Review of the book 'Voices of the Street'

            Special Literary Issue of Megaphone Magazine called 'Voices of the Street'

                                     Voices  of the Street ; Special literary issue 2012
    Megaphone magazine started as away of keeping poor people employed by selling the magazine in Vancouver city streets. Like most papers sold by poor people it's full of the triumphs and tragedies of the poor. 'Voices of the Street' which came out last year, grew out of the Megaphone writing workshops that started a few years ago.
   In this book of 64 pages, 21 poetry pieces, nine prose works and 20 photos once again give us a sometimes rough and ready accounts of being addicted to an illegal drug, living on the Downtown Eastside in a single room occupancy hotel and queing up for HST refunds.
      "Why did I survive?" Brian C. asks "Why when in the hospital because of that thing? Why did I survive?"Although Brian never seems to get the whole answer, his poem is a cry for help.
     Joseph D. tells us, "I am from the land of fish, water and sky {and} the land is green and abundant with trees, though they're/ only a few metres high." Here Joseph celebrates his homeland that's worlds away from the  crowded city streets. Misty-Lee Davis checks in with one poem which talks about living with depression. Then in another poem called 'Why Am I an Addict?' she tells us that 'Trying to stay clean is an incredible feat" .
    In his prose piece 'A Brush With Death' Bob Dennis, whom I know and sometimes buy Megaphone magazine from, tells about the perils of living with schizophrenia. In a longer piece Brian Peters looks back on his life in prison and out of it. 
    There are also some very fine photographs ."Morning View' by Nick Olson is a very fine and graphic look at the roofs of the Downtown Eastside. Kevin Siluch gives us a view of rigs from the ground level view.
     These photos, poems and prose pieces are just a few of the many parts of 'Voices of the Street'. Author Gillian Jerome, Megaphone's Executive Director Sean Condon and Kevin Hollett, Megaphone's editor also contribute a page apiece on the history of  Megaphone Magazine and the writing in 'Voices in the Street'. "These pages of writings," says  Hollett, "are filled with powerful work of literary merit and revelatory pieces containing unvarnished truths."
             I agree and hope that Megaphone magazine will continue to give us the truth on the lives of some poor people as well as revealing their literary skills and other talents.