An Open Letter

We are excited to bring our Lettering project to SFU tomorrow and appreciative of everyone who has made that happen. That includes the people who have let the community at large know about our joint reading with Madeleine Thien.

Below is a letter from TWC participant Cindy McBride to the author of a press release about our event stating Cindy’s commitment to her craft and her community.

 

Dear Carol:

I write because I have to write. Just like I do Art because I have to do Art. Sometimes I write about my life and sometimes it’s about life in my neighborhood. But I also write about the world. I watch tv and I’m on twitter. Most of the people in my neighborhood have access to the Internet and television. I have gone to university and BCIT. I don’t do drugs or smoke or drink. I live here because I can afford to live here. I also live here because of the programs in the neighborhood. I suppose you can say I’m poor but I have more money now than when I was a single parent going to school. My pain that I can write about happens to come from other neighborhoods I have lived in as one of the working poor. I haven’t even touched the surface of that period of my life that I have to write about. This neighborhood gives me that chance. We all live in the neighborhood for different reasons but we all come to the Thursday Writing Collective because we have to write. We have to.

 

Cindy McBride

10 April 2014