celebration... and thanks

I want to say thank you to everyone who came out to the exhibit event on Thursday evening. We had an amazing time. Expect some photographs.

Because the panels from asleep in toronto are so difficult to reproduce–they are large, 36x72– i have provided the text of one of the panels and a reproduction of it here. So enjoy and more later.... Thanks again....

Is a room considered a home? Home is where the heart is, yes, that is true. But if I have a room and I don’t have hot and cold running water or I am not allowed cooking, is that a home? I believe it is still a room. When I am in jail I am in a room. When I am in hospital I am in a room but it is not a home. So a room is still not a home. I always thought it was something like self-contained, hot and cold running water, where you could cook, that is a home. A room is not a home. It keeps you isolated.

Heartless. Something is missing. I was on the street for 10 years and my heart was gone. To be out here - there is such a lot of agony, so much hurt for whatever reason when you are out here. Sex and drugs are one way of covering the hurt. Numbing it all. Then the pain is less.

Part of it is that life is really lonely and detaching and if we are kept apart it is not helping society to keep people apart from each other. It keeps you separated, away from people who mean something to you, who keep you heart healthy. Even the home of the street has more heart in it than some shelters and rooming houses.

Give people levels of opportunity right from the beginning, show them what they can do, show them their capabilities, show them their capacities. Show them their goodness. Show people what is possible within themselves. Society is set up now for people who “have” and people who do not “have” are sent to the side. And all the levels of violence and anger fester. There is a promise within everybody to be a changing force. We can find out what is within to create change.

our own problems...

Maybe I was too hard on Mr. Obama. I guess there has been lots going on in my own mind-arguing back and forth as to whether he will keep his promises and keep homelessness as a priority. Time will tell.

We know homelessness is a global problem and that people traveling, may be housed in one place but end up dedomiciled in another. Here in Canada I was looking at Mr. Harper's promises or at least a few of them. Canadians were promised "$1.9 billion in funding over five years ($387.9 million per year) in support of housing and homelessness programs throughout Canada" (Conservative Government press release, 19 September 2008). Less than a month later we were told that we would be provided with 2 years of funding and current levels would be maintained. What happened?

We are one of the world's wealthiest nations. Yet aboriginal peoples, disabled peoples, women, newcomers of all kinds remain vulnerable to losing their homes. Many who are inadequately housed- the number that has been suggested is upward of 100,000 -live in unlicensed rooming houses where conditions are not monitored. Our economy is worsening and it could be a time when our government will do nothing around homelessness with this as an excuse. Rather than stating at a time like this housing is the most important contribution a government can make to its citizens.... Guess we'll be waiting on that one too!

cold spell continued...

Don't fall asleep in the cold. You're unlikely to awaken.

We are continuing to have cold temperature alerts all across Canada and power outages. Community Centres are open and even the malls are crowded - at least the parts with power. For those of you who know the Dufferin Mall, well I was there yesterday, and as I left a woman was entering. She stopped to ask if it was open. And I said, that half of it was. The grocery store was closed but parts were open. (Yes, I left without groceries.) Her home had no heat so she was heading in to use it as a warming centre.

The City has responded to these freezing temperatures with what they call "reception centres." Of course they don't't expect citizen to sleep in a shelter. Not that they would find a bed in one. But there feels to be a great deal of hypocrisy here in this sudden concern for people effected by the cold. I wonder how many of the homeless will be making it to the reception centres and how long these centres will be kept open once the power returns? Will they remain open during the remainder of the winter?

I have also been thinking about all of the empty houses and buildings and trying to turn things around in my phenomenological way as i think about our use of material "things" in the world. How we shape and are shaped by things. How we are shaped by homes, and how homes are shaped by us. How abandoned homes could be shaped by those abandoned by and abandoning society. With a bit of help of course-tools and such. There is a lot of housing that is substandard that needs rehabilitation and families of all sorts to fill them.

And count me out of the Obama celebrations. Just found out the guy is moving the homeless out for his inauguration. Ya, that's right. And they will not be allowed to take their carts and bags with them. Buses will move them beyond the security perimeter. They deny that those who want to stay will be removed. And the others? Will they be welcome? No it seems they will be placed in large shelters to watch the celebrations on television. Oh joy! Change is there.

a memorial.... and a call for warming centres

Today a memorial was held for John Massie, a 46 year old man who died on January 6 of this year. Right now there are at least 2 deaths a week in Toronto of people who are homeless. This is untenable. Expect this number to increase.

A group of 20 or so people gathered for the memorial that was held at the corner of King and Bay where 3 speakers said a few words, and later we walked the few short blocks to the Bank of Montreal ATM vestibule where John Massie died. Bright flowers were held in mittened hands. As we settled into this new location more stories were told. I never knew John but I felt an obligation to witness his death. Perhaps because I am so tired of the lack of political will when it comes to street deaths of people who are homeless and disabled. I also felt the need to witness the relationship between homelessness and disability that exists. John Massie was a man without a home and was not able to walk well according to all accounts. He was without a home, restricted at the end of his life to living within a 6 block radius.

Stories told suggested that he was a generous man who shared all he had. Tobacco and flowers were left outside the bank vestibule and a call for the opening of warming centres was made to the few media who managed to show up for this memorial. Since the City has defunded agency programs that used to distribute blankets and sleeping bags–survival supplies– it is urgent that we open warming centres during the winter. Tonight the temperature will fall to -27. The winds will increase this making the liklihood of death higher. Can anyone hear us?

keep reading....

Yes, we are back and it is winter. In the winter of 1995-1996 people died. Three of those included Eugene Upper, Irwin Anderson, and Mirsalah-Aldin Kompani. Our country accepts the deaths of those with and without names at the rates of 1 or more per week during the winter months. People in the homeless community seem to think it is not getting better, it is just getting worse. Food is not easier to find, shelters are overcrowded due to the closure of beds over the past years.... and we find more names: Frank Julian, Carolyn Connolly, Dennis Bowen, Robert Maurice, Biniyam Selleshi. John Doe. Jane Doe. Brent Sims.

But I said I would write about hope. Today is not the best day for it I guess. But it is not that i want to address futile hopes but the idea of realistic or pragmatic hopes. Hopes that have potential of being realised via committment, attention, imagination, and persistence.... hopes for economic and social justice, equity, and....

Save the Date-January 22, 6:30-8:00 pm

asleep in toronto and a day in the life

are being exhibited in the Community Room at
the Leaside Public Library for
the month of January, 2009

On January 22, from 6:30-8:00 pm

we would like to invite you
to a conversation with
Ronzig, Jim Meeks, Helen Posno, Fred Yurichuk, and Nancy Halifax
Please arrive at 6:30 pm for tea and coffee and cookies.
The conversation will commence at 7:00 pm

The location is:

165 McRae Dr.
Toronto, ON, M4G 1S8

a day in the life and asleep in Toronto are arts-informed, community-based participatory research projects. Using a photographic documentary approach, we examined the social determinants of health and social justice as they relate to poverty, homelessness, structural inequalities, food and housing insecurity. These projects demonstrated that personal, structural and social inequalities were felt deeply from within.

Both projects were produced in collaboration with groups of men and women with past or current experiences of homelessness. The groups were provided with cameras in order to take photographs, which tell stories about their daily life stories and about what is important to them. They generated comprehensive depictions of the homelessness experience and its effects on health and wellbeing. Group members also gained a sense of pride and ownership in their art through their success in reaching and impacting the community.

Our projects were innovative in their use of the arts; not only as a means for improving personal health but also as an important means for sustaining and creating conversations around social change, self-determination, social auto/biographies, and for engaging communities in social development. The elimination of many arts activities for homeless adults in the community (due to funding cuts) led to a gap, which was addressed by these projects: providing opportunities to participate regularly in arts and cultural activities including photography, creative writing and story-telling.

The artists in these projects included: (in random order) Jim Meeks, Helen Posno, Frank, Ray, Marcia, France, Sharole, Devon, James, Jeremy, Don, Joao, Kevin, Jean Guy, Bruce, Nancy Halifax & Fred Yurichuk.

Partners included: Street Health, the Centre for Arts-informed Research at the University of Toronto, the Wellesley Institute, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Graduate Program in Critical Disability Studies, York University.

i don't want to take the excitement away from our exhibit but there are days when i look at our web statistics and see visitors from China, Bulgaria, Indonesia, UK, Nebraska, Nunavut, India, Poland.... and I wonder what viewing this site means to you.

Are you also engaged in social justice movements, housing, poverty, and just wondering what is happening here in Canada?

I do wish I could say that we had created some sort of ideal world and that tonight I hadn't again heard a warning for severe cold weather. And that i had not read that until we really shift the social inequities that plague all of our cultures nothing will change. In a recent listserv message the talk was of redistribution of wealth, resources, and power in order to incur meaningful shifts in equity. And that we need to have Canadians talking about it.

So the exhibit is one way to have people talking about what is happening, what happens to people who live their lives in public spaces. I'll let you all know what happens.

One of my goals is to write about a curriculum of hope and the possibility of that for those of us engaged in this work of social justice in the urban environment... so stay tuned for a paragraph or two to be emerging on that.

exhibit at Leaside Library, January 2009

asleep in toronto and a day in the life

Are back and being exhibited in the Community Room at the Leaside Public Library for the month of January, 2009.

These projects arose from work done with homeless and underhoused people living in Toronto. This partnership was undertaken with Street Health. We will soon be sending out a notice of our closing conversation and celebration for this event!

The location is:
165 McRae Dr.
Toronto, ON, M4G 1S8

The hours are:
Monday:10:00 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Thursday:12:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
Tuesday:12:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Friday:10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
Wednesday:10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Saturday: 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Sunday: Closed

Directions
Closest major intersection: Eglinton Ave. East and Laird Drive.
Located on southwest corner of McRae Dr. and Rumsey Rd.
Public Transit: TTC bus 88 from St. Clair subway station
Parking: Free parking on McRae Dr.