Alias

Alias publishes poems, fictions and reports from the mean streets of downtown Toronto. These are the impoverished, the mentally ill, the desperate, telling stories that defy statistics and bullshit. In this special edition on the homeless, we get accounts from people who are homeless, who were homeless and who fear they might soon be on the streets. This makes for compelling reading, substantial in a way that prettified poetics can’t always match. Particularly bleak was a short remembrance of twelve of the homeless men and women who died in 1997. It’s not all bleak though, the Hard Times word search offers up some welcome levity. Other than that quick grin, this timely special edition, like the current political climate, promises nothing but more agony to come. (HN)

zine, special edition #5 / main creator: Alias collective / free with postage / c/o Fred Victor Centre, 145 Queen St. East, Toronto, ON, M5A 1S1

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