Alanah Heffez of Spacing Montreal and I made our way to the État D'Urgence Mani-Festival taking place at BERRI-Square in Montreal's downtown core. Some of the photos will be featured on Spacing Montreal's blog. It was rainy and quite cold, but about 100 attendees were present for food, fire dancers and a variety of musical acts.
All in all, a surprisingly friendly and forward environment. Folk were more then happy to find their way in front of my lens for some impromptu captures and chat me up thereafter. I shouldn't be surprised, but the number of street folk with Facebook pages did catch me off guard. I've made a few promises that I must keep with these shots.
One new friend was a very proud fellow by the name of DB with a great Toronto tattoo emblazoned across his forearm. Apparently it was a cover-up for a previous tattoo and had become its own project in development. I look forward to seeing the next phase of the piece.
I'll be honest, the cold and wet got to me after a good hour and a half and we soon found ourselves in the shelter of a nearby pub to watch the Canadiens lose to the Penguins. The luxury of such a shuffle is certainly not lost on me tonight. Nor is the bed less then 10 feet from my work station.
In the words of the festival organizers:
"État d’Urgence is the fruit of an impressive mobilization of several hundred people building an honest-to-goodness urban village and offering over five days, around the clock, a variety of services to homeless people. Its eclectic artistic programming serves as a catalyst for unprecedented social encounter. État d’Urgence promotes proper social hygiene because its participants deal face-to-face, help one another and discover one another. Art is the uniting principle here; it sheds light on the suffering, acknowledges it and offers strength and resilience!"
