along with other projects that took place in Toronto. We have diverse partners, some new, some old. Street Health and the Wellesley Institute are familiar to us, and we welcome new partnerships with the University of Toronto, Ryerson University, Ontario Women's Health Network, Regent Park Community Health Centre, NFB, and St Michael's Hospital. We have several objectives as well - to look at the recommendations from all of the work and put together a public document, to find our peer researcher/artists again, to reconstellate the work for a new exhibition space, and to celebrate the new collaborations out of which we hope we will generate community transformation. Researchers, educators, peers from the streets will all come together to learn and teach about the importance of these local experiences

We will look for additional funding to reconstitute the work from asleep in Toronto. I have to find everyone now and work with them around how they want it to be in this new space. Yes - Metro Hall - more on that soon! So if you are reading this and were a part of a day in life or asleep in Toronto - contact me or your worker (if you have one) to get hold of me! And we'll figure it all out.... Also we have a publication coming out really soon. I just looked at the galleys and made the final corrections. Nothing too lyrical about that writing. But it's done! Wish us luck on the funding front. Right now we need it!

toronto horizon

winter.... asleep in toronto