Bud Osborn's point of reference is the street of the disenfranchised – literally, the street corners bordered by Main and Hastings on Vancouver's notorious East Side, known as "Hundred Block Rock"—the poorest neighbourhood in Canada. While this area is well-known for its drug users, criminals, and prostitutes, it is also home to recovering addicts, single mothers, and those whom society has cast aside. As a poet who has known the nightmare of addiction and poverty himself, Bud Osborn sheds light on the unforgiving darkness of Hundred Block Rock, putting faces and names to those who somehow find ways and means to survive there.
These poems are direct confessionals that speak valiantly and movingly of the community of the street: from detox centres and the wail of ambulance sirens to the poignant instances of junkies dancing in alleys, or the sound of jazz after midnight. They bring to life the squalid intensity of Hundred Block Rock, while at the same time articulating the redemptive spirit of survival that nurtures and sustains its habitués.
Many of the poems in Hundred Block Rock are also featured on a CD available from Festival Distribution.
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About the Author
A poet and social activist, Bud Osborn's life and work represents the embodiment of the disenfranchised. As a former drug addict, he never thought he'd be alive today, let alone living a respectable life. Now, seven years clean, Bud channels his energy into helping his neighbours in Vancouver's downtown east side, a neighbourhood he aptly describes as a "third world health horror."
A member of VANDU (Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users), Grief Into Action, a support group for parents of addicted youth, and the Carnegie Community Centre Association Board, Bud spends his time ultimately "trying to save lives and solve problems, not defend drug addicts."
His poetry speaks to those he is trying to reach. Used as a communication and educational device for and about people on the streets, Bud's poetry also serves as documentation of the people nobody else will write about and to let them know they are not alone. From his troubled youth in America to waiting out the Vietnam draft in Toronto, Osborn has finally found a home in Canada's most troubled neighbourhood and the poetry he spins from his experiences transcends borders and communities.
Fighting popular opinion that Vancouver's downtown east side is without hope, Bud chooses to see the bright side of his neighbourhood. He blames the media for doing more damage than good in their portrayal of the down-and-out and feels there is more community in troubled neighbourhoods than in others. Partly, because so many people depend on each other just to survive.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Hundred Block Rocks,
By WAYNE LARIMER (sometimes Montreal, sometimes Portland, sometimes everywhere) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hundred Block Rock (Paperback)
Never having had an interest in traditional poetry, Bud Osborn has opened my eyes to a new art form. He writes of (and for) people who've never felt safe: chronic drug-users, prostitutes, the mentally ill, and all other outcasts. His poetry encourages you to shed any prior conceptions you might have of "failures" and see how beautiful these people really are. These poems really touched me.
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