Next Saturday night, members of the Intrepid Pens DTES Ready & Writing Society will meet over coffee and tea to discuss Agatha Christies And Then There Were None.
The group wanted a mystery, something light. After all, theyd just finished Alice Monros demanding collection of short stories, Runaway.
For the past three years the 15 or so members of this club have met every single Saturday night to read and write, share and care.
All are denizens of the Downtown Eastside. All are women. All have been touched, in some way or another, by the problems that plague the hardscrabble neighbourhood, from prostitution and homelessness to drug addiction and poverty. And each has compelling stories to tell, tales of tragedy and triumph.
Society founder Amanda Grondahl is floored by the womens willingness to share their lives with unflinching honesty. A tremendous amount of healing and growth and friendship emerged, she says about the reading and writing club.
A veteran editor in the corporate world, Grondahl started the club because she wanted to lend her expertise where she felt it might make a difference. It started as a resume writing class at a womens drop-in centre. Only two women showed up for the class, but Grondahl wasnt dissuaded. She taught the pair how to leverage their life experiences on a resume. She also showed them how to set up an e-mail address. Word spread about the group grew quickly. Soon, they began exploring creative writing and poetry.
[It was] an environment where we could gather and write creatively, she explains.
More women joined. But the group still needed a name that gave an idea as to what we were doing, she says.
[The women of the group] are brave and powerful and strong and ballsy sort of audacious. Most had survived some pretty intense struggles, so Intrepid seemed the perfect name, she says.
Grondahl supplies boxes of novels, paper and writing supplies, coffee and tea for the Saturday night sessions. They typically begin with some free-writing exercises that members later share with the group. The writing is mainly autobiographical. The stories, says Grondahl, are really moving, honest and raw.
Not all of the members can read and write, so the society has a transcriber sit in so every member has a voice. The group does a lot of reading aloud, both to hear their own voices and to be heard.
[We] believe in the power of sharing to help heal ourselves, says Grondahl.
Shurli Chan, a 62-year-old retiree is one of the groups original members. An inveterate reader since youth, this marks the first time shes been a book clubber.
If I have one failing, its that I love books.
But Intrepid Pens isnt just about the books. We learn a lot about each other and ourselves in the book club, says Chan. Amanda has created a safe environment so comfortable we can say whatever we want. Its heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.
One of the members, a residential school survivor, never learned to read or write as a youth. But since joining the club shes learned. [She was] inspired and supported by other group members, Grondahl says.
Along with outings to movies, theatre, poetry and writing events for inspiration, the group has also been able to meet some of the authors on their reading list: Evelyn Lau, Alexander McCall Smith, whom they met during the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»International Writers Fest, Gillian Jerome and Maggie de Vries. De Vries book about her sister Sarahs disappearance from the DTES was particularly poignant for the group, some of whom knew Sarah. That was a hard book, says Grondahl, adding it would have been difficult to finish without the support of the members.
When asked about the sacrifices she makes to run the club Grondahl just shrugs it off. [The women in the group] are so talented I want them to have an opportunity to tell their stories and share their work.
And she feels blessed to spend Saturday nights with them. It makes me cry just thinking about it. Its hard to put in words because I learn something every day that I spend with this group I learned the value of being vulnerable and honest. Women can still go through incredibly difficult things and still come through with the ability and willingness to see beauty and opportunity and relish the small moments.
