Art on the street

>> Homeless kids reflect their lives for public consumption at the Festival Expression

FOCUSED ON HIV AND DIY: Johanne Tessier (in red) with friends

by CHRIS BARRY

Though it may not share the same high profile as some of the other summer festivals Montreal endures each year, the annual Festival d’Expression de la rue is certainly among the most thought-provoking. Now in its 11th year, the festival is, while not a celebration of youth homelessness, a chance for all of Montreal’s squeegee-carrying denizens of the street to come together and proudly articulate their existence through art and music.

“It’s an important venue for street kids to express their culture, to show the rest of the population that they can do something right, something positive,” says Johanne Tessier, co-coordinator of the event. “You know, a lot of these kids, they take drugs, they live on the street, but the Festival Expression tries to provide them with things to keep them hopeful and engaged, to keep the fire burning within them.

“And it’s not just social workers putting this all together for them,” continues Tessier. “Since we’re not a huge organization, we’re always asking the street kids for their help and they’re always great about it. If we ask if they can help clean up the park afterwards, the kids go out and get garbage bags and clean the place up. They’re always eager to help in whatever way they can. It’s a big day of the year for them.”

The primary focus of this year’s festival is HIV prevention, so if all you IV drug users out there haven’t already figured out that clean needles are preferable to dirty ones, and that wearing condoms is kind of a good idea, then there will be several kiosks from several organizations on hand to set you straight on the subject.

Another thing the Festival is pushing this year is the DIY concept. “We’ll be having a lot of activities along this theme,” says Tessier. “We’ll have tables teaching people how to create circus materials, others that will be making t-shirts, and still others where people can learn to make jewellery. So people can come by, learn how to make these things and go home with their creations.”

And of course, in addition to all the free food, circus performances, educational kiosks and various workshops that will be going down over the course of the three-day affair, there will be bands galore. Apart from established acts like Bloodshot Bill, the Johnny Cash Machine, Metalian and the Automatix, several bands comprising current and former street kids will be performing as well. At the very least, these outfits–many of whom have been working up their sets at a space provided to them by the Dans la rue organization—promise to be interesting.

And how are the cops with all this, you wonder? After all, it’s no secret the police and street kids generally have a somewhat, to put it mildly, adversarial relationship. “Most years there are no problems,” says Tessier. “There’s always lots of security and street workers on the scene, and usually, if the kids are cool, so are the police. And since the kids know that if things turn bad they won’t be able to have their festival anymore, they really try to be cool.”

Festival Expression, Aug. 14–16, at
Place Pasteur (Ste-Catherine E. and
St-Denis), 3–11 p.m. each day