{"id":11432,"date":"2012-06-15T15:30:34","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T22:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingvancouver.ca\/?p=11432"},"modified":"2017-09-01T19:17:13","modified_gmt":"2017-09-02T02:17:13","slug":"writing-vancouver-i-might-be-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2012\/06\/15\/writing-vancouver-i-might-be-nothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing Vancouver – I Might Be Nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

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It is well known that cities foster development in all facets of the creative arts. Given that we are visual beings, visual forms of creative expression – such as sculpture, photography and painting – often take the lion’s share of popular recognition. It is for this reason that Spacing Vancouver is extremely excited to announce the launch of Writing Vancouver<\/em> \u2014a bi-weekly section that will highlight local talent in the literary arts. They will feature many Writing Elites<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

We will begin this journey with works from the Downtown Eastside – an area generally associated with socio-economic issues related to poverty, addiction and abuse. But popular perception aside, this neighbourhood\u2014beloved by residents\u2014is also a site of optimism, activism and intense creativity. Over the coming weeks, Spacing Vancouver readers will be treated to a selected number of poems, stories and essays from the recently released  V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside<\/strong><\/a>. <\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

As with all our initiatives, we invite our readers to submit<\/a> their own pieces for publication. We look forward to helping spread the word!<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

I Might Be Nothing<\/strong>
\nRACHEL ROSE<\/p>\n

For Lara<\/em><\/p>\n

Now you are not
\npart of the visible world, now you are nothing
\nbut recollections, dim as a dust-stricken room
\nin Chinatown, where I lived on Princess
\nand wanted to be one
\nand you lived with your mother
\nwho made art and loved you
\nand we played on the floor and that is not
\nnothing.<\/p>\n

You might have been anything. You got caught
\nin something too fraught to untangle.<\/p>\n

You might have been
\nseen in an alley, picked up by a stranger in a Jaguar.
\nYou might have been washed gently in the hospital
\nwhere you were born. You might have been reborn. An ordinary
\nmother of two. Famous. A doctor. Safe.<\/p>\n

Your mother comes to meet my children.
\nShe gives them your frog puppet
\nbecause she has no use for it any more.
\nShe says, \u201cTell me if I\u2019m talking too much.
\nI love to talk about her.\u201d<\/p>\n

If I could get a fix off blame, bevelled
\nlike a needle in a vein, I\u2019d do it. Smoke my spoon, my heart.<\/p>\n

The puppet disappears in our basket of toys.<\/p>\n

Later, when my daughter finds it,
\nI snatch it, say, \u201cThat\u2019s not a toy!\u201d But what is it?
\nAn artifact. I hand it back.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

Rachel Rose<\/strong> (rachelrose.ca<\/a>) has published in journals and anthologies in Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, and Japan, and is the author of two books, Giving My Body to Science<\/span> and Notes on Arrival and Departure<\/span>. She has received awards for her poetry, fiction, and non-fiction writing. She was the poetry mentor at Simon Fraser University\u2019s The Writer\u2019s Studio and founded the \u201cCross-Border Pollination\u201d reading series. When she was five, she lived on Princess Street in Strathcona, and this fact pleased her enormously.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside<\/strong><\/a> is a record of this community’s self-determination via the poems, stories, essays and experimental writing of 32 authors, who have all been members of the DTES community in some way, at some point in their lives.<\/em><\/p>\n

Published by Arsenal Pulp Press<\/a>, the contributors feature in the book are: John Barry, Elisabeth Buchanan, Wayde Compton, Henry Doyle, Daggar Earnshaw, Albert Flett, Patrick Foley, Angela Gallant, Gary Geddes, Anne Hopkinson, Jonina Kirton, Don Larson, Gisele LeMire, Robyn Livingstone, Stephen Lytton, Don Macdonald, Muriel Marjorie, My Name is Scot, Lora McElhinney, James McLean, Brenda Prince, Antonette Rea, Rachel Rose, Sen Yi, Irit Shimrat, Kevin Spenst, Loren Stewart, Madeleine Thien, Michael Turner, Phoenix Winter, Cathleen With, Elaine Woo and Daniel Zomparelli.<\/em><\/p>\n

 V6A is for sale at People’s Coop Bookstore, Little Sister’s, Chapters\/Indigo, SFU Bookstore Downtown, Hager Books and online at amazon.ca also as an ebook and available internationally as of September 2012. Partial proceeds benefit Thursdays Writing Collective<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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